We have carmakers like the Ariel Motor Company to thank for an EV future looks like it won’t at all be boring. The British company has just unveiled a prototype of its Ariel Hipercar, an EV speed machine with over a thousand horsepower and a gas-turbine range-extender for good measure. It is yet another phase in the bespoke automaker’s journey that began back in 2017, when it first announced plans for a high-performance extended-range electric vehicle.
Ariel Motor Company is the brains behind the bonkers Ariel Atom road-legal track car and off-road Nomad. As insane as the Atom is, the Hipercar – that’s short for “High-Performance Carbon Reduction” – dials things up by several notches.
These are early days, but we already have some good information about the car. First off, there will be more than one variant — a two-motor rear-wheel-drive option will be complemented by a more potent range-topping variant with all-wheel-drive and four electric motors.
That top trim car is set up with two motors mounted on each axle. Each motor drives a wheel via a single-speed transmission, and the combined output is 1,180 hp and 1,342 lb-ft of torque. There is a 56-kWh lithium-ion battery to drive the motors, and the Hipercar has an estimated range of about 150 miles (240 km) on battery power alone. However, there’s a neat party trick in the form of a gas turbine extender that can recharge the battery, maintain charge levels, or augment battery power.
The Hipercar is a beast, performance-wise. The quad-motor variant will rocket to 60 mph (96 km/h) in less than 2.0 seconds, and hit 100 mph (160 km/h) about two seconds later. Those numbers automatically pitch the Hipercar against top-of-segment rivals like the Rimac Nevera.
2023 Ariel Hipercar Photo by Ariel Motor Company
2023 Ariel Hipercar Photo by Ariel Motor Company
2023 Ariel Hipercar Photo by Ariel Motor Company
2023 Ariel Hipercar Photo by Ariel Motor Company
All that performance is packaged within a body frame that, frankly, has us scratching our heads in bemusement. We’d like to think that design is solely inspired by aerodynamics, with aesthetics taking a back seat. That’s the only logical explanation for why the Ariel Hipercar conjures up images of two different cars mashed together, lengthwise.
It’s still a prototype, though, and there’s a chance the production version, slated for some time in 2024, will look more appealing. We will reserve our final thoughts until then.
Keyword: Ariel tries its hand at EVs with 1,180-hp Hipercar prototype