Start-up electric car maker debuts 2015 Renovo Coupe at Pebble Beach – $567,000 price tag, 372kW and 1300Nm-plus and a driving range of 160km.

THIS MIGHT LOOK like a Shelby Daytona complete with blue and white racing stripes, but it’s actually being hailed by its builders, Renovo, as “America’s first all-electric supercar”, it’s the 2015 Renovo Coupe.

Revealed this weekend at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance, Renovo has been working on its patent-pending EV technology since 2010. And we should be impressed. Powered by mid-mounted twin sequential axial-flux motors deliver 500hp and 1000 foot-pounds of torque (372kW and 1300Nm). What’s most impressive about that is the Renovo’s drivetrain gets to full power in just 37 milliseconds which is about 10 times faster than the blink of an eye.

Renovo says its Coupe’s oomph is because of its battery technology which features multiple separate battery enclosures enable a performance-oriented weight distribution and minimize chassis volume requirements – the drivetrain is less than 40% of the total weight of the car. The speed of the Renovo’s performance is matched by the speed with which it can be charged; indeed, a fast-charge system allows the batteries to be recharged in just 30 minutes, or a five-hours when you’re charging it at home.

As mentioned, the Renovo Coupe utilises the body and a modified chassis from the Shelby Daytona which is supplied by Shelby and has been reimagined by award-winning designer Peter Brock, the CSX9000 delivers the features of a modern supercar while retaining the classic and race-proven aerodynamic silhouette of the original 1964 Le Mans winning car.

“This shape was nearly perfect 50 years ago, and physics doesn’t change much over time,” said Mr. Brock, an early advisor to Renovo Motors. “However, the redesigned car has a totally updated body, frame, suspension, and cabin; it’s a new chapter for this chassis. When the Renovo team approached me with the idea of incorporating my work into their designs, I was thrilled. The finished product definitely carries the spirit of the original car strongly into the future.”

Every aspect of the Coupe’s interior was designed to create a more direct and immediate connection between machine and driver. From the cockpit the driver has access to a wide range of controls and information systems. Classic needle gauges surround a modern circular digital display, and a muscular drive selector enables brake regeneration to be adjusted in real-time-another first for a production electric vehicle.

This is all well and good, but the Renovo Coupe lists from USD$529,000 or AUDS$567,000 and yet its only capable of 160km on a single charge, which is nowhere near enough if electric vehicles are to become mainstream. That leaves Tesla alone in producing real-world electric vehicles.