EV start-up Dubuc brings out the Tomahawk

THE ranks of start-up electric vehicle (EV) companies with an eye on Tesla’s crown continue to expand, with Silicon Valley-based Dubuc Motors the latest to announce plans for – you guessed it – an all-electric sportscar with serious acceleration, niche appeal and eye-watering price.

Called Tomahawk, the 2+2 sports coupe allegedly will go into production late this year in the United States as a 2018 model to be sold online for $US125,000 ($A167,874) a pop.

The company’s website says the car’s four electric motors – driving all four wheels with a combined power of 560kW and 1355Nm of torque – can push the Tomahawk from zero to 60 miles per hour (96.5km/h) in three seconds, although a press release issued overnight sharpens that to two seconds in “race mode”.

That is a whole half second or 20 per cent quicker than the most powerful Tesla Model S in its “Ludicrous mode” (2.5s). If that can be believed, the Tomahawk would become the fastest-accelerating production car in history.

So far, proof is in short supply, with the only video of the Tomahawk in action showing the vehicle driving slowly in what appears to be a warehouse.

Funding also seems to be in short supply, with the company appealing for crowd funding contributions to progress the project.

Dubuc – named after one of the co-founders, Mario Dubuc – joins a raft of starry-eyed hopefuls wanting to cash in to the EV market in the wake of Elon Musk’s Tesla success.

Others in the US include Faraday, Lucid, Karma and Lumen, all chasing a similar market.

The problem for these disruptors is that the major motor companies are about to do a bit of serious disrupting of their own, with the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Toyota and General Motors pouring billions into EV technologies for a raft of cars to be launched in the next two or three years.

Dubuc’s Tomahawk is said to have a body fashioned from carbon fibre and aluminium, with obligatory scissor doors.

The 100kWh lithium-ion battery is said to deliver a driving range of just under 600km.

The company claims the car will be produced “in the thousands of units”.