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January 2, 2009, 3:42 pm

High-Voltage Porsches

By Jim Motavalli
EvPorsche 959
An electric Porsche 911, made to look like a 959, has supercar acceleration and a range of 50 miles. (Photo: Paul Liddle)

Paul Liddle, 44, drives an exotic Porsche 959, or at least a car that looks like one. It can hit 60 miles an hour from a stop in less than five seconds, he says, although its top speed of about 125 miles an hour is much less than a real 959.

The car is not a 959 at all. It is a 911 with an aftermarket body kit, but the deception does not end there. Instead of a gasoline engine, twin electric motors and lead-acid batteries power the car. Yes, it is an electric Porsche with 1,200 foot-pounds of torque off the line — that’s not a typo — and a range of 50 miles between charges.

Mr. Liddle, who owns EvPorsche in West Palm Beach, Fla., is in the business of providing competition to the Tesla Roadster. He converts Porsches into electric cars.

The Porsche 911 is an ideal base for an electric car, Mr. Liddle explained, because it is light, relatively simple and engineered well. And because the 911 is a rear-engine car, the batteries — either lead-acid or lithium-iron phosphate — can be placed evenly front to back to keep weight distribution balanced. The motor, controller and water-cooled charger are usually placed in the back of the car.

“We’re taking something that is already great and improving on it,” he said.

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A peek at the 11-inch motor and 1,000-amp contoller inside the engine bay of an EvPorsche. (Paul Liddle).
A peek at the 11-inch motor and 1,000-amp contoller inside the engine bay of an EvPorsche. (Paul Liddle).

So how much does an EvPorsche 911 cost? Around $48,000, but you first have to buy the donor car. The EvPorsche includes an 11-inch motor, 1,000-amp controller and 17 lead-acid batteries. Depending on the customer’s specifications for performance and battery range, the cars can have a variety of battery arrangements (with a peak range of 200 miles on a single charge).

A less-expensive alternative is an electric Boxster for $42,000, which offers similar acceleration.

“We want to give performance-minded people some options,” said Mr. Liddle, who was a petrolhead until eight years ago, when he built his first electric Porsche.

EvPorsche also converts the mid-engined Boxster and Cayman to electric Lamborghini look-a-likes and shoehorns batteries into vehicles as varied as Rolls-Royces, BMWs and Jaguars. The company has also built hybrids out of BMWs and Porsches.

Customers looking for high-performance electric cars are likely to have other choices in the near future.

Ruf Automobile, a small German performance carmaker with a long relationship with Porsche, has also built an electric 911, called the eRuf Model A.

Source: WHEELS - NY Times Blog

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