Stunning Lola-Drayson electric LMP car officially revealed

The covers were finally lifted today on the much anticipated electric Le Mans Prototype from Lola and Drayson Racing Technologies. Codenamed B12/69EV, the car is a collaboration between multiple partners to create what they hope will be the world’s fastest electric car. It’s stuffed to the gills with interesting new technology, such as active aerodynamic surfaces, Qualcomm Halo inductive charging and a unique structural battery designed by BAE Systems. Below is a view under the ‘engine’ cover (gonna have to think of a new name for that…), better quality ones to follow!

It is claimed to run at over 200mph, and judging from the stats it shouldn’t have any problem. Four YASA 750 motors give it a hefty 640kW (850bhp) and it weighs in at a relatively light 1085kg including driver, allowing it to make 60mph in 3s and 100mph in 5.1s. The 3 cell packs have been supplied by Mavizen and are made up of A123 Systems cylindrical ANR26650MIB nano-phosphate cells, giving a total energy of around 60kWh running at 700V max. They are packaged in carbon fibre as a structural component of the car, the first time this has ever been achieved, although I’m not sure what you would do if you ever needed to get at them again?

The finished product looks every inch the potent track machine, and we’ll have more news once it goes for testing. Below is a short interview I managed to grab with Lord Drayson between appointments in his hectic media schedule!

The car was built in less than 6 months, so how have you managed to achieve so much so quickly?
That’s what the UK motorsport industry does, as I can testify from many years of racing. As Chris (Aylett, Chief Exec of the MIA) mentioned in the introduction when I was Science Minister I encouraged the Defence Industry to team up with the motorsport industry to use their amazing ability to get things done quickly, eg quick prototyping and testing. When I came out of Government I wanted to apply that to what I think is a very interesting commercial opportunity around electric race cars. I’ve worked with Lola now for a while and I consider them to be the best in British motorsport, so we started this project at the beginning of last year, and then a number of other partners, Qualcomm, Cosworth, BAE Systems all come on board to bring their expertise and it’s because we’ve had access to this expertise that we’ve been able to do this so fast.

Was now the right time to try untested technology like the structural battery?
Yes. The car has a number of new technologies, some are near to market like the wireless charging while some are further out like the structural battery. We think that by applying them to motorsport they’ll be brought to market faster, but also it gives the general public a glimpse of the future. What motorsport does is make things cool and exciting, so this is an opportunity for those technologies to be more visible out there and then bring in new sponsors. That’s the other thing that electric racing offers, it’s an opportunity to attract a new audience, both commercially and from the fans.

This is obviously a prototype, so what’s the next step?
The next stage will be the Formula E car which will be designed to the FIA’s regulations which were announced just last month. It’s a development platform at the moment but it will be used for lap records, demonstration runs but it will also go for some world records. Unless a racing series is established that allows this type of car to run it will be primarily a technology platform.

What has been the biggest challenge in getting to this stage?
I think it’s been the integration of these technologies. Lola have been responsible for the chassis and aero, Drayson Racing Technologies have been responsible for the drive train and it’s integrating all these different new technologies and doing it to standards which are applicable to the mainstream car industries. We’ll be testing it shortly and I look forward to driving it!