GORDON MURRAY T.27
ELECTRIC
DRIVETRAIN CASE STUDY
45% LIGHTER POWERTRAIN THAN TODAY’S PRODUCTION ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Gordon Murray Design and Zytek developed an all-electric three-seater city road car, the T.27, made possible through a £4.5m investment from the government-backed Technology Strategy Board.
The World’s Most Efficient Electric Car
The T.27 has been designed to be the world’s most efficient electric car due to its low weight and ‘clean sheet of paper design’.
With a total cost of £9m, the research and development project has allowed the consortium to develop up to four prototypes.
This ambitious target cannot be achieved by applying a conventional stamped steel construction design, nor with a drivetrain using existing gearboxes, motors or batteries. Instead, an entirely fresh approach was proposed whilst accepting no compromise in safety, performance, range, space, weight, rolling resistance and ride quality.
By applying the iStream® methodology (new manufacturing process by Gordon Murray Design), and fully integrating it with a custom-designed lightweight highly efficient drivetrain from Zytek, every aspect of the vehicle was optimised.
Zytek Selected As Powertrain Partner
We developed a brand new, innovative, lightweight and fully integrated 25kW electric motor, control system and battery to ensure that maximum efficiency is achieved.
The turn-key drivetrain package is extremely compact, and in air-cooled configuration is up to 45% lighter than today’s production EV powertrains.
At the heart of the powertrain is our new high efficiency permanent magnet synchronous motor. The high maximum machine speed of 14,000 rpm enables generated torque and hence machine size to be reduced considerably, bringing further reductions in cost and weight.
When used in conjunction with the our Electric Vehicle Control Module, torque delivery is scheduled in a way that further improves overall efficiency, whilst also eliminating the harshness that can occur during changes in torque demand.
Project Aims – UK Scaling Up
The project has two main aims
- To position the consortium positively to further explore the scaling up and building a manufacturing facility within to produce the T.27 in the UK.
- To keep the new technology and IPR within the UK and make this affordable, fun and environmentally friendly car widely available on the open market.
“This is an exciting project on several levels” says Zytek Sales and Marketing Director Steve Tremble. “As well as supporting the development of a new family of E-Drives, it shows what can be achieved when the vehicle design is optimised for zero emissions propulsion. It’s a terrific initiative and we are delighted that the Technology Strategy Board has agreed to back it.”
The project outcomes will help justify the required follow-on commercial investment to take the vehicle into manufacture by providing a body of evidence that the concept is a viable design for production.
This project has helped to cement Zytek as a world leader in electric vehicle engineering.
