Electric supercar Piech GT went to the test

Remember the high-profile premiere of the Swiss company Piech Automotive, which took place two and a half years ago? It was founded by the young Tony Piech, son of the now deceased Ferdinand Piech, the former head of the Volkswagen concern. The new company announced great prospects, but after the debut it disappeared from the radar. And now, after a long silence, she again declared herself. The Piech GT electric supercar project, albeit late from the original schedule, is still developing: the sea trial phase has begun.

So far, only one complete Piech GT coupe has been built, which has been handed over for testing at the test site. Back in August, a team of engineers and testers led by Klaus Schmidt (a former BMW M division engineer) moved from Munich to the company's new base near Memmingen in southern Germany. The second prototype will be ready in March next year, and by the end of 2022, the company will produce a whole series of vehicles for testing in different climatic conditions, and, of course, at the Nurburgring.

Camouflage will not be needed for the prototypes, because the original look of the two-year-old Piech Mark Zero show car will go to the production car without changes. And the general design of the supercar is the same. It is based on a modular platform with an aluminum base, the batteries are located in the central tunnel and above the rear axle. The coupe is driven by three 204 hp motors. each: one is located on the front axle, two more independently rotate the rear wheels, the total power is about 600 “horses”.

Piech's main know-how will be lithium-ion batteries with low internal resistance. The 75kWh battery is claimed to be able to charge up to 80% from any terminal with a CCS2 connector in less than eight minutes. And if you use a branded charger created by the German-Chinese company Tgood, then five minutes is enough! By the way, if the battery was originally developed in China, now it is “closer to Europe“.

Coupe Piech GT weighing about 1.8 tons can accelerate to 100 km / h in less than three seconds, and up to 200 km / h in less than nine seconds. The cruising range on one charge will be 500 km on the WLTP cycle.

Piech will not have its own factory yet; the GT model will be produced at the facilities of some well-known, but as yet unnamed automaker. The start of sales is scheduled for mid-2024, and for the first full year, the company intends to produce 1,200 vehicles. Following the coupe, a crossover and a sedan will appear, and in addition to the battery electric drive, a hydrogen power plant is being considered.

Finally, Piech intends to follow in the footsteps of Elon Musk in the sale of its machines, for which Tony Piech even lured Jochen Rudat, who was previously responsible for Tesla sales in Europe, to him. There will be no usual dealer network, the company will sell its cars on its own, for which at the first stage it will open about 60 showrooms around the world. Priority is given to Europe, USA and China. A separate network of service partners will be formed to service electric vehicles.