Atieva’s Electric Van “Edna” Smokes A BMW i8 & Dodge Viper (Video)

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Want to watch a rather clunky-looking white van blow past a BMW i8 and a Dodge Viper in a drag race? Why wouldn’t you?

I’m talking of course about Atieva’s electric van “Edna” — which is actually a Mercedes-Benz Vito van featuring one of Atieva’s ridiculous 900-horsepower, all-wheel-drive powertrains.

We previously covered one of these drag races where a Tesla Model S and a Ferrari California were pitted against the rather innocuous-looking van… with enjoyable results. That video already made me impatiently curious to take a ride in the van, but Atieva couldn’t leave good enough alone.

Autoblog provides more on the new video, noting that in the earlier drag-race “Edna was hitting 60 mph in a little over 3 seconds. Comparatively, BMW lists the i8’s 0–60 time at 4.2 seconds, though Road & Track clocked it at 3.8 seconds, with a quarter-mile time of 12.3 seconds. The Viper does 0–60 in 3.4 seconds. Before you even watch the video above, you can imagine how it will end, as the retuned Atieva Edna rips 0–60 mph in 2.94 seconds. Atieva clocked the quarter mile at 11.3 seconds at 117 mph.”

How has Atieva been improving on what was already a wicked-fast van? “Atieva says it has used testing data to fine tune its AC induction motors at higher speeds once it got low-speed performance locked in,” Autoblog adds. “After testing in the hot California sun, including the race you see above, Atieva drove Edna 90 miles home with range to spare.”

The Californian electric vehicle company’s plans call for the very impressive powertrain to be featured a vehicle with a more consumer friendly appearance to it than the van featured in the video above, naturally. Current production plans call for a sedan to be released sometime in 2018.

As you may have noticed at the end of the video, you can actually offer to race your car against Edna. You just have to head over to tinyurl.com/GoEdna and add a few details. Anyone have a top-of-the-line Model X, McLaren, or Porsche you want to pit against Atieva’s electric van?


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre