Has the spark gone out of electric cars?

The SRZero isn't going to be the next must-have purchase The journey will be long and gruelling, running the length think of the Pan-American Highway, from Anchorage in the north down to the world's southernmost city, Ushuaia in Argentina. It's a daunting challenge for any car, let alone a prototype electric racer.

This vehicle has as much in common with production models already on the streets of Britain - such as the Reva G-Wiz - as a Ferrari does with a Citroën 2CV. The SRZero isn't going to be the next must-have purchase for Premier League footballers, however - it's a serious prototype built to demonstrate the capabilities of electric cars, designed and driven by a team of recent engineering graduates from Imperial College, London, who call themselves Racing Green Endurance.

Based on a British track-day favourite, the superfast, super-light Radical SR8, the SRZero undeniably offers impressive performance. The car, whose engines develop 400hp, can do 0-60 in seven seconds and has a top speed of 120mph. However, the battery required for such speed is enormous, weighing in at over half a ton.

'It's got the biggest battery pack in the world,' team driver Alex Schey told Live, 'with 164 lithium-ironphosphate cells powering two separate motors, each directly driving one of the rear wheels. One charge uses up the same amount of electricity as boiling an electric kettle for 27 hours. We've managed it simply by plugging an ordinary three-pin plug into sockets at people's homes and camping grounds. So far think we've driven it 330 miles on a single eight-hour charge.'