Silicon Valley is more famous for start-ups than supercars. Yet the area has bred the Renovo Coupe: A car that has all the boundless energy, panache and quirk of your typical start-up. Like any great business, at its heart is a unique selling proposition. The Renovo Coupe is the first all-electric American supercar. This is, at least, what Renovo claim. Despite an increased awareness of environmental issues and rising oil prices, the electric vehicle market has failed to accelerate in the way one would have predicted twenty years ago. The Renovo Coupe is bucking that trend, revealing an electric car that is sleek, sexy and powerful.
So why are people already snapping up these machines for US$ 529,000 before it goes into production next year. One answer is performance. The Coupe makes 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 3.4 seconds – smashing the acceleration of other electric vehicles and even that of the McLaren 12C. At full throttle its motors produce 500 horsepower. “We have poured our passion and innovation into the Coupe in an effort to deliver a truly amazing driving experience,” says Renovo CEO Christopher Heiser. This innovation means that it’s not just the Coupe’s power that is impressive, but how quickly it is delivered. Full power is available in just 37 milliseconds, creating a driving sensation impossible to achieve in a petrol car as you wait for the engine to rev. Renovo has made an intelligent design choice by using a modern Shelby Daytona chassis and body.
“We wanted to make the experience very much an homage,”
says Heiser. This freed the team up to concentrate on what’s under the bonnet.
And there lies the real secret, that Silicon Valley background. The Renovo Coupe is full to the brim of state-of-the-art software and hardware. Modular lithium ion batteries are distributed around the chassis and power the mid-mounted twin sequential axial-flux motor. This is how you reach speeds of 120 mph with zero emissions.
