Piëch Automotive, a new electric car startup launched by Toni Piëch, a descendant of Volkswagen’s Ferdinand Piëch, is unveiling this week an all-electric GT with over 300 miles of range and 5-minute charging enabled by some mysterious new battery cells.
The Piëch Mark Zero is going to be unveiled in full at the Geneva Motor Show tomorrow, but the company has released a bunch of images and specs ahead of the show today.
Piëch said about the vehicle:
“We have developed a sports car that we ourselves would like to buy, and we talked for a long time to many enthusiasts about what was missing on the market. We want to offer a modern classic that isn’t subject to consumer cycles. The driver of this sports car should enjoy any minute they can spend in the car.”
The company claims to have built the vehicle platform with a “flexible and open vehicle architecture” to allow a variety of drive systems, “like electric drive, hybrid, fuel cell or internal combustion engine.”
Yet, they are releasing the specs for an all-electric version based on some mysterious battery cells that enable a “range of 500 km (311 mi) according to WLTP cycle” and a “sensationally short charging time of only 4:40 minutes to 80% battery capacity.”
Piëch didn’t release any details about how the battery cells achieve those kinds of performance beyond claiming that the cells don’t heat up:
“The special type of cell hardly heats up during charging or discharging phases. Significantly higher currents can flow as the cell temperature rises only marginally.”
The company says that the cells don’t require active cooling, which enables the lower weight of the battery pack. This keeps the total vehicle weight under 1,800 kg (4,000 lbs), which is still fairly heavy for a vehicle of that size.
As for the powertrain, Piëch says that the vehicle is equipped with 3 electric motors: the front axle, an asynchronous motor delivers 150 kW, while at the rear axle, two synchronous motors produce 150 kW each.
They claim that it results in accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph).
Here are a few more images of the Piëch Mark Zero released today:
Piëch says that they will announce a manufacturing partner later this year to bring the vehicle to market and it will be followed by a four-seater and a sporty SUV.
Electrek’s Take
Allow me to be a little skeptical here.
First off, you can’t claim to have some incredible new battery cell capable of 5-minute charging without at least explaining what kind of cells they are and how they enable such performance.
Secondly, if you have such cells, which would be a game changer, why make your platform “flexible and open vehicle architecture” to allow a variety of drive systems, “like electric drive, hybrid, fuel cell or internal combustion engine”?
An all-electric platform using these cells would outperform anything else.
That said, it’s a nice looking car and if the specs are real, it would be a good thing for the market. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, but I remain skeptical.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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