A conversation with Ian Wright on what powers his dreams, as well as his X1 electric sports car.
Open Access Article Originally Published: February 28, 2007
Mounted in the two seat cockpit of Wrightspeed X-1 electric car is a g-meter to measure acceleration. How many cars, electric or otherwise, do you know where you want to know how much the force of gravity is pushing you back in your seat?
But that's exactly the kind of car New Zealand native and electrical engineer Ian Wright has wanted to build for along time, but not just another monster horsepower, nitro guzzler. There are more than enough of those in the world. But one whose only pollution comes from its smoking tires.
While his former employer, Tesla has grabbed much of the media's attention with its distinctive 'Black Star' Roadster and impressive funding by various Silicon Valley titans including Elon Musk and Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Wright has also garnered a respectable amount of national publicity, as well, which he hopes to someday in the not too distant future parlay into his own brand of high-performance electric car.
Wright has always been interested in such cars, but he told EV World that it wasn't until recently that battery technology made the kind of car he envisioned feasible.
"The batteries haven't been good enough until quite recently to make an interesting car," he said. "I looked at it years and years ago... with lead acid batteries and you do the numbers and it doesn't really pan out.
"I've always been interested in performance cars and when the batteries and motors are good enough that you can build a really interesting performance electric car then I think that's too interesting to resist."
Wright's vision of the kind of electric car he wants to build differs from Tesla in that he sees his former colleagues focused on ultimately building affordable energy efficient vehicles while he is focused on driving performance up and "selling performance cars."
He explained that when he looked at the numbers, he realized that it's hard to make a good, cheap electric car.
"In the X1 prototype there is $40,000 worth of batteries. There you see you're not going to be able to sell a car for $35,000."
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1 comments so far...
28-Feb-2007
50328
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Ya know... I really think Mr. Wright should do a "demo day" out at Laguna Seca, just to get some exposure. And just to show what a swell guy I am, I'd volunteer to go drive the car for a lap or two, or fifty, or one hundred fifty... Whatever it takes! But seriously, what a ride!!!
Posted by: Forbes B-Black
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