If there’s one thing we know about the future, it’s that it has the potential to be both weirder and cooler than you could ever imagine. Case in point: Ariel, famed for the face-rearranging Atom, has built a prototype off-road buggy called the E-Nomad and it weighs just 1,975 pounds. Who says electric cars need to be heavy?
Alright, so there are some compromises afoot to keep the E-Nomad concept so light. For starters, it has no doors or side windows, and its 41 kWh battery pack affords it a range of only 150 miles or so. However, there’s also some seriously cool work done to keep weight light, namely building the bodywork out of flax. Yep, flax, although a different part of the flax plant than the fiber-rich seeds.
Much like linen bedsheets, creating the bodywork for the Ariel Nomad starts with pulling flax fibers from the stems of flax plants, which are then woven into a textile. However, unlike bedsheets, that textile is pre-impregnated with resin, creating a material similar to pre-preg carbon fiber. The resulting product is much greener than carbon fiber while still being incredibly stiff and light. How’s that for a win? The panels are then ribbed on the backside using more bio-composites for extra rigidity, and the front side looks similar to Kevlar on old race cars, a damn cool look.
As for the battery pack, it’s supplied by the wizards at Rockfort Engineering. Sure, the firm’s headquarters may look like part of a nondescript industrial estate in Banbury, but they’ve done engineering work for F1, Formula E, WEC, and WRC teams, top-level motorsports stuff from top-level motorsports minds. The resultant pouch cell battery modules are called Pegasus V3s, and 12 of them combine to store 41 kWh of power and operate at 450 volts.
All that juice then gets fed to a Cascadia Motion IDM90 drive unit with an integrated limited-slip differential and Borg Warner motor. The result? A stout 281 horsepower, a ridiculous figure for an EV weighing less than 2,000 pounds. Ariel quotes a zero-to-60 mph time of 3.4 seconds, more than brisk enough to keep up with some of the quickest street-legal off-roaders around.
Granted, there are a few things we don’t know about the Ariel E-Nomad. Peak charging current isn’t quoted, but juicing up from 20 to 80 percent on a DC fast charger is said to take less than 25 minutes, which means the maximum charging rate is likely fairly low in the grand scheme of things. In addition, this thing’s only a concept for now. Ariel claims it “will monitor consumer reaction to inform its future plans,” which basically means if enough people throw money at the firm, it’ll build an electric Nomad.
Still, it’s hard not to get the sense that an electric off-road buggy you could legally use on the streets would be a ridiculous amount of fun. Removing the roar of an internal combustion engine should get you closer to nature, and there’s something about being kinder to the earth while playing in the mud that feels easy to get behind.
(Photo credits: Ariel)
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“Who says electric cars need to be heavy?” Physics and science, cuz batteries. PR claims on a concept vehicle don’t translate to the real world.
How come nobody talks about the two enormous and extremely green antenna thingies ? What is that supposed to be ?
Those are the quick-charge lightning rods.
Finally and EV I want! And, of course, I couldn’t afford it if they build it. If I could, I’d make some doors for it and daily that thing.
The Nomad has been a bucket list car for me for a long time. This (ironically) adds fuel to that fire.
Looks cool and a blast to drive. The range is fine for off road. I’m sure after 100 miles off roading you are going to be tired.
My big concern is the flax body panels. Sound like something rodents would love to eat. Just like Honda’s soy based wiring.
Pretty sure if that were a problem the resin makes it a lot less appetizing.
Besides when was the last time you heard of rats eating bedsheets? Or linen shirts? People have used linen textiles for thousands of years, if rodents chewing on it were an issue I think it would be much more common knowledge (e.g. moths and wool).
There better not be rats eating my bedsheets or the cat isn’t doing her job lol
Yet another reason not to wash them.
What,the cat?
The sheets. Even rats have limits.
Would.
nothing says ‘getting closer to nature’ better than squashed wild flowers guts in the tire treads like in the last pic.
Can’t get any closer than on top of it.
You could eat it…
I wonder how this compares with the Meyers Manx 2.0 is terms of performance and potential cost?
Oh god. Another possible RC car I can fit into. My childhood dreams could be coming true!
So that’s what the green antennae are for… to receive signals from the RC controller.
Is it street legal? I feel like I’ve seen a regular gas Ariel Atom around town, actually had something akin to “itslegal” as it’s plate lol.
Any idea on price? Doesn’t look cheap.
Seeing the Ariel atom starts at like 80k I am assuming not cheap hah
Looking at it, it is obvious its aerodynamics are poor. At 70 mph cruising speeds, I bet that 150 miles range turns into 80 miles range real quick.
41 kWh is still quite bit of battery for a sub-2,000 lb vehicle. If they made a streamlined sports car of similar weight and a CdA value of under 0.4 m^2, that same 41 kWh battery would probably give it 350 miles range at a steady 70 mph, and because of its small pack size, if configured with the correct hardware, it would charge very quickly.
I think it really helps that they used the pouch cells on it. I am sure they could get more range out of it, but this honestly seems like a tech test that made it into production.