A Long Way From Reality

When an automaker is known for and only builds supercars that are ready to head out to the track and offer the speedy drive for a race, there is a serious challenge when it’time to advance beyond expected power systems and work toward the future. The new version of the Tesla Roadster is putting the pressure on other automakers to build something that has the quality and the ability to reach insane speeds and accelerate faster than anything we’re going to have with this impressive car. That pressure is certainly being felt by the team at McLaren.

McLaren is the supercar automaker that’s been born from the racing that it’s been known for over the years its been on the market, but the idea of creating an EV model for racing hasn’t been something the team considered until Tesla showed up with the Roadster. This new generation of the Roadster has the world buzzing about what the car will offer and McLaren certainly wants to have some of this buzz be felt with their models as well. In order to make this happen, the team has begun the development of an EV sports car that could be what we’re looking for.

The Development Continues

So far, the team has developed a pure electric mule to study the performance aspects and learn more about what EV driving will be so they can build a model that will compete with the Roadster. The team has started the journey is going to be a long one to bring EV driving to the market in the supercars they build. The main concern for McLaren is the battery technology that will be used to for the power needed for this incredible car. The idea is to have a car that can give you over 500 miles of range on the road so that you can have at least a half-hour of track driving with the battery pack included.

Right now the battery development isn’t where it needs to be in order to allow this to take place and driving an EV supercar on the track will feel a lot like driving an RC car at home for fun with your kids, but the McLaren supercar certainly won’t be for children, and a half-hour of track driving just doesn’t seem like enough. This means the batteries will also need to be able to recharge quickly while you take a trackside lunch break.

Because the needs that McLaren has put in place for the supercar they want to put on the market with EV technology is a long way off, it will be a while before we see what this team will be able to offer. Possibly, by the time McLaren has the supercar with EV ready to drive on the road and on the track, the batteries and the charging time will be much closer to what we experience now for gasoline models, otherwise, this is going to be one seriously expensive car that can’t last long on the track.