Gordon Murray Group to invest £300 million on EV development
What's the story
Gordon Murray Group has announced that it is planning to invest £300 million over the next five years to develop electric SUVs and delivery vehicles for carmakers. It will shift toward an all-electric supercar by 2030.
"Electric is what we've been missing and that is where the future is," founder and chairperson Gordon Murray told Reuters.
Here are more details.
Timeline
The V12-equipped T50 supercar will be launched next year
In 2022, the brand will build its first supercar, the T50, with a V12 engine.
Only 100 units will be manufactured and each will be sold for around £2.4 million (roughly Rs. 24.8 crore). All units have been already spoken for.
After the T50, another fuel-guzzling supercar will be launched, followed by a hybrid model in 2026 and then an electric four-wheeler in 2029-2030.
Information
Battery weight is a hurdle in creating electric supercars
The challenge that premium car firms like Lotus, McLaren, Bugatti, Gordon Murray and others face is that batteries are extremely heavy, which makes it hard to develop supercars or sports cars that perform like their fuel-guzzling counterparts.
Plans
'The supercar will be a brand-building product'
"The supercar will be a brand-building product at the upper end of the business while at the customer-facing end we will focus on lightweighting and electric cars," said Murray.
The company sees itself both as an automaker and an auto supplier. It is working on designs for a delivery van and a lightweight SUV and plans to sell them to start-ups or traditional manufacturers.
Way ahead
A test fleet meeting international standards will be developed
The company will develop a small test fleet of these vehicles over the next two and a half years and they shall meet international standards.
"We're hoping to pick up a customer or two along the way. And it doesn't have to be a carmaker, it can be a post office or a company like Amazon," Murray added.