Author: Domenick Yoney

While there’s still no word on whether Fiat/Chrysler will bring an electric version of the retro-metro 500 to market, it appears that someone else will. Atomik Cars has taken the 500 Abarth and made it meaner and cleaner. The new company’s aim is to deliver a zero-emission vehicle that blends supercar performance with city car packaging. Atomik’s motto is “Anticipating the future.” It may well have succeeded.

With output from its AC brushless synchronous motors reportedly equivalent to that of a 300 horsepower engine, the Atomik 500 slingshots to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds. It has lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries in unknown quantity, a ceramic heating system to warm its passengers and a “Peltier A/C module w/o gas” to cool them. More details will forthcoming as its April debut at Top Marques Monaco draws near, but we can tell you that its rarity is all but guaranteed: only around 50 copies will be available for purchase. Check out the gallery below for more images of Atomik’s far-out performer.

[Source: Atomik Cars]

All-electric Atomik 500 sends us to the moon originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Coupe, Geneva Motor Show, Tesla, Electric

If you’ve ever wondered whether a Tesla Roadster can really rocket from a standstill to 60 miles per hour in just 3.9 seconds, a new custom collectors edition of the electric sports car could allow you to verify that claim with a certain degree of accuracy. As part of its 150th anniversary commemorations, TAG Heuer has teamed up with Tesla Motors and will present the first fruit of their collaboration at the Geneva Motor Show.

The foucault field gray carbon-fiber shell with branding-appropriate mismatched mirrors houses an interior that has received special treatment from Tesla’s chief designer Franz von Holzhausen, incorporating design elements from the Swiss watch maker and making room for both a one-fifth second Heuer limited edition stopwatch and a TAG Heuer Meridiist mobile phone. The center console has been specifically constructed to cradle a “cutting edge concept watch” that will itself only be revealed a few weeks from now at the Baselworld watch and jewelry tradeshow. In a timely manner, please make your way past the break to peruse the press release that details their attempt to bring “technologically advanced art to life through motion.”

[Source: Tesla Motors]

Continue reading TAG Heuer teams with Tesla in timely fashion

TAG Heuer teams with Tesla in timely fashion originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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