Ahead of its world public debut in the RAC Future Car Challenge 2011 on Saturday 5 November, the Gordon Murray Design T.27 electric car was unveiled to the motoring press at the Royal Automobile Club today (29 June).

The T.27 City Car is a pure electric drive vehicle with an innovative fully integrated electric motor, control system and battery designed to ensure maximum efficiency. The Gordon Murray Design T.25 made its road debut in last year’s inaugural RAC Future Car Challenge winning both the Most Economic Small Passenger ICE Vehicle and Most Economic Environment Friendly Small Passenger ICE Vehicle awards. With the company’s iStream process winning the SMMT’s Automotive Innovation Award, 2010 was a successful year for Gordon Murray Design.

This year started well as the T.27 recorded outstanding crash test results. Completing the mandatory EEC 40 per cent offset deformable barrier front high-speed impact test the T.27 emerged with zero cabin intrusion. Following closely the layout and geometry of the T.25 city car, the T.27 has a top speed of 65mph and a range of up to 100 miles. It is just 2.5m long and uses a 25kW electric motor. Projected emissions, using a UK energy mix, are 43g/km CO₂ for the combined cycle and 33g/km CO₂ for the urban cycle alone, with zero emissions at the point of use. Full lifecycle CO₂ damage will be 42 per cent less than the average UK car.

Speaking at the press launch of the T.27 at the Royal Automobile Club, Gordon Murray said: “I would like to thank the RAC for the opportunity to launch our T.27, an important milestone in the history of the automobile, in this great, historic building.”

Gordon Murray was a hugely successful technical director in Formula One, winning two world championships with Brabham and a further three with McLaren. He then set up McLaren Cars Limited and completed several projects including the F1 road car and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. In 2005 Murray established Gordon Murray Design Limited with the first project being the T.25 – an innovative city car with a central driving position and a unique door opening system. Murray was delighted to compete in last year’s RAC Future Car Challenge driving a T.25. At the finish in London he said: “This event is exactly what the motoring public need – an opportunity to see what the new generation of eco-friendly cars look like on the road and to witness how they perform.”

For the RAC Future Car Challenge 2011 Murray has entered a T.25 and a T.27 –At the press launch he said: “Designing green cars is every bit as demanding as engineering Formula One cars and many of the same principles apply – the search to save weight and maximise efficiency.”

The RAC Future Car Challenge is open to electric, hybrid, hydrogen and low-emission internal combustion engine cars and light-commercial vehicles. Last year’s entry list included one-off prototypes and future production vehicles from manufacturers such as Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Nissan, Vauxhall, BMW, Skoda and Volkswagen, as well as current production cars offering the highest levels of efficiency regardless of their powertrain. The challenge requires entrants to cover a 60-mile route from Brighton to London, mirroring the following days annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, also organised by the Royal Automobile Club, culminating at the finish on London’s Regent Street, closed to normal traffic for the occasion and lined with over a quarter of a million spectators. For 2011 the total number of entries permitted has been increased to 90 and the diversity of the entry list has been recognised by the organisers with a range of awards in over 20 different vehicle categories as well as by power source. The overall winner will be the car that uses the least amount of energy over the route.