With an electric motor at each wheel, the UK-built Lightning GT, unveiled yesterday at the British Motor Show, is said to produce a total of 700 HP. According to the company, the Lightning's nanotechnology battery pack will provide a 200-mile range on a ten-minute charge. Those are mighty big numbers to be throwing around, but with precious little known about the batteries, it makes it hard for us to validate the claims without independent testing. What we do know after the jump.








The Lightning GT's nano-titanate batteries are supplied by a U.S. company called Altairnano, who claims the NanoSafe cells have a 12+ year life expectancy and retain 85% of their charge capacity after 15,000 cycles. They're also free from heavy metals, toxins and graphite, and are more thermally stable than other high-tech batteries. They may also grant you three wishes.


Jalopnik Snap Judgment: If everything the company claims is true, the Lightning should be one hell of a ride — even at the roughly $300,000 asking price. Much of that price likely offsets the battery costs. But, as demonstrated over about seven decades now, the British cottage car industry isn't exactly a model of reliability, so we'll be surprised if an all-electric British sports car produces anything more than smoke and irate customers — we can barely keep our gasoline-powered Triumphs running. Things should become clearer as 2010 approaches, the year the Lightning GT is expected to be available.



[WCF, Photo Credit: WCF]