Arcspeed Roadster: Another Australian EV Supercar

SYDNEY, Australia — Just a week after the unveiling of the Brisbane-developed Varley evR450 electric sports car comes news of a second Aussie electric supercar — the open-top Arcspeed, expected to be on the market in little more than a year, and priced below $100,000.

The car has been designed and engineered in the Sydney suburb of Hornsby by Ian Denner, who has a well-established business producing Cobra and Ferrari GTO replicas.

Denner built the Arcspeed body in 2006 — complete with Honda Integra Type R running gear — with the idea of producing it in limited numbers, but supply problems ended the project without a single car being sold. It has been revived with an electric drivetrain developed by fellow Arcspeed co-founders Keith White and Jaron Ware.

"Our goal has been to sell the car for less than $100,000 — and we think we can achieve that," said White.

Arcspeed has released few technical details about the car, a prototype of which is being used for testing. It uses the same 385-pound-feet motor as the Varley, though this may change for the production model. The battery pack consists of 500 individual lithium-ion phosphate batteries mounted in the cockpit floor. The motor is located at the rear axle.

The company claims its open-top supercar will accelerate from zero to 60 in less than 3.8 seconds — the same time as the scissor-doored Varley coupe. It is also expected to be developed for export markets.

Inside Line says: Another Tesla wannabe?