Electric cars may lack the visceral, mechanical sound that gives petrolheads the goosebumps, but there’s no denying their performance.
Thanks to instantly available torque, easily achievable high horsepower numbers and the lack of a transmission, electric cars have often proven themselves quicker off the line than traditional high-performance cars. Among the fastest electric vehicles around is the Rimac Concept_One and it is so accelerative, that it can easily knock off the 0-62 mph (100 km/h) sprint in 2.6 seconds.
In a video uploaded by the company’s founder Mate Rimac, the car’s missile-like acceleration really has to be seen to be believed.
Helping to achieve the car’s blistering acceleration are its four magnet electric motors. Combined, they deliver the equivalent of 1073 hp and 1,600 Nm (1,195 lb-ft) of torque from zero RPM. Interestingly, the Concept_One then uses four gearboxes, one for each wheel, to send power to the ground via a complex torque vectoring system.
The production-spec car was presented at the Geneva Motor Show earlier in the year. The Croatian startup intends to produce eight examples, but it isn’t known just when customer deliveries will commence.