Electric Car Speed Record Leads to Greener Pastures

An all electric Corvette recently challenged its own speed record, opening a new revenue opportunity in the process.

It turns out this whole electric vehicle thing – it’s here to stay. The most recent example is the GXE All-Electric Corvette from Genovation.

Building off the body of the Z06 model Corvette, which features a reported top speed of around 200 mph, the folks at Genovation stripped out the internal combustion engine in favor of a liquid-cooled dual 250 kW electric engine propulsion system that cranks out over 600 horsepower and 570 ft.-lbs. of torque.

This is in contrast to the Z06’s original specs of 505 hp, and just for comparison, the Chevy Volt’s 150 hp.

Maryland-based Genovation positions themselves as a green car company. The want to combine lighterweight and more aerodynamic-designed cars with hybrid-electric technology to create cars that are safer and more environmentally sustainable.

Back in February the company established a then world record top speed for a street legal all-electric car, hitting 186.8 mph with the GXE. Afterwards, Genovation CEO Andrew Saul was quoted as saying, “We think the car is fully capable of breaking 200 mph.”

So the Genovation team tweaked the vehicle’s 6-speed manual transmission, improved the weight distribution to realize a lower center of gravity, and optimized the collaborative workings of the battery, twin inverters and motors.

On July 28, the company took to Space Florida’s Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center. There, piloted by Johnny Bohmer and certified by the International Mile Racing Association, Genovation’s GXE Corvette set a new land speed record for a street legal all-electric vehicle by hitting 205.6 mph.

Future plans for Genovation now include building and selling similarly modified cars to enthusiasts by transplanting their dual-motor electric powertrain into traditional gasoline-powered vehicles at about $300,000 a shot.

Got to love that green technology.

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