When it was unveiled at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show back in March, the Quant e-Sportlimousine seemed like an obvious piece of automotive vaporware.
After all, a gull-winged luxury car with the performance of the fastest modern supercar and a new type of battery can’t be real, right?
There may actually be some substance behind the e-Sportlimousine’s show-car bravado, because it’s been approved for real-world testing on public roads by the TÜV (Technischer Überwachungsverein), Germany’s highway safety administration.
Even if it’s roadworthy, it may not exactly be safe to put something like this on the street. It’s likely to cause a few rubbernecking accidents.
The Quant’s wheelbase stretches 207 inches, slightly longer than that of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, while entry and exit is via a massive pair of gull wing doors.
Things are just as interesting under the skin, because the e-Sportlimousine isn’t powered by ordinary lithium-ion batteries. Instead, it uses “NanoFlowcell” technology.
A flow-cell battery circulates liquid electrolyte through two chambers, with a membrane in between. This causes an electric charge to pass through the membrane, providing power for the motors almost like circulating hydrogen does in a fuel cell.
Quant claims this type of battery will offer much more power than a lithium-ion battery of comparable weight.
How much power? Quant claims the e-Sportlimousine’s four electric motors produce a combined 912 horsepower, although they’re dialed back to 644 hp for regular use.
Then there’s the torque, which is rated at an impossible 8,555 pound-feet. Seriously, almost 9,000 lb-ft of twisting force, according to Quant.
All of that translates to some equally impressive performance figures. Quant says the car will do 0 to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds, and reach a top speed of 236 mph. That’s faster than a McLaren P1.
Yet this electric car also has a driving range of up to 372 miles, according to its maker. That’s assuming a 120-kilowatt-hour battery pack, much larger than, say, the 85-kWh pack offered in the Tesla Model S.
The whole thing sounds as hyperbolic as a Jeremy Clarkson Ferrari review, but the fact that this radical electric-car concept will get some testing time on public roads means it could be the real deal.
At the very least, maybe that clever NanoFlowcell technology will find its way into a more-believable production car.
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