Media Platforms Design TeamTeam: RaceAbout AssociationCar: Electric RaceAbout (ERA) Class: AlternativeDrivetrain: ElectricEnergy Storage: Lithium-ion batteriesPM Says: High performance wedged into an economy run.Odds to Win: 12 to 1The ERA comes from the Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and was developed by students and faculty advisers over the past nine years. Built with an electric motor for each of its four wheels—totaling 268 hp—and using chassis bits from Audi’s R8 sports car, the ERA seems designed for racetracks, not for eking out every last amp of range. Despite the carbon-fiber chassis, the batteries bump the scales to a burly 3700 or so pounds. It’s both a rocket and a bulldozer, a complex and fast beast that promises to be expensive to produce.>X-Prize Entrant: Edison2 Very Light Car (Mainstream Version) »>Media Platforms Design TeamJohn Pearley HuffmanContributing EditorJohn Pearley Huffman has been writing about cars since 1990 and is getting okay at it. Besides Car and Driver, his work has appeared in the New York Times and more than 100 automotive publications and websites. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, he still lives near that campus with his wife and two children. He owns a pair of Toyota Tundras and two Siberian huskies. He used to have a Nova and a Camaro.
