First Alcraft car revealed

Image: Alcraft GT via AFP Relaxnews

As electric and driverless vehicle technology becomes increasingly mainstream and important, smaller manufacturers have an opportunity to punch way above their weight. That’s what Alcraft, which is a British electric vehicle startup business, is looking to do as it now reveals its very first vehicle, the Alcraft GT.

The Alcraft GT is a high-performance electric car the company is planning to put into production in 2019. To help achieve this, the company is launching a crowdfunding campaign where contributors are being offered the chance to play a part in the development of the car and what is an entirely new British brand.

The car itself is not another of those exotic electric supercars though. In fact, it’s an extremely sporty but practical model with a shooting brake-style rear that allows easy access to a 500-liter luggage area, and which, perhaps more importantly, has a 300-mile range on a single charge. The basic fundamental concept is of a battery-only car, but the Alcraft GT has been designed and engineered so that a range-extending gas engine could be added if there was demand for it. The car has also been designed so that it can be produced as a 2+2 rather than as just a two-seater.

Where things get really exciting though, are the numbers associated with the car’s power and performance. The three-motor, four-wheel drive powertrain sounds extremely impressive as the virtual engineering has suggested expected figures of 600 horsepower and 840 lb.-ft. of torque. The car will feature four-wheel drive, torque vectoring, and is very light weight, which should result in 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) coming up from a standing start in as little as 3.5 seconds.

Alcraft Motor Company was founded by businessman David Alcraft, and its engineering partner is none other than Silverstone-based Delta Motorsport, which is an electric drivetrain and battery system specialist that works with global automakers as well as at the very highest levels of motor sport.

If you want to get involved, the crowdfunding bands start at £10 ($13) and go up to £25,000 (over $32,000), with rewards including VIP days at Silverstone with rides in a development model of the GT. What the eventual production model will cost to buy has yet to be revealed. JB

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