FAQ

We have been getting some great questions from the press. Popular Mechanics contacted us and asked for some information, so I thought that I would include the answers here!


Who is Team WIKISPEED's primary sponsor?
Alibre Design (CAD), AmpsTech (FEA/CFD), and Skunk2 Racing are primary sponsors. The car is primarily funded by Joe, with a Wikipedia-like army of volunteers. His wife and he were saving for a house in Seattle and decided together that instead they would fund this vehicle company and attempt to level up the environmental friendliness of automotive transportion.


Approximately how much does the car weigh?
1300 lbs dry. When done, we hope it will be the lightest four-person vehicle ever to be fully road legal and mass-produced. We still have some sound deadening to do and other creature comforts to add in, so the for-public-sale version (unless people option for a type-R ultralight version) will likely weigh 1500lbs dry.


What type of chassis is used?
We use an aluminum extrusion chassis with a hot-swappable power-train module. With three grades of aluminum used, we can optimize material properties by part location. We hope for this to be the lightest chassis ever to pass all federally mandated impact/crash scenarios, from offset frontal impact to roof crush.


If someone wanted to buy the SGT01, how much would it cost?
We have a target of $17,995.00 USD. We are trying to price compete with existing economy vehicles, with an even lower total cost of onwership.


What is the car's best tested MPGe to date?
Currently all mpg's are simulated. UDDS (city) models show us 104 mpg, HWFET (highway) models show us 114 mpg. Test data is coming in now, and we may have useful test data for you in May, depending on your article timeline.


How fast does the car accelerate from 0-6 mph?
The car can achieve 60 mph in the five-second range, but that uses quite a bit of fuel. At 100+ MPGe running, 0-60 comes in less than fifteen seconds.


What is the car's top speed?
The calculated top speed is 149 mph.