Ruf Automobile's electric Porsche concept gets real, pictured

Look out Tesla / Lightning -- a new competitor just rolled out, and it's sitting pretty. Ruf Automobile has gone public with its stunning electric eRUF concept car, which is obviously based on a Porsche 911. The automobile packs a three-phase electric motor that puts out around 200-horsepower and 480 lb.-ft. of torque, and it can reportedly go from nothing to sixty in under seven ticks. The juice is provided by a Li-ion phosphate battery pack that produces 317-volts / 480-amps and is constructed from 96 individual cells, and combined with the power garnered by the regenerative braking system, it can cruise up to 180 miles before needing a ten-hour recharge. Production, pretty please?

[Kris @ Oct 10th 2008 12:26PM]

Unfortunately it's still not practical but very cool anyway. Hopefully these companies will start to explore other technologies to try and get the amount of time to charge down and the range longer.

[Jonny D @ Oct 10th 2008 12:45PM]

@ Kris

RUF isn't exactly in the practical car business.

[SteveJ @ Oct 10th 2008 12:54PM]

Tesla Roadster charges in 3.5 hours from completely dead battery, which wouldn't normally be the case. After 100 miles it charges to full capacity in 2 hours. And of course in a pinch you could just charge it less then full. Also the range is much better at 240 miles. Lastly, 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds. Maybe the Porsche version looks better, but it's got nothing on the Tesla Roadster in terms of both performance and technology.

[John @ Oct 10th 2008 3:11PM]

Get that charge time down to 5-10 minutes and we are talking practical here.

[Ghen @ Oct 10th 2008 3:39PM]

last time we talked about an electric car there was a major charging difference between 120 and 240V outlets. Is that the case here? is it 10 hours on a 120V house plug?

[Robert Johnston @ Oct 10th 2008 4:15PM]

The problem with saying "Get that charge time down" is that while it is feasibly possible (Connect all the cells in parallel and charge the whole lot with a massive current inrush), if you consider the power drain, it's simply not feasible.

Most household outlets are 15 amps, and most houses have a 200-amp main feed (IIRC).

And, of course, there's the issue of flash-burning the cells. Remember the Laptop Battery fires? You try and recharge a battery too fast and that kind of thing happens.

[Mirko @ Oct 17th 2008 9:18AM]

Ruf, in contrast to Tesla, knows one or two things about making (modifying) cars. Most people only know Alois Ruf as a Porsche tuner, but he is actually an electrical engineer and happens to own three hydro power stations.

[LondonConsultant @ Oct 10th 2008 12:26PM]

Too heavy. I'd prefer a Tesla. Fitness for purpose...

[bob sakamano @ Oct 10th 2008 12:30PM]

these electric cars are so cute... they have to sleep!

[PuBeLeSs @ Oct 10th 2008 12:34PM]

Now if only i owned the other RUF's to add this one to my collection.

[Liam @ Oct 10th 2008 12:36PM]

Specs aren't quite up to the tesla, particularly the acceleration... but hey, it looks like a normal sportscar now rather than some huge gadget, which is an improvement.

[Tony @ Oct 10th 2008 12:38PM]

looks like a sporty beetle.

[Alex @ Oct 10th 2008 1:07PM]

"Sporty Beetle" ???????????? What rock are crawling out from under? This is a Porsche 911. Wow. Welcome to the world of high performance street legal sports cars, my naive friend.

[matt @ Oct 10th 2008 1:51PM]

The 911 owes much to the beetle.

[waterwagen @ Oct 10th 2008 1:52PM]

We've found someone who has no idea what a 911 is. Wow!

[jakem @ Oct 10th 2008 3:24PM]

Not sure why you're all giving Tony a hard time. The first thing I thought was that it looks like a Beetle.

[andres @ Oct 10th 2008 3:34PM]

Ferdinand Porsche is the guy that Hitler called on to design his "for the people" car, or folks car, or volks car, or volkswagen. So yes, a porsche is a sporty beetle. And they look similar for a reason.

[Boarderwoot @ Oct 10th 2008 12:39PM]

Sure this thing goes zero to sixty in under seven seconds, but how well does it preform going zero to sixty in that time and then stopping for a toll and doing it again and again every 15 miles.

[r3loaded @ Oct 10th 2008 1:31PM]

I'm guessing you live in or near Chicago...

[Bad Beaver @ Oct 10th 2008 12:42PM]

One of the best things about as Porsche is the sound. Any word about how they solved that problem?

[whatishalo? @ Oct 10th 2008 3:48PM]

Yeah, roll down the window, stick your mouth out and go blblblblblblblblblbbl with your lips making the cool sports car sound.

[Colin B @ Oct 10th 2008 12:44PM]

RUF-just the way your mother likes it.

[Callaway @ Oct 10th 2008 12:49PM]

That's what he said...

[Cal @ Oct 10th 2008 3:25PM]

@ callaway
uh ya that is what he said... we can see taht

[Brian @ Oct 10th 2008 12:48PM]

Anyone have a comment that isn't negative?

[Andstan @ Oct 10th 2008 12:50PM]

Please !!!!!!! I Porsche that's electric its bad ...but a RUF porsche!!!!! ...................ahhhhhhhhhhhhh need a cig now !!!

[humps @ Oct 10th 2008 1:02PM]

all due respect to RUF for their other cars, like the 9ff. But this electric 1st attempt falls well short in terms of overall purpose. May be RUF is better sticking to making hugely powerful Porsches that also handle very well.

[PDubNYC @ Oct 10th 2008 2:32PM]

I'm fairly sure RUF and 9ff are 2 different companies. I'm surprised at how slow this is off the line.

