THE UK’S fastest electric car – The Nemesis – will be on show to the public at a major new car festival on Great Yarmouth seafront next week.

The GY Wheels Festival will give visitors to Marine Parade the chance to view scores of prestige and novelty cars, as well as try their hands at fun educational activities, from 10am to 5pm, on Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13 2015.

Jointly organised by Great Yarmouth Borough Council and the Greater Yarmouth Tourism and Business Improvement Area, with additional funding from Joyland and the American Diner, the free festival aims to further extend the tourism season and support the local economy.

On the Saturday only, green energy sector business, Ecotricity, will be showing off The Nemesis, the world’s first electric supercar, which set the current UK electric car land-speed record in 2012 – reaching 151 mph.

Powered by electricity generated by wind turbines and delivered by the grid, the entirely British-designed and -built car is faster than a V12 Ferrari, accelerating from 0-100mph in 8.5 seconds, with a top speed of 170mph.

In addition to The Nemesis, Ecotricity will also bring along a Nissan Leaf, the world’s best-selling electric vehicle, to help tell festival-goers about the Electric Highway – a national network of electric vehicle charging points, or ‘electricity pumps’, which are installed at many motorway service stations

The Nemesis will complement and contrast with the festival’s other star attraction: the official showcar of Bloodhound SSC, a British-built jet- and rocket-powered supersonic car, designed to go at 1,000mph, which will attempt to smash the world land speed record in 2016.

Joe Patel, project co-ordinator at Ecotricity, said: “Transport is one of the three biggest contributors to our personal carbon footprints, and at the GY Wheels Festival you’ll be able to find out what we’re doing at Ecotricity to reduce the environmental impact of motoring.

“Electric vehicles are at the heart of that change – three years ago we broke the UK electric car land-speed record with The Nemesis, a fully electric car based on a Lotus Elise; it reached 151mph and went from 0-100mph in 8.5 seconds, faster than a V12 Ferrari. 

“The Nemesis helped us to transform the image of electric motoring, but we knew that to make a real difference to the environment and reduce emissions we’d have to make electric motoring possible for the everyday driver – through the Electric Highway, we’ve done exactly that.  

“The Electric Highway is Britain’s first and biggest national network of electricity pumps and it’s growing at extraordinary speed, with the number of cars, pumps and miles increasing rapidly. It’s a key part of our mission to help make EVs the logical choice for Britain’s drivers.

“At the GY Wheels Festival you’ll be able to take a look at The Nemesis, find out more about the Electric Highway and how you can join the electric car revolution.”

Cllr Barry Coleman, the deputy council leader, whose portfolio includes tourism, said: “The GY Wheels Festival aims to provide yet another reason to visit the borough later in the season – and I am certain that this unique record-breaking electric car will be a real draw, offering something a bit different.

“It is also an ideal way to showcase to families – including the scientists and engineers of the future – some of the automotive technology of the future, as wholly or partly electric cars now have an increasing presence on UK roads.

“It is a real coup to secure The Nemesis – and I would like to thank Ecotricity, whose subsidiary Britwind has operations in Great Yarmouth, for providing both The Nemesis and the Nissan Leaf for the festival.”

Other attractions already confirmed for the festival include four bespoke hotrods, high-performance Jaguars, 30 to 40 classic cars, a Santa Pod dragster, the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo, the Inbetweeners car, Barbie’s car, a Hummer, limousines, Lotus Carltons from the Autobahn Stormers Club, and Bloodhound showcar support vehicles.

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About The Nemesis

On Thursday, September 27, 2012, at Elvington Airfield near York, The Nemesis broke the UK electric car land-speed record. The car is the result of nearly two years’ hard work by an A-team of ex-motorsport engineers, with a brief from Ecotricity’s founder and MD Dale Vince to “blow the socks off Jeremy Clarkson and smash the stereotype of electric cars”. The Nemesis needed to complete two runs in opposite directions along the runway within one hour to account for prevailing winds – the average speed of the two runs provided the official time. The car completed two runs along Elvington Airfield over a one mile distance, with Nick Ponting breaking the record on the first set of consecutive runs with an average speed of 148 mph. He went on to extend the record further, to 151mph. 

For more information visit 

www.ecotricity.co.uk

About the Electric Highway

The Electric Highway has:

• nearly 250 electricity pumps at over 150 locations
• covered over 95 per cent of Britain’s motorway service stations
• enabled electric car drivers to travel the length and breadth of the country and refuel in 20 minutes
• powered more than 7 million miles of free travel since inception
• attracted almost 20,000 members, with around 1,300 new members joining each month
• won the 2014 Ashden Award for Sustainable Travel, having “kickstarted the uptake of electric cars” and is described as one of the best networks in the world

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About Ecotricity

Ecotricity was founded in 1995 as the world’s first green energy company and now supplies 160,000 customers across the UK from a growing fleet of wind and sun parks. Ecotricity is a ‘not-for-dividend’ enterprise that, on average over the last eleven years, has invested more per customer in building new sources of green electricity than any other energy company in Britain. Ecotricity founded the Electric Highway in 2011.

About the Nissan Leaf

The Nissan Leaf is the world’s all-time best selling electric vehicle. Available in 46 countries, the 2013 Leaf has a range of 120 miles and UK models are produced at the Nissan Sunderland Plant, with 10,000 delivered in the UK by June 2015. As an all-electric car, the Nissan Leaf produces no tailpipe pollution or greenhouse gas emissions at the point of operation, and contributes to reduced dependence on petroleum.

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About Bloodhound SSC

The Bloodhound Supersonic Car is a jet- and rocket-powered vehicle designed to reach 1,000 mph (just over 1,600 kph) and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. It has a slender body of approximately 13.5m length with two front wheels within the body and two rear wheels mounted externally within wheel fairings. It weighs 7.5 tonnes and the engines produce the equivalent to 135,000 horsepower – more than six times the power of all the Formula 1 cars on a starting grid put together. The car is a mix of car and aircraft technology, with the front half being a carbon fibre monocoque like a racing car and the back half being a metallic framework and panels like an aircraft. For more information, visit www.bloodhoundssc.com

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About the Bloodhound Roadshow

As part of the Bloodhound Roadshow, young people will have the chance to design their own rocket cars from blocks of Styrofoam, make and race compressed air-powered K’Nex cars, and take the wheel in a test drive simulator. The young person who designs the fastest rocket car will win a VIP day pass to Joyland, plus a burger meal for four at the American Diner. The designers of the fastest rocket cars on each of the festival days will have their names printed onto the tailfin of Bloodhound SSC, courtesy of Peter Harrison, the lead Bloodhound ambassador for the East of England. Taking part costs £7 and people are allowed to keep their cars. Thanks to the EDP, people will be able to get a £2 discount by presenting a voucher, which will appear in the newspaper. The EDP will also be available at the festival from the EDP stand.

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