Volex Style's 2011 LEC Electric Car Concept

A fellow Insider was generous enough to share his company’s ideas with us here at BenzInsider. The study, called the Mercedes-Benz LEC Electric Car Concept, is under the ownership of design company Volex Style in New Zealand. Paul Wilding of VS explains that “Mercedes have always shown the way forward in new ways of thinking and technologies, – it’s more important now than ever that they show the way boldly, so that people understand and accept the new order.”

The design leans towards a luxury electric vehicle model with its body and wheels stylized to give it a unique, bold appearance. Lightweight aluminum is used in constructing the chassis and body work while batteries are incorporated into the structure of the body in order to heighten torsional rigidity of the vehicle.

The electric motor design consists of twin 3-phase alternating current induction motors that are to be mounted right above the rear wheels. They’re coupled to a single speed gearbox for maximum power transmission and controlled via a driver inverter and specialized control software. Power will be derived from a liquid-cooled 400v Lithium-Ion  battery pack located along the spine of the chassis in line with the rear compartment. The battery pack contains 4,3000 Lithium-Ion cells that store as much as 67kWh of power. Charging them from zero to full takes only 2 hours when plugged into either 110v or 220v power outlet.

The electric motor should give the LEC around 145mph of top speed and a zero to 60 run at around 5.5 seconds. Power rating is estimated to be around the 450hp range with the motor revving up to 14,000rpm. Of course, as with any electric car, the curb weight is predicted to be heavier than standard petroleum cars by as much as 400lbs.

Power Converters -New 220V to 110V Step Down Voltage Converter 50W ...

The problem with the converter is that is will not fit into the round European outlets. One needs an additional adapter plug that extends the “square” converter to fit into the round receptacle. This is not a serious problem since these “extenders” are inexpensive. But have one on hand since the converter can not be used w/o one.

I recently bought the 220v to 110v step down voltage converter for use during my vacation in Northern Ireland. The product is well made and is of high quality. There is a problem though as the two (2) pin round prong plug cannot fit in the conventional three (3) pin square socket outlet. For the item to be of any use I had to use another adaptor with a three pin square prong and then to plug the two pin to it.

Another word of caution though, is that some people simply buy universal adapators for use in Europe for USA 110v appliances. This practice is not recommended since in Europe the voltage is 220 and can cause damage plus a fire risk by plugging an adaptor without a STEP DOWN VOLTAGE CONVERTER.

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