Reveal: Varley evR450 electric sportscar

Having been in the business of producing battery-powered utilitarian machines for a fair bit of time now, Aussie automaker Varley Electric Vehicles has apparently done a complete 360 from everything they have created and stood for so far with the release of their latest creation, the Varley evR450 electric sportscar. Fully funded by Varley, the Varley evR450 electric sportscar was created without any government assistance on the project and the company is looking to sell it both in domestic and export markets. The first full electric supercar in the world to have been based entirely on local Australian-developed technology, the Varley evR450 electric sportscar was developed in collaboration with two other local Australian technology companies Ultramotive and Tritium, and the vehicle takes advantage of the firm’s long experience in electric vehicles.

Varley evR450 electric sportscar

First impression:

The butterfly-door-fitted, bright yellow electric sportscar was rolled out at the 3rd annual Australian Electric Vehicle Conference last week. With an exciting repertoire in specialized electric vehicles, new technologies, and a strong history in engineering, the privately owned Varley Electric Vehicles is a part of the Brisbane-based division of the Varley Group, which also manufactures the car at their plant in the city.

The powertrain:

Acceleration can be expected to be blistering on the Varley evR450 electric sportscar with its powertrain outputting 1000 Nm of torque and 300 kW of peak power propelling the very light vehicle with even lighter 40kg motors more efficiently. Though no formal specs lists have been announced for the vehicle, the Varley evR450 electric sportscar is rumored to be running on two Ultramotive CARBON motors each of which offer continuous power of 122 Nm (58 kW), 522 Nm of torque and peak power of 150kW. Offering a 186.4 mile (300-km) range battery as an option, the base package of the Varley evR450 electric sportscar promises to have a range of 93.21 miles (150 km) on a full charge. The electric supercar is reported to top out at 124.3 mph (200 km/h), dashing from zero to 62 mph in 3.8 seconds.

The exterior & Interior:

Though we're unlikely to see the full specifications of the Varley evR450 electric sportscar unveiled till its officially launched in 2012, we do know that the supercar would come fitted with specially-developed tech innovated in partnership with Tritium and Ultramotive- other EV specialists- that have collaborated with Varley to create a featherweight shell made of composite materials that should yield some fairly significant advantages for the vehicle on the road.

What’s new?

With the electric solar racing industry providing the technical know-how for the state of the art inverters that control the AC motors, the Varley evR450 electric sportscar can simply be plugging in to mains power to charge its 24Kwh Lithium Ion pack which makes the electric supercar easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain.

What’s refreshing?

The Varley evR450 electric sportscar was unveiled at the third annual Australia Electric Vehicle Conference held at King George Square, Brisbane and the prototype was built from the ground up by a local division of the Varley Group. With its routes in the Hunter Valley coal region, the 125-year-old engineering company launched its 200km/h electric supercar in Brisbane last week by that claims that the hand-built car would faster on road than a Porsche 911 though that claim can only be proved either way once the company released official testing numbers for the indigenous Aussie electric supercar.

Price and availability:

The evR450 will be officially launched in January though Varley is still fin tuning a few engineering details on the vehicle. With the company happy to let "interest dictate volume," sales expectations for the low-carbon coupe are quite modest with John Bettini, Varley Electric Vehicles divisional manager, stating that the model is not a production car and will be hand built in low volumes and should therefore be made in extremely limited numbers. The basic model of the Varley evR450 electric sportscar is expected to cost less than $AU 200,000 which, at today's rates, would amount to $213,200 in U.S currency.