Fastest Electric Car Venturi VBB 3
Venturi VBB 3 has become the world’s fastest electric car by setting up a land speed record of 342 km/h on the Bonneville Salt Flats. VBB 3 is jointly designed by French manufacturer Venturi automobiles and Ohio state university center for automotive research. Let us see how the design team has made this dream come true…
Venturi VBB 3…The machine of ultimate capabilities!
The electric motors on VBB 3 are capable of producing 2800 Nm of torque that can take this vehicle to a speed of 400 mph (i.e. 644 km/h). Unfortunately, bad weather on the salt field allowed it to reach 342 km/h only (?). Today’s VBB 3 is the latest sibling of the long series of glorious history. The earlier version of this vehicle, named VBB2, set a record of 487 km/h in the year 2009. In 2010, fully electric VBB 2.5 was introduced which achieved the new speed record of 495 km/h. Now with VBB 3, the team hopes to achieve the record speed of 644 km/h.
Some more insights into Venturi VBB 3:
The engineers designed the VBB 3 with the only aim to make it as fast as possible! Attaining such high speed demands high power to weight ratio. In addition, aerodynamic concerns necessitate maintaining low ground clearance. Steel puts up more weight and hence VBB 3 eliminated it from its chassis. Instead, engineers have employed carbon fiber. Use of carbon fiber has taken care of safety and has also maintained power to weight ratio. However, considering 11.35 meters of length of VBB 3, manufacturing of carbon fiber is a difficult feat. Although engineers are able to design it, manufacturing such a job comes with lots of added cost thereby elevating the total cost of the project.
Similarly, the design of two-speed gearbox is also complex. Hewland UK successfully handles this responsibility. Also, cooling system is of great importance because it has to protect crucial parts of electric motors from heat. Thus, VBB3 incorporated the oil cooling system by providing jackets to the motor and pumping oil externally into the jackets. Oil chilling circuit monitors this activity. With all these systems, the overall weight of this vehicle becomes 3.5 tons of which battery contributes a whooping 1.6 tons!
With all these dedicated efforts, we are pretty much sure that even winds will blow in a favorable way making VBB 3 hit its true potential!!
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