British electric car startup Charge Cars
has just recruited Mark Roberts to its ranks, a man who has spent almost 30
years at McLaren. Roberts was poached by McLaren from Lotus back in 1988 and
played a key role in making the revolutionary McLaren F1 a reality. Roberts was
just McLaren’s ninth employee and in the decades since being hired, has played
a crucial role in the design of virtually all McLaren’s road cars, including
the likes of the P1, Senna, Speedtail, and Elva.
Eager to bring an industry veteran into
its ranks, Charge Cars has recruited Roberts as its Chief Creative Officer. In
his post, Roberts will influence the design of future products from the
company. Charge Cars focuses on re-imagining classic vehicles and outfitting
them with all-electric powertrains.
The first vehicle from Charge Cars is its
all-electric classic Ford Mustang. Sitting in place of the vehicle’s V8 engine
are a pair of electric motors offering up 536 hp and 1,084 Nm of
torque and powering all four wheels. The car can hit 100 km/h)in less
than 4 seconds and travel a respectable 320 km on a single charge.
Just 499 examples are bound for the production line with prices starting at a
cool £ 300,000 (US$ 386,000).