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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Citroën Survolt takes to the track at Le Mans Classic



by Jeremy Korzeniewski

We thought the Citroën Survolt Concept was pretty cool when we first saw it at the Geneva Motor Show. We think it's much, much cooler now, though. Why? Perhaps because the crazy French automaker has seen fit to make the all-electric machine into a real race car that will hit the track at the Le Mans Classic on July 10th.

The electric racecar sports a full tube frame with a carbon fiber body and a completely flat underbody... which is all well and good, but the real news comes from the powertrain. Dual electric motors push out 300 horsepower from zero to 5,000 RPM. But it's the torque of electric motors that really impresses, and the Survolt reportedly has enough of it to dispatch the run to 60 miles per hour in under five seconds.

Power comes from two lithium ion battery packs that weigh in at over 300 pounds each and offer 31 kilowatts of energy storage. The Citroën Survolt can manage 124 miles per charge, which can be performed in two hours with a specific charger or in 10 hours using a normal 220-volt outlet. Check out our image gallery below and hit the jump for a short video and the complete press release.

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