Gordon Murray Design unveils super-efficient T.25 City Car
Mon 28 June 2010
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Gordon Murray Design has unveiled its T.25 electric City Car at the Smith School, Oxford University. Billed as one of the most efficient cars ever built, the T.25 uses innovative technology to reduce weight and footprint and ensure safety usability and efficiency.
Developed by the Formula One and supercar designer Gordon Murray, the T.25 measures just 2.4m in length and 1.3m in width. It is so compact, two vehicles could be driven side by side in a single lane. Further, by positioning the T.25 perpendicular to the kerb, three vehicles could fit into a conventional parking space.
The T.25 city car uses an F1-inspired safety structure, that allows a light weight construction and multiple interior configurations. There are potentially six internal layouts available, including a three-seater format with the two passengers sitting either side of the centrally-seated driver – exactly like the McLaren F1 supercar. Boot space also varies from 160 to 720 litres.
The car's power comes from a 660cc three-cylinder engine driving through a five-speed automated gearbox. The vehicle weighs around half as much as a typical supermini, so a mere 51bhp is enough to see the it hit a limited top speed of 90mpg. Fuel economy is claimed to be 74mpg and emissions are 86g/km of CO2 . Alternative power sources are also being considered, including an all-electric version.
The iStream® process used to produce the T.25 is a complete re-think on high volume materials, as well as the manufacturing process and offers a significant reduction in CO2 emissions over the life-cycle of the vehicles produced using it, compared with conventional ones, according to CEO Gordon Murray. "The simplified assembly process means that an assembly plant can be designed to be 20% of the size of a conventional factory. This could reduce capital investment in the assembly plant by approximately 80%."
Murray is reported to be investigating backing and/or potential partnerships to carry the T.25 city car project into mass-production.
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