Murray T.27 electric car

Not content with building the McLaren F1 – the world’s fastest naturally aspirated supercar – Gordon Murray has now turned his rather talented hand to electricity.

I know what you’re thinking. “Wow, a one squillion horsepower electric car that farts perfume, refreezes ice-caps, saves the forest and stops Katie Price from releasing more autobiographies”.

Alas, no. What he has done however, is design a cutesy little city car powered by a 12kWh battery which emits a CO2 figure of 48g/km. Of course, batteries don’t emit CO2, so that 48g/km figure includes the CO2 emissions from the power station itself. It emits just 28g/km of the black stuff on the city cycle.

The T.27 weighs in at 680kgs – little more than a Caterham – and does the 0-62mph dash in less than 15 seconds. Top speed? 65mph.

Its got a range of around 100 miles and the first prototype should be finished by April 2011 with the car bookmarked for a 2012 debut.

No word on whether it’ll do the Nurburgring in under eight minutes, or if it charges your nasal hair trimmer on the go, but is this a step in the right direction?

Vijay Pattni