900-HP Electric Van Smokes Ferrari And Nissan GT-R

Megalith

Megalith

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It’s not a looker, but it’s pretty darn fast. The “Edna” is a Mercedes-Benz Metris van that features a 900-horsepower electric drivetrain and does 0 to 60 in 2.76 seconds.

Named "Edna" by the engineers at Atieva, the Metris van carries an 87-kWh battery, and sends all 900 of those horses through an all-wheel-drive system. When it was first introduced, Edna could get to sixty in a mere three seconds, but after some upgrades, now does it in a scant 2.76 seconds. Needless to say, this isn't your normal work van. When lined up against the likes of the Ferrari 458 Speciale and Nissan GT-R, Edna has no trouble smoking both in the quarter-mile. Even when lined up against a Tesla Model S, a car famous for its acceleration times, Edna's able to keep up.
 
I wonder who is funding that, and what is the purpose. I mean for a delivery van you should be concentrating on range and not quarter mile times. Give me a delivery van that does the querter mile in 11 sec. and I say meh. Give me a delivery van that does 500 miles on a single charge in a city. And I say that's cool.
 
900hp turning 11.3 second quarter mile times? They need to do some optimizing / a better driver / or something because that's just odd. I agree with M76, give me a delivery van that can run 500+ miles on a charge and that would be more impressive.
 
Steve said:
900hp turning 11.3 second quarter mile times? They need to do some optimizing / a better driver / or something because that's just odd. I agree with M76, give me a delivery van that can run 500+ miles on a charge and that would be more impressive.
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What is weight? What is proof of concept?
 
I think it has a low 1/4 mile time because top speed is limited. Looking at the van, that's probably a good thing. It wouldn't be able to recover like a lower, wider vehicle could if something goes wrong. It's a sleeper, not a supercar.
 
pxc said:
I think it has a low 1/4 mile time because top speed is limited. Looking at the van, that's probably a good thing. It wouldn't be able to recover like a lower, wider vehicle could if something goes wrong. It's a sleeper, not a supercar.
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Yeah, I would hate to accidentally turn the wheel a bit at that speed and have the thing do a barrel roll. :eek:
 
pxc said:
I think it has a low 1/4 mile time because top speed is limited. Looking at the van, that's probably a good thing. It wouldn't be able to recover like a lower, wider vehicle could if something goes wrong. It's a sleeper, not a supercar.
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I don't think it has that low of a top speed. I mean most cars don't reach that high of a speed on 1/4 mile. The usual speeds are around 110mph. But a 87kwh battery has to be very heavy. That van probably weighs twice the factory stock version.
Electric cars are quick off the line because electric motors have a completely flat torque curve, meaning all torque is avaialable right off the start. And since they're very heavy. Which means they can get lots of grip from a stand still. Even regular crappy city electric cars are quick off the line. Like look at this ad
Of course the tagline "fun to drive" is complete bullcrap. I'd have any of the other cars from that comparison any time if I wanted "fun".
 
Can't wait until we can all afford electric vehicles that get at least 500 miles on a charge. Time to end our reliance on fossil fuels once and for all.
 
Bringing a Ferrari to a drag race is like like bringing a high class prostitute out for dinner.
 
M76 said:
I don't think it has that low of a top speed. I mean most cars don't reach that high of a speed on 1/4 mile. The usual speeds are around 110mph. But a 87kwh battery has to be very heavy. That van probably weighs twice the factory stock version.
Electric cars are quick off the line because electric motors have a completely flat torque curve, meaning all torque is avaialable right off the start. And since they're very heavy. Which means they can get lots of grip from a stand still. Even regular crappy city electric cars are quick off the line. Like look at this ad
Of course the tagline "fun to drive" is complete bullcrap. I'd have any of the other cars from that comparison any time if I wanted "fun".
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I'd guess around 1000 lbs on the battery.

A model S Tesla has a 85kWh battery and can do 276 miles. So if you drive normal the van should at least get 150 miles?
 
freeloader1969 said:
Can't wait until we can all afford electric vehicles that get at least 500 miles on a charge. Time to end our reliance on fossil fuels once and for all.
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And you'll still have to wait hours to recharge it. Even Tesla's 30 minute quick charge doesn't give you a full charge.
 
nutzo said:
And you'll still have to wait hours to recharge it. Even Tesla's 30 minute quick charge doesn't give you a full charge.
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I can wait all night. Or all day while at work.
 
M76 said:
I wonder who is funding that, and what is the purpose. I mean for a delivery van you should be concentrating on range and not quarter mile times. Give me a delivery van that does the querter mile in 11 sec. and I say meh. Give me a delivery van that does 500 miles on a single charge in a city. And I say that's cool.
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Same people who fund turning Honda Civics into rice rockets to do quarter mile races on salt flats or other places like this... often they're self funded. The purpose of this van isn't range, it's speed.
 
