2005 Venturi Fetish ...

[LateNightCable]

2005 Venturi Fetish
The electric automobile has arrived ... In the form of a sportscar!

Venturi, the French sportscar maker, known for their 300 Atlantique of the mid-nineties has introduced a sportscar first featured in concept form at the 2002 Geneve Auto Show, the all electric Fetish. The latest Fetish made it's debut at the Paris show last September, making it the first electric car of it's kind to be slated for regular production - just like the French . Saying that the Fetish is " full-production " might be a stretch, as it will be hand built to order at a price of $664,000 (540,000 Euro) a piece. But if you're rich and wish to be a part of a new revolution in powered transport, the Fetish is your ticket. While hardly a great deal in relation to it's performance, which is easily matched by a number of cars costing 12 times less. The Fetish marks the an opening door to the possibilities of alternative power, and that can only bring lower costs for such technology in the future.

A large part of the great cost of the mid-engined Fetish, are it's use of the most state of the art componants and technology, such as it's carbon fiber monoqoque chassis, and power packed Lithium-Ion batteries. Before the age of laptop computers and cell phones, more than a ton of batteries would have been needed to achieve the same power as the Fetish does with it's 670lbs. of batteries. The car, with batteries weighs in at 2,424lbs. Said to be a record weight for electric cars, and considerably lighter than most gas cars. The 242 hp. engine is a " linear torque " unit, with 100% torque available from the start, and spinning to a maximum 14,000 rpm. While the Fetish hit's a top speed of "only" 105 mph. it is capable of accelerating from 0-62 mph. in under 5 seconds, demonstrating that it's powerplant achieves a greater level of efficiency than many gas engines over 300 hp. Fetish also provides a maximum range of 220 miles between recharging, with a rapid recharge time (with 80 amps) of 1 minute for every mile traveled.

As far as the driving experiance, the Fetish is built in the fashion of a racecar with it's carbon chassis, light weight, as well as strong road holding, in keeping with the tradition of the 300 Atlantique. Some may find the Fetish a little on the wierd side visually - including me, but I make exceptions for French cars, which, like an SUV with mud slinger tires and no doors, must be driven with a sense of fun and adventure .

Fetish will be made available for sale in Tokyo beginning in November 2004, and in Los Angeles in January 2005. Two markets where environmetal issues are considered most important. Other markets offering the Fetish will be Paris, London, and Monte Carlo.

- LateNightCable



Specs ...

Engine ... Electric

Power ......... 242hp. @ 14,000 rpm.

Torque ........ 162lb.ft. @ 1-14,000 rpm.

0-62 ............ 4.5 sec.

Top Speed ... 105 mph.

Length ......... 151.6 in.

Width ........... 77.5 in.

Height .......... 46.8 in.

Curb Weight ... 2,424lbs.

Who ever has a fetish for electricity, just put your hands in the air like you just don't care!

[bleh]

weird. so does it have a transmission?

[LateNightCable]

No transmission as such that I know of. If you'll notice the interior shots, there are push buttons controlling Drive, Neutral, and Reverse. This engine is very different from a piston engine. Torque is constant, and with a redline of 14,000, no need for a tranny I guess.

Venturi plans to build 25 of them.

[zit]

comes across as having a lot of potentiol as a car it may show that electric can be used in sports cars and not just vans and small hatchbacks

[LateNightCable]

Yes, and you know how that goes, once it's here, it's expensive, but it will trickle down eventually. For example, part of the reason racing technology being used in road cars is infrequent is to curb the high cost of the technology from going down. So it's mostly a bunch of greedy, power tripping crap. But really, once a certain technology is readily available, nobody can stop the flow from reaching road cars.

Electricity is cool, but I still see the possibility of a small city car, powered by a two cylinder motorcycle engine. That would be cool.

[wEstSide]

Electrics beat the motorcycle city car to it http://www.commutercars.com/

[skyline_r34v]

So what do you do for performance. Buy 20 Lithium-Ion "supercharged" batteries.

[bleh]

but if it had a 3 speed transmission it could have that torque increased with a shorter gear for an even better 0-60 time. then a higher gear to add to the top speed. im thinking of using the transmission for torque conversion, not necisarily to stay in a given power band...since its literally a linear torque "curve"

[BIGpassion]

how do i make a poll LateNightCable??

[LateNightCable]

Originally Posted by BIGpassion how do i make a poll LateNightCable??

Only Moderators can create polls, but if you have a good one, I'll put it up for you.

About the transmission thing, I'm not too familiar with how that electric engine works myself, but putting in a 3-speeder sounds like a good idea. I'm sure it didn't slip their minds, but perhaps they just wanted to save weight. 0-60 in 4.5 is still not bad. Extending the performance much more, such as running the power through a gear box, might put too much of a drain on the batteries in some way, in which case the 220 mile range wouldn't be maintained.

The Tango looks like fun, but I'm not sure I would want to be traveling 150 in one, with a cross wind.