[Nipponese @ Oct 10th 2008 3:08PM]

RUF and 9ff are rival companies.

[PorscheGuy @ Oct 23rd 2008 4:44PM]

9FF was created by a former RUF employee...

[Uchiha Sasuke @ Oct 10th 2008 1:13PM]

Price: 1 Billion dollars!!!!

muah ha ha ha ha ha ha..............MUAH ha ha ha ha ha...........

[BJ is Gooder @ Oct 10th 2008 1:27PM]

That is awesome! You don't have to be an enviro-greenie to realize that this is pretty cool.

[Graham @ Oct 10th 2008 1:29PM]

Actually theres a company in West Palm Beach, Fl, thats been doing that for years. http://www.worldclassexotics.com/Electriccarconv.htm

[Ghen @ Oct 10th 2008 3:43PM]

Wow, talk about the rich not spending their money.. That company has to stop letting 4 year olds design the website.

[granny down east @ Oct 10th 2008 11:11PM]

Yup, the electric Porsche 969. Someone in Highlands Co has one and it does move on rather quickly.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Oct 10th 2008 1:38PM]

What's a porkchop without the offbeat blat of a flat six?

[Garret Ohm @ Oct 10th 2008 1:45PM]

I like everything about it except for the fact that it's kind of slow. 0-60 in under 7 seconds? The Tesla will blow the doors off of it.

[FreddyBeans @ Oct 10th 2008 1:54PM]

It is pretty...but the Fisker /Quantum "Karma" beats it for looks and 4 door sporty, fast car.
http://www.qtww.com/

[Electric Eye @ Oct 10th 2008 3:06PM]

Wow, 480 Amps! I gotta get me one of those batteries.

[Kyle @ Oct 10th 2008 3:10PM]

The Tesla is based on the Elise which has a curb weight of 1975 lbs and fattens up to 2690 pounds in Tesla trim. That's a 36% weight gain. Lets assume that the 911 which starts out at 3494 lbs curb weight also gains 36% more weight which would bring it up to a hefty 4751 lbs. To move a car that heavy that quickly is a pretty tough job. The Dodge Challenger SRT8 *only* weighs 4140 lbs by comparison and that has 425 hp and 420 lb ft of torque. The bottom line is batteries are damn heavy. Until we get better batteries/storage these cars won't be performance monsters. I would guess Tesla Motors choose the Elise as starter platform because its one of the lightest performance car platforms around, where the 911 certainly isn't.

[Hotrod @ Oct 10th 2008 3:15PM]

Man I wouldn't want to be the guy driving the RUF after getting smoked by a Toyota Camry.

Seriously, if someone is going to buy a expensive sports car, I doubt they're too worried about it's fuel efficiency. The Enzo only gets like 10MPG, but it'll wipe the floor with 99% of all cars on the road. Thats why sports cars have powerful motors, so they can be as bad ass as they look.

[jfreder @ Oct 10th 2008 3:32PM]

Seriously. If you're looking at RUF for a car, you're looking for something a little faster off the line than 0-60 in 7 seconds. It has good torque numbers like you'd expect from an electric motor, but why put this in a 911 body if you aren't trying to make it perform like a sports car? Stick it in something a little more practical and you'll have more potential buyers. Charge time sounds a little rough(heh.) as well. Still looks good, though.

[Mirko @ Oct 17th 2008 9:44AM]

This is not their production car, it's their development mule. All the press articles about it state that they are working on getting rid of weight (at least 600 pounds) and increasing motor power.
I'm pretty sure the final product will be awesome.

[Jon Kepler @ Oct 10th 2008 3:39PM]

To me, all Tesla competitors are appreciated. I have a certain dislike for Tesla (as noted on my blog), so I'm glad to see another challenger possibly entering the market. True, it's no Karma, but on the other hand, it's from a much more established brand.

[whatishalo? @ Oct 10th 2008 3:49PM]

Or how about some playing cards in the rims so you get a cooler effect the faster you go.

[loosely_coupled @ Oct 10th 2008 5:18PM]

How exactly can the electric engine product 480 lb.-ft. of torque and it's 0-60 time is around seven seconds??? It should be much faster than that...

[Hotrod @ Oct 10th 2008 5:43PM]

Auto makers are pretty conservative with their 0-60 numbers. I'm guessing it will be closer to 0-60 in 6 seconds.

[gio @ Oct 10th 2008 7:02PM]

It's because of the way the electric motor works. Electric motors have the benefit of having all of their available from ZERO RPM. The problem is that the torque drops off as they rev higher. The low-end torque probably makes this car loads of fun to drive but not very fast. Gasoline powered cars have their torque peaks much higher and their torque tapers off slowly. Remember that horsepower is proportional to torque times engine speed (RPM). And it is horsepower and weight that is what determines a car's 0-60 time. The hp of this car is only 200hp which is quite low for which is probably a pretty heavy car for a coupe (because of the batteries).

[steven @ Oct 11th 2008 9:48AM]

For readers not living in Liberia, Myanmar or the USA:
480 pound foot = 650 newton meter

[RandyF @ Oct 11th 2008 10:09AM]

This is very much the direction that I've been hoping Porsche would go, towards a (relatively) lightweight electric sports car that has the traditional Porsche values of great handling, quality and distinctive styling. That RUF got there first doesn't bother me at all, because of their close ties to the company.

The focus of sports car manufactures and buyers needs to move more towards great handling and fun, and less on pure performance. Think Uber 356. I think the eRuf is a good step in that direction.