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Monday, March 8, 2010
The second generation NVL Quant made its public debut in front of media yesterday in Geneva, bringing with it what NVL Solar, its creator, calls "a breakthrough the market eagerly has been anticipating for years." While this last statement is a matter of interpretation, the Quant does bring a range of interesting features. The most exciting thing about it, however, is the promise to turn production version rather sooner than later.
Set to be production ready next year, the Quant was designed to prove "cutting-edge supercars can combine speed, comfort and enjoyment with environmental integrity." It features two different battery systems ("a long-life metal-air battery or a rechargeable redox flow cell"), four torque-vectoring electric motors, a full carbon fiber chassis, and a revolutionary thin-film coated photovoltaic body.
The Quant has some initial performance figures which would give a regular, internal combustion engined supercar, a good run for its money: 2.8 seconds 0-100 km/h acceleration time and a top speed of 377 km/h (234 mph).
The latter converts light into electricity to supply the operating electronics and the battery. While it's a bit technical, NLV says the coating has "an average photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 38%, depending on ambient conditions, and a peak performance of over 50%." More importantly, the company believes they can tune the material's absorption characteristics to create multiple layers with their own unique absorption frequency. As impressive as this is, NLV estimates the film will have a degradation coefficient of only 5-6% over 20 years.
The Quant comes with four airbags, ABS and ESP, two infotainment panels for the rear seats, zone Climate Control system, LED front and rear lights and, la piece de resistance, NLV photovoltaic thin film solar coating all over the body of the car.
More Photos
Press Release
The NLV Quant is an exciting, revolutionary automotive project. Within the coming year, the NLV Quant will be fully engineered and ready for production. You can follow the last few stages. The design, drive system, range and photovoltaics of the Quant are already spectacular and record-breaking as individual components, and we believe that together they will mark a milestone in automotive history.
Technics
The NLV Quant is proof that cutting-edge supercars can combine speed, comfort and enjoyment with environmental integrity. It implents the mobile energy technology of the future. The NLV Quant has two different battery systems, a torque vectoring with 4 electric motors and a full carbon chassis. A thin-film coated photvoltaic car body supplies the operating electronics and also supports the battery. Gull-wing doors provide easy access to all four passengers.
Carbon Chassis
A reason for the car's low weight is the utilisation of a carbon-fibre monotube backbone chassis, construction, which houses the FAES system safely inside the centreline of the car at the lowest possible position, bringing down the centre of gravity and central mass point.
Using tradition lay-up, the vacuum bag generates the pressure for consolidating the carbon plies. In RTM process there are two moulds and the pressure comes only from the resin pump. The design becomes quite critical as inner and outer skin has to be perfectly defines in order to have a designed volume matching exactly the tooling volume. The risk is to have voids generated by not precise fitting of the inner cores.
Thin Film
The NLV Quant is coated with a thin film made of pyrite, which converts light into electricity to supply the operating electronics and also support the battery. This innovative pyrite technology is cost-effective, efficient and ecological.
NLV Solar AG has developed an iron-sulphur composite semiconductor using digital prototyping, with very promising results. The research indicates:
- an average photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 38%, depending on ambient conditions, and a peak performance of over 50%
- the possibility of fine-tuning the material's absorption characteristics by modification of its crystal lattice structure using ion implantation; stacked in a multilayer thin-film cell, it would be possible to tune each layer to a different target absorption frequency
- as a thin-film cell, the material could be applied to substrates in a transparent, semi-transparent or tinted coating
- the projected degradation coefficient is only 5-6% over 20 years
Electric Power
The NLV Quant allows for the modular installation of either a long-life metal-air battery or a rechargeable redox flow cell. These are both future-oriented, secure energy sources which help give the Quant exceptional power and range.
Speed
The projected curb weight of 1680 kg is very light considering that it is a battery-powered, four-seater, luxury performance car. This is partly due to the four-motor installation- a remarkable achievement which allows the NLV Quant to deliver 0-100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and hit a top speed of 377 km/h.
Gullwing
The gull-wing doors set the NLV Quant apart from any other four-seaters on the market. As well as being a stylish feature, they also make entry to the car more ergonomic, thanks to the lack of B-pillars. They provide easy access to both the front and rear passenger seats. The unique split side-lite feature allows either passenger to open and close the front and rear side windows separately, despite the fact that there is only one door per side.
Preliminary Specs
- Power: 600 kW ( 4x 150 kW), 800 bhp
- Rotation speed 12'000 U/min
- Torque: 1500 nm
- 0-100 km/h: 2,8 seconds
- Top speed: 377 km/h
- Curb weight: 1680 kg
- Wheelbase 3102 mm
- Track - Front: 1730 mm; rear: 1729 mm
- Wheels/tyres ? front: 245/35 - 23"; rear: 285/30 - 23" - low friction tyres
- Width: 2016 mm incl. rear-view mirrors; length: 4879 mm; height: 1335 mm
- Rear-wheel drive
- Four-wheel brake regeneration
- Minimum 4 airbags, ABS and ESP and torque vectoring
- 2 infotainment panels Adjustable rear seats
- 3 zone Climate Control system
- Generous leg room in the rear
- LED front and rear lights
- Body covered in NLV photovoltaic thin film solar coating
- Accumulator with cooling liquid (weight ca. 500kg)
- Operating voltage 420 V
- Inverter voltage 350 V
- Price: TBD
Features
- NLV Quant has two different battery systems: on the one hand, purely conventional accumulator technology with a transition metal and air mixture, and on the other hand, a pure redox flow cell
- Thin-film photovoltaic coating of car body and windows
- Torque vectoring with 4 electric motors for wheel-specific torque distribution to enhance the vehicle's agility and stability
- Full Carbon chassis and carbon body
- Minimised running and manufacturing costs thanks to new technology
- Optimised safety
- Unique/functional design, vehicle comfort and loading capacity
