The Lightning was built to provide opinion leaders and the very affluent with a supercar which gives them what they want in a high end very fast car; great looks, high performance and exclusivity. The Lightning is also emission free at point of use. At last, in 2012, the environmentally conscious supercar customer will have the chance to drive the car of their dreams.
The Lightning was built to provide opinion leaders and the very affluent with a supercar which gives them what they want in a high end very fast car; great looks, high performance and exclusivity. The Lightning is also emission free at point of use. At last, in 2012, the environmentally conscious supercar customer will have the chance to drive the car of their dreams.
The Lightning GT is the brain child of two persons, Arthur Wolstenholme, an engineer and a marketing man, Iain Sanderson. They were working together on a project and in Arthur’s words, had seen the Tesla coming over the horizon to challenge conventional views on electric vehicles. Iain saw the Lightning brand as the ultimate EV brand, not just for now but the very long term. Having worked in the marketing world on major brands such as Coca-Cola and Budweiser, the chance to build a global brand of their own was one not to miss. The combination of marketing man and engineer is not a new one… Rolls and Royce had similar backgrounds. Ironically too, Iain’s London office is just around the corner from where Rolls and Royce set up to build the world’s best petrol cars.
Their enthusiasm was also greatly fuelled by President Obama’s support for the emerging EV industry in the USA which gave the global car industry a steer….America is going electric. This is not only to reduce their dependency on oil but also reduce harmful emissions at point of use. Iain often cites living in London as a major inspiration for the GT, why do people need a V12 to do 9 miles per hour and 9 miles per gallon when a beautiful EV would give them what they seek but without the harmful emissions?
Enter the Lightning.
But to attract the world’s opinion leaders the car has to be so much more than just a very pretty face, it has to be a truly innovative yet proven and reliable supercar. The Lightning is all of that and more.
Lightning GT - Positioning:
• The world is changing - EVs are already arriving at the lower end of the mass market, but by focusing on mainstream products, they leave a clear gap for conscientious exhilaration -an electric supercar that allows the environmentally conscious customer to be exhilarated by the seamless surge of torque that an all electric powertrain can provide.
• The Lightning GT is all about performance, looks and style. It is first and foremost a beautiful, highly exclusive and quintessentially British supercar for the modern environmentally conscious world.
• Lightning has a mission to advance the application of proven clean technologies at the top echelons of the automotive world, by bringing together the very best systems in a desirably different overall package.
• There is always room at the top in any market for the best technology. Indeed this is typically the place from where the best technology should always start to roll out. Lightning uses technology that is well proven but far ahead of mainstream EVs in its battery systems, all electric powertrain, body structure, chassis design, materials and IT.
• The very word ‘Lightning’ expresses instantaneous power, high speed, dramatic excitement, shock and awe. Our role and happy duty at The Lightning Car Company in protecting and promoting such a strong brand image is to create advanced, powerful and exciting cars with such care that their functionality and reliability is unquestionable. Our customers can then appreciate Lightning products as desirably different and exclusive handcrafted jewellery at the cutting edge of proven technology. To ensure there is real depth behind our products, we bring together the very best of contemporary proven technology from world class suppliers under a skin of timeless elegance; a desirably different blend of classic and new! Our Lightning GT is a car for the non-conformist who appreciates the best of the supercar experience.
• Our price point and product focus means that a Lightning GT customer might also be interested in a Bentley Continental GT Supersports, Aston Martin DBS, Ferrari 458 Italia, Mclaren MP4-12C, a Rolls Royce Ghost or in due course the AMG SLS E-Cell. However there is nothing else on the market that comes close to offering the Lightning GT’s unique blend of exclusive elegance, conscience liberating supercar performance and advanced yet proven clean-tech design.
• The purchase price for the standard rear wheel drive Lightning GT will be approximately $230,000 including taxes. The initial range of options available at launch will include luxurious personalisation features that will allow any customer to tailor a car to his/her exact taste. A highly comprehensive range of optional fit items that will extend the performance, range and IT connectivity of the car is under development for availability during the first 18 months following initial launch. By design, the car is specifically engineered to allow customers to upgrade their existing vehicles as new features and enhancements become available.
• Around 20 pre-orders for the Lightning GT have already been placed despite the company not yet actively marketing the car or finalising detailed specifications and availability. Expressions of interest in purchasing a car can be taken at the AutoRAI and as soon as the production plan and detailed specs are finalised this can be converted into a firm order through the formal ordering process. A prospective customer can lodge a small returnable deposit at the show or anytime thereafter in order to secure a place in the queue for an early delivery.
Lightning GT - Technology:
• Lithium Titanates were originally developed for military applications, because of its uniquely stable chemistry, the ultra fast charge capability conferred by the dense nano-structure crystals used on the anode surface and the exceptionally long operating life.
• Titanates are based on the most stable and thereby safest chemistry of all the Lithium based battery technologies available.
• Lightning’s battery technology comes from Altairnano Inc in the USA, but industry giants Toshiba (and others) are also busy developing Titanate cells for automotive and other large scale applications.
• At present Titanate cells are by far the most expensive of all re-chargeable EV batteries on initial purchase price. Taking account of their extraordinary service life and unparalleled overall performance Titanates already make a compelling case in an application where only the best will do. As production costs evolve they may become viable in more mainstream applications too.
• There is currently a 15-20% weight penalty for using Titanates instead of most Lithium-ion batteries. However, in a large car this has negligible impact on performance and recent technology progress shows that the weight differential is narrowing fast; in the past 12 months alone a 20% energy density improvement has been delivered for Lightning’s Titanates.
• There is minimal need for energy wasteful heating and cooling in a Titanate battery pack, which brings significant benefits to both reliability cost and weight when comparing with other battery systems.
• Titanates can be expected to take well over 15,000 charges - a 25 year life is not an unreasonable prediction. Few Lithium-ion cells can take more than 1,000 re-charges before their performance drops significantly.
• Titanate cells operate normally in ambient temperatures between -40°C and +50°C. Most Lithium-ion cells are effectively inoperative below 0°C and require expensive, sophisticated cooling systems to be operated safely in ambients above 35°C.
• A Lightning Titanate battery pack can be re-charged at the same charge points used by any other EV. However, given a sufficiently powerful supply source the Lightning pack can be re-charged from empty to full in as little as 10 minutes without damage to cycle life. The cycle life of the lithium-ion batteries used in most EVs starts to deteriorate if they are re-charged in under about 2 ½ hours.
You can connect with the Lightning at
www.lightningcarcompany.co.uk
First published in Men's Passion issue #32 June-July-August 2011
