Japanese company building world's quickest electric car

A JAPANESE company called Aspark is bringing an electric supercar to the Frankfurt motor show next week, which it promises will hit 100km/h from a standstill in less than 2.0sec.

Aspark says the Owl, as it is known, will be the quickest road car to 100km/h there has ever been. Assuming it actually gets built, which is something Aspark has never done previously.

Development of the zero-emission project started in 2014. Its carbonfibre body stands a mere 990mm tall, supported by an aluminium tube chassis riding on ultra-lightweight forged magnesium wheels.

Proper technical details about battery capacities and motor outputs are unknown at this stage, and it’s likely they will remain a mystery until the Owl’s show reveal in the coming days.

However, videos of the car’s basic skateboard and framework in testing have been published on YouTube and give us some insight.

The clips seem to show electric motors front and rear, meaning all-wheel drive is all but certain, as one would expect given the traction needed to achieve the company’s lofty acceleration goal.

The cabin appears just wide enough for two occupants, and the slick tyres fitted for testing would need to be swapped out if this car was to ever gain street legal status.

Other images supplied by Aspark of the Owl’s naked tube frame show it rolling on Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres.

Competing university students in Europe have already built electric karts capable of the nought to one hundred sprint in around 1.5sec, however nobody is trying to pretend that those purpose-built buggies are anything near road-ready or track capable.

The relative accessibility of electric car technology has paved the way for numerous ambitious start-ups, many of which fail to produce anything of real meaning once the hubris fades away.

However, the Aspark Owl appears to be much more than hypothetical renders on a computer screen. We’ll be watching this one with keen interest.