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Green is the new black in sports car circles and now we even have the 2011 Ruf Greenster, a Porsche 911 converted into a high-performance, battery-powered electric vehicle. And why not, when you consider the excitement created by the 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport and the 2012 Audi E-tron.

This is not the sort of thing that you expect from Alois Ruf, who took over the family Porsche business in 1974 and went on to create the 211-mph Ruf CTR Yellowbird, the fastest production car in the world in 1987. Since then Ruf has become an important manufacturer of Porsche-based cars, including exotic creations characterized by the Ruf Rt 12 and even including the radical midengine Ruf CTR 3.

But Ruf is a complicated character. He might have a penchant for serious horsepower, but like so many Germans he's an environmentalist, too. The company has its own hydroelectric plant that powers the factory and feeds excess energy to the national grid, and for years now Alois Ruf has worked on a battery-powered Porsche, which we saw last in the form of the 2010 Ruf eRuf Model A.

And now the 2011 Ruf Greenster sits before us, about a year away from production, Alois Ruf tells us.

An Electrifying Future
It's a testament to the faith inspired by Alois Ruf's credentials that he has three firm orders for a car that is at least a year away from the marketplace and carries a price tag of about $300,000. (The price might get cheaper if Porsche can be persuaded to sell 911 body shells without an engine.)

In Europe, Alois Ruf is a pioneer, and the Greenster is shaping the future of electric sports cars.
There's more than a whiff of a 1960s-style Porsche 911 Targa about the 2011 Ruf Greenster, which is, of course, intentional. Alois Ruf wanted his EV to be an open car, but ruled out a modern convertible because of the extra weight of the top mechanism as well as its power-sapping electric operation. So the Ruf technicians have simply cut down a coupe, creating a tribute to the old-school Targa right down to the tweed-style seat upholstery.

Look closely at the Greenster's instrument dials, though, and this car seems like 1960s-style science fiction, as glowing green dials display battery life, power usage and speed. You need them, because even when the Greenster fires into life, there's no noise. You need to press the throttle and start moving to be sure everything is in place, as it is eerily quiet.

At speed, the high-pitched whine of the electric motor and roar of tires against road make enough of a din to alert the locals, and although this motor lacks the emotional soul of a flat-6 Porsche engine, it doesn't take long to acclimatize to this kind of driving.

Porsche-Style Power

The 270kW motor serves up the electrical equivalent of 362 horsepower, but that's just not relevant here, as you no doubt are aware that torque is the key output here, some 700 pound-feet right from zero rpm. (Of course this figure trails off significantly the faster the motor spins, but Ruf hasn't defined the power curve for us yet.) The car doesn't stop surging forward till it tops out at somewhere approaching 140 mph. There are no gearchanges, no pauses, no dips in the torque curve. You just put it in "D," plant the accelerator pedal on the floor and go.



Drive like this and the juice will run out in just 70 miles, which is a major spanner in the works, but Siemens (Ruf's technology partner in this exercise) is working hard on a fast-charge system that can be carried onboard. It hopes this will reduce the current 6-hour charge time significantly. After that, it's down to battery technology. It all makes you appreciate just how far along the Tesla Roadster is in comparison, as the whole enterprise is far more complicated than just putting a couple of AAs into a flashlight.

The 2011 Ruf Greenster has its limitations when it comes to utility, then, but the prospective customers who have expressed an interest in the car are city dwellers who simply need daily transport and aren't worried about the cruising range. Ruf knows that he is ahead of the curve once again and he must have faith that technology will catch up with him.

Weight Is the Enemy

In the bends, the Ruf Greenster isn't quite as good as a stock Porsche 911 either, despite Ruf's legendary touch with 911 suspension calibration. But the gap is getting smaller thanks to the lighter weight and improved packaging. When Ruf built the eRuf Model A last year, he included a full six-speed manual transmission only to discover it was necessary to drive in 6th gear all the time. With a new single-speed transaxle, Ruf has reduced the Greenster's weight by almost 200 pounds. Compared to the Model A, the Greenster is 550 pounds lighter thanks to the new transaxle and some reengineering of the motor and battery package by Siemens.

Thanks to the regenerative braking system, off-throttle deceleration is so strong that actively touching the brake pedal is not a regular occurrence. Ruf could go with carbon brakes to reduce the car's unsprung weight, but the technology is hardly a necessity, and there's even talk of simply using small sedan brakes since the regen brakes can reliably take care of everything and only emergency capability is needed.

What's Next

Like a lot of European carmakers, Ruf is simply discovering all the aspects of EV technology that American and Japanese carmakers have been dealing with for years. Yet in Europe, Alois Ruf is a pioneer, and the 2011 Ruf Greenster is shaping the future of electric sports cars.

"This will be a grown-up, comfortable electric commuter car for those with a petrol-powered Ruf at home," said Alois as he presented the first prototype, eRuf Model A, more than a year ago. And while the Greenster still isn't ready for production, Ruf is getting closer. The Greenster weighs just 3,638 pounds, only 500 pounds more than a standard 911 Carrera S Cabriolet. The next stage is a conversion to two hub-mounted motors, which should lower the center of gravity considerably.

Siemens is proudly taking the Greenster around to various exhibitions to demonstrate its EV expertise (clearly hoping for a mass-production deal with a mainstream car manufacturer), and the car has even been the star of advertising posters created by Avis Car Rental. Meanwhile, Ruf has developed a Porsche Cayenne EV, which functioned as executive transport at the recent climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

We're promised a production version of the 2011 Ruf Greenster a year from now. We'll see.

source: insideline

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