Quant Sportlimousine - next big step?

[bertie]

Just reading an article in EE Times about a car I'd not heard of, the Quant Sportlimousine.

Got some big backers, not least Bosch doing the drivetrain and body system.

Nex big thing do we think?

http://www.nanoflowcell.com/en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqLpqR0SPnQ&fe...

[dvs_dave]

Looks nice and has promising numbers. Although from what I can tell it's essentially a fuel cell type arrangement that requires you to refill each time with some special concoction that they downplay as just "salt water".

[FastNReliable]

Looks interesting; 4 motors and torque vectoring is an interesting proposition. I like the video too, from the West Coast of Scotland to Monaco.

Edited by FastNReliable on Wednesday 24th December 12:19

[hahithestevieboy]

It is a great looking car for sure. Love the interior but not sure that it actually has a boot...
Really liked the way they did the see through wood thing - I thought that this was very elegant. Like the 4 motor thing - I think this is how cars will "end up" absolutely obviously the best way of doing things with not that many downsides. Monster potential performance but nothing really new in that (see electric merc SLS).

Not sure that is all that much that is genuinely revolutionary in this animal. As far as I could tell from further reading, their electricity converter only works at about 30KW or something like that which I suppose is enough to cruse at an average of 60MPH to 80MPH but not really higher than that.

They also have effectively a 400L fuel tank (didnt get whether or not this was always full or half full or what. but their claimed range of 300 odd miles was not really that impressive. There was absolutely nothing on what was required for refuelling and how much this would cost, how easy it would be for governments to tax. Nothing on whether or not the car could be charged (more slowly) by simply plugging in.

The supercap issue was interesting. It is an easy way of adding massive power density, however supercaps are large, heavy and ruinously expensive in the sizes you'd need to provide full power at that level for say what would be reasonably useful - 10 minutes? and they don't say what the capacity of them is either so no way to guage.

So I am not sure if they are trying to sell an ultimate car that is better than what exists now through a revolutionary power source / design or its just greenwash type of thing - ie no batteries or fossil fuels for the sake of it.

I think that by the sound of it you could put most of the technologies in to other types of car and get similar or better results for the consumer.

I also think what it (and tesla model s p85d etc) really shows is that manufactueres like BMW/Merc/Jag/Toyota/Ford/GM etc have been takng the piss with incrementally introducing slightly better versions of the same old stuff without anyone really rocking the boat by bringing genuinely interesting technology and genuinely greater performance and driver convenience for a very long time.

[dave_s13]

Lovely looking thing, in and out but,as has been mentioned; It's kinda pointless without knowing what the fabled monkey gland extract actually is, how much it costs and where you get it from.