Overall winner and three other class wins with British technology

In the second RAC Brighton to London Future Car Challenge, the overall winner and the award for the “Most Energy Efficient Small Prototype Car” was won by the Gordon Murray T.27. This radical three seat city car concept is powered by an innovative, lightweight 25kW electric engine and battery system developed by electric vehicle technology specialist Zytek Automotive, the prototype development programme was supported by grants from the Technology Strategy Board.

“It was fantastic to see the T.27 scoop the top prize today especially knowing the hard work and innovative effort that the combined teams of Zytek and Gordon Murray Design have put in, the remarkable performance from the combination of ultra-lightweight drivetrain and vehicle systems show us the way forward for low energy transport. This result topped a great day for Zytek, our electric engine technology successfully powered ten of the sixty nine entrants, including two prototype Electric Vito’s powered by our 70kW electric drive system which we currently export to Navistar in the USA”, said Zytek Automotive Managing Director Neil Heslington who drove one of the Vitos.

The “Small Production Car” class was won by the smart fortwo electric drive, which is powered by Zytek’s powerful 55kW, highly efficient, electric engine. This highly successful production powertrain is built at Zytek’s Midlands manufacturing site, then exported to the smart production plant in Hambach, France, where Zytek have an electric vehicle assembly line operating in parallel to the standard vehicle production.

“The tremendous efforts of our Midlands workforce has recently received recognition from the government, who announced only last week a £1.35M regional grant fund that will be invested in our staff and facilities, we are now actively recruiting 40 engineers to continue our product development”.

The 25kW electric engine that drives the T.27 is air cooled, but a water-cooled version with increased torque, is now under development with early prototypes being supplied to several major European vehicle manufacturers, further increasing this exciting product’s production potential.

“This is our second associated success in two years” says Steve Tremble, Zytek’s Sales and Marketing Director, “our business has grown over 50% in the last 12 months, and we have several new products in development, including an electric version of the stunning Morgan supersports, so we’ll be back next year to try for a third year of successes!”