Ultralight Construction

Assuming an engine/drivesystem efficiency of 15–20 percent, it takes five to seven units of fuel energy to deliver one unit of energy to the wheels of a conventional car. Turning this around by saving energy at the wheels offers immensely amplified savings at the fuel tank. That's why the Hypercar^® concept starts with ultralight, low-drag design.

Making the car lighter reduces both rolling resistance and the amount of power (and therefore fuel) needed for acceleration and hill-climbing. For the driver, that means a nimble car that's peppier and/or more fuel-efficient to drive.

The single biggest opportunity for making the car lighter is to replace much of the steel in the body and chassis with new materials such as Advanced Composites (and in some cases light metals). This allows other components — such as the engine and transmission — to be made smaller and lighter (since they don't have to transfer as much power to the wheels to carry an otherwise heavy body and chassis), not to mention less expensive. These mass reductions in turn allow the car's suspension to be even lighter (and less expensive) because it doesn't have to support as heavy a body, engine, transmission, and so on. This principle is called "mass decompounding."