The japansee and the euros have bullet trains that work on eletric I would not want to try making a left or right turn in them, just like that van likely rolls at high speed... vectors are more important than speed alone. Electric motors can apply far more torque because a strong magnetic piston can simply exhurt more force when supplied with more current. It is the reason the big ships in the US Navy have nuclear reactors supplying power to electric transmissions on the battleships. More applied torque.... people just have to remember the cars that looks sexy tend to drive better because they handle and turn better. Not sure what that says about indy cars verse nascar... lol. But cars in the 1920's went thirty miles an hour... they manged to build them stylish.

Electric verse gasoline or diesel is not about one system. It is about how to get the power to the wheels and how and where it is converted from. Gasoline comes medium density polymer chains that that burn really fast, diesel compresses until it explodes inward then outward... jet fuel is a mix of gas and diesel fuel which burns the gas really fast then detonates the diesel with the expanding gas compressing the diesel fuel. Electric starts with either a steam power plant in the vehicle or batteries or capacitors, basically stored power that either spins a motor or pushes an opposing charge piston apart. Rehostats can control and spin turbines but I really don't feel like explaining that here when people can look it up.

But the point is the whole system needs to considered as a working system. wankle motors can work on gas look at the rx-7, or on electric motors quite a few air frames use both, but either way it is about how the car or airframe (technically an aeroframe both air and space capable as per USAF space command) handles, as much as it goes as fast as possible. I designed an airframe that can use the air in your lungs to kill you from speed, but due to the speeds it can sorta safely fly at it is much harder to fly if you are just used to pulling a yoke sideways and have the plane sorta go that way and land. I would rater have and eletric system than gas because I know just how much power I have I am not stepping on the gas expecting the pistons to explode and trying to guess how much more speed, but that is how most of us if not all of us learned to drive a car...
 
sfsuphysics said:
Same people who fund turning Honda Civics into rice rockets to do quarter mile races on salt flats or other places like this... often they're self funded. The purpose of this van isn't range, it's speed.
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I don't think you're looking at the full picture here. The channel, and the presentation style they're using, even their communications. Looks like a startup company. In every way. They aren't car enthusiast. They aren't garage owners doing this as a side project. They look and feel like a startup company wanting to get somewhere with this. Ramping up hype looking of investors raising awareness etc. Like Tesla was when they created the roadster. Now if I'm wrong about that then they're very good actors, they have it down to the last bit.
 
drakken said:
The japansee and the euros have bullet trains that work on eletric I would not want to try making a left or right turn in them, just like that van likely rolls at high speed... vectors are more important than speed alone. Electric motors can apply far more torque because a strong magnetic piston can simply exhurt more force when supplied with more current. It is the reason the big ships in the US Navy have nuclear reactors supplying power to electric transmissions on the battleships. More applied torque.... people just have to remember the cars that looks sexy tend to drive better because they handle and turn better. Not sure what that says about indy cars verse nascar... lol. But cars in the 1920's went thirty miles an hour... they manged to build them stylish.

Electric verse gasoline or diesel is not about one system. It is about how to get the power to the wheels and how and where it is converted from. Gasoline comes medium density polymer chains that that burn really fast, diesel compresses until it explodes inward then outward... jet fuel is a mix of gas and diesel fuel which burns the gas really fast then detonates the diesel with the expanding gas compressing the diesel fuel. Electric starts with either a steam power plant in the vehicle or batteries or capacitors, basically stored power that either spins a motor or pushes an opposing charge piston apart. Rehostats can control and spin turbines but I really don't feel like explaining that here when people can look it up.

But the point is the whole system needs to considered as a working system. wankle motors can work on gas look at the rx-7, or on electric motors quite a few air frames use both, but either way it is about how the car or airframe (technically an aeroframe both air and space capable as per USAF space command) handles, as much as it goes as fast as possible. I designed an airframe that can use the air in your lungs to kill you from speed, but due to the speeds it can sorta safely fly at it is much harder to fly if you are just used to pulling a yoke sideways and have the plane sorta go that way and land. I would rater have and eletric system than gas because I know just how much power I have I am not stepping on the gas expecting the pistons to explode and trying to guess how much more speed, but that is how most of us if not all of us learned to drive a car...
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Did you just make that up? Lol
First off, there was never a nuclear powered battleship.
Secondly, ships that are equipped with a reactor plant use a steam turbine to turn the screws, not electric motors.


Edit: Thirdly, electric motor pistons? Oh, its you.
 
Last edited:
alxlwson said:
Did you just make that up? Lol
First off, there was never a nuclear powered battleship.
Secondly, ships that are equipped with a reactor plant use a steam turbine to turn the screws, not electric motors.
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Look at the user name. He probably had his buckets set to 11 for that post.
 
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