Engineers from Atieva has created fast as hell electric van

US-based company Atieva unveiled to us incredibly fast powertrain van called “Edna” that hits 60 miles per hour in just 3 seconds – production- ready version of the vehicle claims to be even faster.

8/1/16 5:00 am chumakdenis 1

How often do you see the vehicle that can outdrive Tesla Model S?

Not quite often, isn’t it?

Well, it is more than understandable for plenty of reasons, the main one being ‘sportiness’ of Tesla – the all-electric masterpiece created by Tesla Motors can do around 155 mph and accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just 5 seconds.

Remark: New P85Ds have an optional "Ludicrous Mode" hardware package available with the 90 kWh battery upgrade that improves the 0 to 60 miles per hour (0 to 97 km/h) acceleration to 2.8 seconds and 1.1g.

Fast enough to make you feel dizzy, huh?

Well, it is so, but actually there is a car that can do  even better and, much to our surprise, it is not FFZERO1.

It is *drum roll* electric van that has been created by Atieva.

What? Electric van?

I know that it sounds incredible and unbelievable – at the very beginning I gave this news a weird eye too–, but we are bound to admit that this piece of news is actually true.

Atieva’s vehicle hits 60 miles per hour in just 3 seconds and intends to do it even faster– production- ready version of the vehicle claims to be even faster with 0-to-60 mph time of at least 2,7 seconds.

So crazy specs come from hella lot machines placed underneath the carcass: the vehicle has two electric motors, two sets of power electronics, two gearboxes and one battery capable of storing 87 kWh of energy and outputting over 900 horsepower.

Also, the vehicle has quite good aerodynamics thanks to the fact that Mercedes-Benz Vito has been used as a role model and the fact that software that the van uses is optimized and written correctly.

All of that stuff tops off the ‘full picture’ and makes Atieva Edna the fastest electric van in the world.

A few words from Edna’s creators

“Developing a car and a company from scratch is an exciting and challenging opportunity. There are many ups and downs along the way and we intend to share details with you as they develop. “

“One of the ups presented itself at a recent series of tests we were performing on Edna, our powertrain testing delivery van. Edna features a prototype version of the powertrain we are developing for our sedan. The spacious van package allows Atieva engineers to retrofit the vehicle with Atieva powertrain components with as little modification as possible. “

“Under Edna’s skin are two electric motors, two sets of power electronics, two gearboxes, one battery capable of storing 87 kWh of energy and outputting over 900 horsepower, plus all of the software to make the components play nicely together. With Edna we are able to test various aspects of the powertrain system, including motor control algorithms, regenerative braking behaviors, accelerator pedal feel, and cooling strategies, to name a few.”

Fixing bugs

“Edna can often be seen testing on public roads, but occasionally we visit a closed course for tests that cannot be performed safely on public roads.”

“During a recent test session we brought a couple of other cars along to see how Edna would match up in a race. With ample power on tap, Edna was able to overcome her significant weight disadvantage to take the win on repeated runs.”

Raising money

The company has raised several hundred million dollars from investors including Mitsui & Co Ltd –the Japanese trading giant – and Venrock – a Silicon Valley venture capital firm connected with the Rockefeller family that once funded Intel and Apple.

Interesting fact: two of Atieva’s biggest shareholders are Chinese– state-owned Beijing Auto and a subsidiary of publicly traded LeEco– an internet company that has also declared it intends to offer an electric car.

Production

Sales of the upcoming Atieva Edna are set to begin in early 2018.

Initial production is said to be 20,000 cars annually, but we have completely nothing to say regarding it since no one knows whether demand on this vehicle will be high.