Yet the team behind the stunning Vega sports car has credentials – and financial backing – befitting similar passion projects emerging in California’s Silicon Valley. The effort is the brainchild of technology entrepreneur Harsha Subasinghe, chief executive of Colombo-based CodeGen, a developer of software for the travel and tourism industry. Building a luxury sports car is certainly a departure for Subasinghe, but one with broader objectives than simply a quick zero-to-60mph time. (That’ll be 3.5 seconds, according to the Vega’s builders.)
Subasinghe envisioned the Vega not only as an all-electric thrill machine, but a demonstration of Sri Lankans’ ability to develop advanced transportation technologies.
“Getting people to believe that a complex engineering project like a supercar can come from Sri Lanka is a huge challenge for us,” says Beshan Kulapala, the car’s project manager. “This country produces some of the best engineers in the world, but in the past we’ve been afraid to commit to innovative product development for fear of losing, or being ridiculed.”
From a purely technological perspective, there seems little chance of that. The car bears a sophisticated silhouette befitting a boutique hypercar, and considerable innovation beneath that sheet metal. Dual electric motors power the rear wheels, producing a combined 900 horsepower with 530 pound-feet of torque. Carbon-fibre construction helps hold vehicle weight to about 3,000lbs – rather remarkable, given the density of the on-board lithium-ion battery packs. The team, comprising over 30 engineers and other personnel, is developing what Kulapala – a 13-year veteran of Intel with a PhD in electrical engineering – calls a state-of-the-art motor controller, and new thinking around battery packaging. Says Kulapala: “The lithium battery modules have a number of innovations in packaging, safety, battery management, system hardware, and firmware and software., “Our eDiff [electronic differential] will also run cutting-edge algorithms to control the vehicle in different road and driving conditions.
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