► Chinese start-up readies 1030bhp supercar
► Turbine-recharged electric car, 2.5sec 0-62mph
► Six electric motors, 1200-mile range, 217mph
China’s start-up Techrules has announced it is currently seeking a European production base for its innovative new supercar. A small team from the fledgling r&d company is currently trawling Europe with a walletful of Euros, drawing up a shortlist of potential production facility locations.
Its search for a production site will reputedly be concluded ‘within the next couple of months’, and a final decision will be made by the end of the year.
Techrules says its team is looking at existing sites that are currently or will soon become vacant, as well as possible places where it could develop an all-new site from the ground up. The company is also continuing negotiations with new development partners in Europe.
Who is Techrules?
A recently founded Chinese research and development company, with its headquarters in Beijing. It is a subsidiary of a company called Txr-S, a specialist in aerospace materials.
To showcase its abilities, it plans to bring a supercar – to multiple markets across the world – powered by an in-house developed turbine hybrid drivetrain that Techrules calls TREV. Unlike TVR, it’s not named after a bloke called Trevor but instead stands for Turbine-Recharging Electric Vehicle.
Following the supercar project, Techrules plans to begin volume production of city car models.
Remind me what Techrules’ supercar is like?
Techrules previewed two striking TREV supercar concepts at the 2016 Geneva motor show in March. One was called the AT96, the other the GT96, and each featured different styling and fuel sources.
Both, however, use a carbon monocoque chassis, double wishbone suspension and a patented turbine-generator hybrid powertrain developing peak power as high as 1030bhp. The claimed claimed potential range is in excess of 1200 miles.
Both AT96 and GT96 variants’ engineering and styling are being developed in conjunction with partners in the UK and Italy. The first production cars are planned to launch within the next three years.
‘We will return to Geneva next year to show the progress we have made with the technology, including an update on the performance testing we will undertake in the coming year at the Nürburgring Nordschleife,’ says Techrules chairman William Jin.
‘In the meantime, we have deployed a small team to begin evaluating where we should set up our European production base.’
You can read more about the Techrules supercars in our original story here