In September 2012, the ‘Nemesis' broke the UK electric car land-speed record – reaching 148 mph. The existing record of 137mph was set by Don Wales, grandson of legendary speed-merchant Sir Malcolm Campbell.

The Nemesis is the result of nearly two years’ hard work by an ‘A-team’ of ex-motorsport engineers, with the brief from our founder and MD Dale Vince to “blow the socks off Jeremy Clarkson and smash the stereotype of electric cars”.

The result is awesome: faster than a V12 Ferrari, 0-100mph in 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 170mph. All powered entirely from the wind. Or to be more precise – green electricity produced by our windmills and delivered by the grid.

Why did we build an electric supercar?

A sustainable future isn’t just about where our energy comes from. It’s about what we eat, how we power our homes and how we get around. Food, energy and transport – the big three things that we all need to tackle.

In the UK we drive around 200 billion miles a year and burn almost 25 million tons of oil to do it. This is simply unsustainable. Nearly a quarter of all the car journeys we make are less than two miles – and 99.6 per cent are less than 100 miles.

The answer is electric cars. Charged using renewable energy for the ultimate in sustainability – zero pollution, from a fuel source that will never, ever run out. We launched our Electric Highway in 2011 – the world's first national charging network for electric cars. Now, electric vehicle drivers can travel the length and breadth of the country, stopping off to charge in the time it takes to drink a cuppa.

When we started, all the big car companies said it couldn’t be done. Or that it would need years and hundreds of millions to do it. So, in our typical style, we wanted to throw down the gauntlet and just get on and do it.

So we did. A car to smash the Noddy stereotype. An out-and-out desirable sports car, capable of combustion engine-beating speeds and able to do 100-150 miles on one ‘tank’. All with zero emissions. Cake and eat it stuff.

We made a bunch of films tracking our progress throughout the project – check them out on our YouTube channel. And you can find out more about the Nemesis on our blog.

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