Cutting edge electric vehicle technology designed and developed at Silverstone Park Enterprise Zone, has been used to help create one of the world’s fastest accelerating and most advanced supercars.

Ariel’s new 1180bhp, four-wheel-drive electric two-seater ‘P40’ was unveiled at last year’s Low Carbon Vehicles show. Ariel believes the car will be capable of accelerating from 0-60mph in 2.4 seconds and 0-150mph in 7.8 seconds.

Much of this performance is down to highly complex technology derived by Silverstone Park-based low carbon vehicle specialist Delta Motorsport – this includes a high power 42kWh liquid-cooled battery.

Delta’s Managing Director Simon Dowson explained: “We’ve been responsible for the battery system, the charging element of the battery, the range extender and the powertrain control which includes torque vectoring – that is the independent control of torque at each individual wheel to give improved handling, traction control and stability control.

“It’s been a 24-month project initially co-funded by Innovate UK. We didn’t need to put together a special projects team as we already have technology sub-sections within the company so it fell into what we already do.

“Then it was a case of achieving vehicle integration – making sure that everything we designed fits into the parameters of the vehicle.”

Simon also believes the P40 should be seen as a pointer to the future and a showcase for today’s electric vehicle technology.

Silverstone Park Enterprise Zone is the home of the High Performance Technology Cluster and boosting 125,000 sq. ft. of new HQ-style industrial units – the Silverstone Park Enterprise Zone represents a strong pillar of growth for Buckinghamshire.

Impressive progress has been achieved at Silverstone Park with world leading businesses in high performance engineering technologies, in and around Silverstone, taking their knowledge in areas such as safety, engine capacity, light-weighting into other business sectors such as main stream automotive, space, mining and even medical devices with the support of the Silverstone Cluster network, which includes Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (BTVLEP) and other local partners.

ENDS