

The all-electric Lightning GT might just be the world's first green supercar. It's as clean as the Tesla Roadster, as quick as the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and as pricey as the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640.

The Lightning Motor Co. is Britain's equivalent to Tesla Motors – a small company that believes electric vehicles are the future and the best way to sell them is to make them as fast as they are sexy.

"Without a significant positive shift in perception," the company says, "electric motoring will remain a large compromise in the eyes of driving enthusiasts and therefore fail to impress the masses."

The Lightning is impressive indeed.

The company says four in-wheel motors generate 553 lb-ft of torque – that's about as much as the tire-shredding Dodge Viper SRT produces – and 120 kilowatts apiece (for a combined total of about 643

horsepower, putting it in the same ballpark as the Corvette ZR1). Lightning claims the car will do 0 to 60 in 4.0 seconds and hit a top speed of 130 mph. Range is 250 miles.

The car features an aluminum honeycomb chassis, carbon-kevlar bodywork, regenerative braking and 36 kilowatt nano lithium titanate battery the company says will charge in just

10 minutes and maintain 85 percent capacity after 15,000 charges. Look for a full slate of features, from anti-lock braking and traction control to air conditioning and leather.

What's all this speed and luxury cost? Almost $300,000.

Lightning seems serious about building the car. It's spent the past two years refining the design and lining up suppliers like Altairnano and PML Flightlink to provide the batteries and motors, respectively. Altairnano's Nanosafe batteries power the world's fastest EV dragster, and Volvo is using PML's Hi-Pa drive wheel motors in its ReCharge plug-in hybrid concept, so there's no question the hardware works. But as Tesla has shown, building a car from scratch is no easy feat, and Lightning's got its work cut out for it.

We'll keep you posted.