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There are still only renderings of the Quasar electric super sports car.
But development is ongoing, and the car is expected to start chasing records as early as next year.
Photo: Elektron
A quasar, the center of a galaxy, is one hundred trillion times brighter than the sun.
If an electric car bears the name Quasar, it should be clear that it is not a city car.
Armağan Arabul chose the name for an electric hypercar project that his Frankfurt-based company Elektron Motors is working on. This quasar is to become the most powerful production car in the world. Four electric motors together develop 1700 kW (2300 PS) and should accelerate the car from 0 to 100 km / h in 1.65 seconds. The announced maximum speed is 450 km / h. The auto industry actually wants to become more environmentally friendly with the help of electromobility. However - as several comparable projects show - it is also driving the eternal record hunt into new spheres.
Full throttle swagger is part of the auto world. It was only last October that the US super sports car Tuatara from the manufacturer SSC sped through the Nevada desert at 533 km / h. The ride was at the same time a striking sign of life for the combustion engine, because electric cars are increasingly leading the way when it comes to chasing records. At top speed, the Tuatara should retain the lead for the time being, its output of 1750 hp is now being exceeded more frequently. About the quasar. The tremendous sprinting power of electric sports cars is also hard to beat.
"We have reached the limit for road vehicles," says the futurologist Lars Thomsen from the Swiss management consultancy Future Matters, who specializes in mobility.
The limiting element of such escapades is the grip of the tires on the asphalt.
Electric vehicles such as the Tesla flagship Model S Plaid can accelerate from standstill to 100 km / h in around two seconds - and brake again just as quickly.
Tesla's new roadster should be able to accelerate to 100 km / h in 1.1 seconds.
But only if customers opt for an optional rocket engine from Musk's space company SpaceX.
It no longer has anything to do with a classic road vehicle.
The experimental hypercars are more extreme than electric street cars even without rocket propulsion.
"In the end, it's like sports," says Thomsen.
"Everyone tries to get out a hundredth of a second somewhere in order to hold the world record - even if only for a short time."
From petrol head to electro head
Thomsen uses this to describe what drives Elektron Motors founder Arabul.
Even in the playground, the 41-year-old told SPIEGEL, he wanted to be the fastest in every race.
This urge continued with tuned cars.
“Whatever the car, I always wanted it to be the fastest and best in its class,” says Arabul.
He also tried his hand at racing in Turkey.
In his private life he worked on Peugeot 306, BMW M5, Porsche 911 Turbo S and Chevrolet Camaro Turbo.
“I was a petrolhead for a long time, but now I'm an electrohead,” says Arabul.
Where does the change of heart come from?
"It was clear that internal combustion engines with high horsepower would reach their efficiency limits at some point," he explains.
Arabul, whose father founded the company Emek Elektrik Endustrisi in 1969, has lived in Germany since 2017.
There are "still no really exotic brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini or McLaren," says Arabul.
His plan is for Elektron Motors to take this place in the future.
With electric hypercars made in Germany.
So far, however, there are only renderings and simulations of the upcoming supercar.
In the next year, however, the Quasar should break the Nordschleife record at the Nürburgring.
The Porsche 919 Hybrid has held that position with 5: 19.546 minutes since 2018.
The car should be available for purchase from 2023: for at least 2.2 million euros.
Arabul also sees the extreme car as an ambassador for electromobility.
He believes that his project could help "people learn to love electric cars and finally want them".
The arms race of extreme developers
All over the world, numerous such electric racing start-ups outbid each other with top scores. The Croatian company Rimac recently presented the extreme model Nevera (1408 kW, 1914 hp), which will cost around two million euros. In 2023, the electric extremist from the Swiss company Morand Cars (1470 kW, 1999 PS) will come onto the market.
The Japanese Aspark Owl e-racer has been available since January, and is not only very powerful (1480 kW, 2012 hp), but also extremely flat (99 cm) and expensive (2.9 million euros). In Bulgaria, the Alieno company is working to overshadow all of these examples. Their e-hyper sports car called Arcanum will cause a sensation with 3840 kW (5220 PS) if it is ever put on its wheels. Futurologist Thomsen is skeptical: "The question is whether these manufacturers will still be around in five or ten years."
The Italian company Automobili Estrema is involved with a completely different objective.
Their electric super sports car, the Fulminea, has an output of 1500 kW (2026 hp), but the car is just the packaging for the actual product: a new type of battery.
It is a hybrid battery consisting of a solid state and a super capacitor.
"If we had just presented the naked battery, nobody would have noticed us," Estrema founder Gianfranco Pizzuto told SPIEGEL.
Now, however, we are talking about the battery, the energy density of which is significantly greater, which is why the weight of the power storage unit can be less.
Example: The Fulminea's 100 kWh battery weighs less than 300 kilograms.
This makes it lighter than the smallest battery in the VW ID3 (45 kWh, 310 kilograms) - with twice the capacity.
Technology transfer like in motorsport
Such a hybrid battery currently costs around 300,000 euros, says Estrema boss Pizzuto.
The technology can therefore only be further developed with vehicles that can later be sold for sums of millions.
“Records drive technology forward,” says Achim Kampker, Professor of Production Management at RWTH Aachen University.
Such top performers are important and have a positive effect on the entire industry, says Kampker, who once ran the business of the electric transporter start-up Streetscooter.
One thought here: electric cars are getting better and are replacing combustion engines faster - the environment and climate would benefit indirectly from the hypercar arms race.
The principle is well known.
"In motorsport, technologies have been researched to the limit for decades, which are then implemented in production cars," says future researcher Thomsen.
The latest example: Porsche relies on the 800-volt electrical system from the Porsche Formula E team for the Taycan electric sports car.
In a similar way, Estremas Fulminea aims to boost the mass production of solid-state batteries.
"Then the costs will fall and the battery will also be more affordable for cars in the lower segment," says Pizzuto.
Estrema plans to build 20 cars a year from 2023, and a factory is currently being built in Modena, northern Italy.
Thomsen also believes that restraint is appropriate here.
»Almost every week a new super battery technology is proclaimed that is particularly light, particularly durable or can be recharged in three minutes.
It remains to be seen whether this could really go into series production in the end. "
Elektron boss Armağan Arabul is also planning with limited quantities, but does not want to become a supplier for new technologies.
»We don't want to become an engineering or design company that develops technologies for other OEMs.
Or can you imagine Bugatti developing components for Ferrari? «
