Just as the world’s premium automakers are rushing to one-up each other with their hypercar offerings, a new player in the scene is looking to strike all of them down with what it calls “tomorrow’s supercar today.” Don’t look now, but British automaker Ariel wants a piece of the hypercar pie and is set to take as much of it as it can with an offering that’s being touted as the “fastest-accelerating and most advanced supercar in history.”

This is not a drill, folks. Ariel really has plans for supercar domination and its banking its hopes and dreams on a 1,200-horsepower, all-wheel-drive, electric, two-seater supercar that will not only feature revolutionary technology, but will also come with performance capabilities never before seen in the segment. If that sounds a little like hyperbole, it’s because it probably is. Still, Ariel believes that it has the goods to back up its claims of supercar glory for its prized creation, which goes by the High Performance Carbon Reduction, or HIPERCAR for short. The full details have yet to be revealed, but Ariel says that the car will feature an aluminum monocoque chassis, carbon fiber body panels, and a turbine range extender powertrain that will give it a staggering 1,180 horsepower and 1,328 pound-feet of torque – enough to supposedly allow it to spring from 0 to 100 mph in just 3.8 seconds on its way to hitting a restricted top speed of 160 mph. If this electric hypercar does come to fruition, imagine what it can do to Jeremy Clarkson’s face when it blasts off the line.

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This could be that unsuspecting uppercut to the business

There are times when the auto industry will throw a surprise that not even the most in-tune of people expect. Consider this as one of those times. Seriously, did anybody see this one coming? I sure didn’t and I’m still a bit jarred in a good, exciting way.

There are plenty of questions regarding Ariel’s plan, and while some of these questions won’t be answered until the company reveals more information, Ariel did shed some light on some pretty important bits, One is that it actually received help from the British government to develop the car’s chassis and powertrain. For those who are dubious about the company’s financial capabilities, assistance from the government is a big help in terms of finding enough resources to see the technological developments through. Now the scope of this cooperative has yet to be revealed, but it is important to know that Ariel isn’t going at this by itself. It also has partners Equipmake and Delta Motorsport to lend their respective expertise in seeing the HIPERCAR project though.

Now, why should we get excited about the HIPERCAR electric hypercar? Well, the numbers say it all. 1,180 horsepower and 1,328 pound-feet of torque don’t just grow on trees. Those are incredible numbers even by the standards of the Ferraris, McLarens, and Aston Martins of the hypercar world. Add to that the notion that Ariel’s getting those numbers through a mixture of new-age technology and engineering wizardry and you can’t help but wonder if there’s still more to the P40 than meets the eye. Think about it; Ariel says the hypercar will be powered by four separate electric motors, each of which can produce 295 horsepower and are fed from a 42-kWh liquid-cooled battery mounted at the car’s base.

There are also reports that the company will use a turbine range extender that can produce enough power to help the car maintain its performance capabilities once it's exhausted the first 100 to 120 miles of electric range. Simply put, with all this tech in place, the all-electric hypercar is good enough to sustain maximum driving performance for 15 solid minutes before needing to be fast-charged for 50 minutes. That’s like being in control of a 15-minute roller coaster ride!

Here’s another wrinkle: Ariel is actually planning to build two versions of the hypercar. The flagship all-wheel drive model will be the one packing all the power, but there’s also a less powerful two-wheel drive version that will be offered. Details about this model have not yet been laid out, but it is worth noting that we could be looking forward to not just one, but two hypercars to come out of Ariel by 2020. Who saw this one coming?

References

Read our latest reviews on the Ariel Atom.

Read our latest stories of the Ariel.