What did you get up to during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021? Whatever you accomplished, it probably didn’t involve designing and building an all-new electric sports car in under 12 months.
But that's exactly what a fast working consortium of British companies achieved. They call it the Aura: a roofless, road-legal two-seater that may very well reflect what the future of electric sports car might look like.
It’s been built using natural composite fibres and woven fabrics, fashioned into a roofless, windscreen-less two-seat roadster with rear wheel coverings. Oh, it’s rear-wheel drive, too: up front where an engine would normally sit lies one of two battery packs and the motor, while the second battery pack is bolted to the chassis. This layout is intended to create a more neutral front-to-rear weight balance, which is key to achieving desirable sports car handling characteristics, reports Forbes.
There aren’t any performance figures just yet, other than a claimed 400 miles of range - which is enhanced by the aerodynamic covers on the rear wheels. The dash has all the mod-cons that Tesla and Polestar drivers have come to expect, including a 10 inch touchscreen, but it's Aura's gorgeous body styling that set it truly apart.
Funding for the Aura came from the UK’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles via the Niche Vehicle Network. The Aura team assembled a number of different partners to execute the project, including designers from Astheimer, batteries and motors from Potenza Technology, the body panels and interior are the work of BAMD Composites, the human-machine interface came from Conjure, and battery management tech was the work of Spark EV.
Sadly, there's no information about potential time lines for when manufacturing Aura may start or, indeed, its likely price.
Today's OGN Sunday Magazine articles:
Did you know? A dozen fun and surprising facts about countries around the globe to help put you in pole position at your next quiz night.
Pooktre: In 1987 Peter Cook had the idea, “I wonder if I can grow a chair?” He's now acknowledge as being the world leader in this remarkable, natural art form.
Bubble Barrier: The power of tiny bubbles is successfully being harnessed to remove plastic pollution from Europe’s rivers.
Cosmic Dawn: NASA has announced that on 18 December, after years of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope will finally leave Earth on a mission to revolutionize astrophysics and cosmology.