Electric Mercedes Van “Edna” Outruns High-HP Sports Cars
It’s a sight to behold when a mundane-looking white Mercedes panel van smokes a Dodge Viper, a Tesla, and a Ferrari California in the 1/4 mile. This isn’t your ordinary van, though. This is “Edna,” an all-electric test mule for Atieva Electric Car company. Its electric motors are said to produce over 900 combined horsepower, which frankly, is totally believable.
Atieva won’t be producing cars in the shape of a van, though. They are instead going square after real estate held by Tesla. The rendering above is the sports car that they plan on making, provided that the company can get off the ground. On paper, their concept sounds promising. And in tests, it’s done the 1/4 mile in just over 11 seconds, and has a 0-60 time of 2.9 seconds. There’s only a handful of gasoline engines that can even come close to that performance.
There’s no announcement of when things will go into production, but they have backing by some fairly big names in the industry. BAIC, a Chinese automotive powerhouse, is one of Atieva’s best connections. And styling will come from Derek Jenkins, whose design elements you’ve seen in today’s current Mazda cars.
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via [Motor Authority]
