In a recent interview with Top Gear, a representative of Aspark shared that the Japanese car company believes in the ability and performance of the Aspark Owl at the upcoming Nürburgring racetrack (Germany).
Developed since 2014 and officially launched at the 2018 Paris Motor Show as a display model, the Aspark Owl electric supercar is still in the process of preparing for mass production. Before being widely sold, the manufacturer wants this product to create a certain mark to increase public confidence, with the intention of breaking the lap record at the famous Nürburgring racetrack for an electric car.
Previous tests of the Aspark Owl have shown that the supercar has a lot of potential. In October 2018, the Aspark Owl with a set of specialized slick tires for racing cars only needed 1.88 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in a secret test in Japan. According to the supercar company, the time will increase to 1.99 seconds when using civilian tires, but still ensure it is under the 2-second threshold as initially announced.
The current record for the fastest electric car on the Nürburgring is held by the Chinese Nio EP9, which clocked a time of 7 minutes and 5.12 seconds. However, the Nio EP9 is only suitable for closed circuit racing, while the Aspark Owl is made for street use.
Providing power for the Aspark Owl are 4 electric motors that produce a total of 1,150 horsepower and a maximum torque of 883 Nm. Thanks to the monocoque chassis and carbon body, the Aspark Owl weighs only 1,460 kg. With that weight and power, this supercar can easily achieve impressive acceleration as above. With the pre-equipped battery pack, the car can travel 300 km for each full charge. However, due to the limitations of the electric motor, the Aspark Owl can only reach a maximum speed of 280 km/h.
As planned, Aspark will only produce 50 Owls worldwide and will launch the finished production version at the Dubai Motor Show in November 2019. The price of an Aspark Owl is announced to be around 3.6 million USD (equivalent to 84 billion VND).
Furthermore, Aspark requires customers to immediately deposit a sum of 1.15 million USD (27 billion VND) to reserve a car, which will not be refunded if they cancel. Even if they do, future car owners will have to wait a year to take their first test drive.
Initially, the Aspark Owl was made to compete directly with the Tesla Model S. However, due to the long development time, this Japanese-origin car will now have to compete with other electric car products from Pininfarina, Rimac and even the new Tesla Roadster.