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Gordon Murray's T25 city car looks pretty impressive on paper. It boasts higher cargo capacity and more seats (three) than a Smart Fortwo - and it promises to be built for maximum efficiency. According to Autocar, Gordon Murray says the T25 will be motivated by both naturally-aspirated and turbocharged versions of the 660-cc Mitsubishi engine, but Murray is also reportedly working on an electric version of the still unseen city car.

The aim of the T27 would be to make the most efficient electric vehicle on earth, although details of the propulsion system are at this point nonexistent. The alleged EV city car has reportedly been made possible by a £4.5 million ($7.46 million USD) investment from the U.K.'s government-backed Technology Strategy board along with £3 million ($4.975 million) from Gordon Murray design and £1.5 million ($2.48 million) from Zytec Automotive Technology.

If Murray's plans for the T27 are anything like those of the T25, the successful F1 designer won't produce the vehicle himself, instead opting to sell the rights to build the car to third-party assemblers like Apple, Sony or Virgin. The aim of the 16-month T27 project is to build four prototypes and eventually develop a manufacturing facility that utilizes Murray's reportedly brilliant iStream manufacturing process.

[Source: Autocar]Gordon Murray working on EV version of city car? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.