Ariel is famous for its minimalist road legal Atom sportscar, which has had its own one make race series, is ideal for track days and well suited to disciplines such as hillclimbing and Time Attack. Its latest low volume creation unveiled in September 2022 shows the potential of an all-electric powertrain in a lightweight vehicle.
There will be two and four wheel drive variants of the HIPERCAR and and from the 880 kw/ 1180bhp, 1500 kg latter, with full torque vectoring the company claims the potential for a sub 4 second 0 to100 mph time.
The power comes from a Cosworth 62 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. This is an 800 volt system. Using 5,760 cylindrical battery cells it is made up of 32 modules, each with 180 x 18650 lithium-ion cells.
For thermal management, with track use in mind the battery exploits a system that feeds refrigerated or heated water-glycol coolant directly and evenly to every single cell in the pack, monitored by temperature sensors throughout. Sensor information is used to actively control the demand for heating or cooling as required.
The drive is from inboard-mounted, back-to-back Equipmake motors, one per rear wheel or one per wheel. Each motor develops 220 kW (295bhp) and 450 Nm (332 ft lb) of torque. It is part of an integrated Equipmake Ampere-220 e-axle, which is also available to power other road and racecars. This combines a silicon carbide inverter, all the power electronics and a transmission system into one compact unit.
Developed during the HIPERCAR project the 30,000 rpm motor has a radial rotor architecture with magnets arranged around the outside of the rotor. Equipmake explains that the metal structure is 3D printed so that metal is only put where it is needed while thermally efficient thin walls and optimised fine surface details are combined directly with the motor’s structure for exceptional cooling ability.
The HIPERCAR’s range, without an optional range extender, is 150 miles. Ariel reports that the HIPERCAR has already been proven over “thousands of non-stop laps of race circuits on test rigs working 24 hours a day.”