Hennessey considering 745kW electric-powered Venom GT

Hennessey’s founder, John Hennessey, says his car company is toying with the idea of  swapping the Venom GT Spyder’s 1082kW supercharged 7.0-litre V8 for an all-electric powertrain that will generate at least 745kW.

This, says the car-maker, will ensure the pure-electric hypercar will retain its astonishing performance suggesting the electric Venom would still sprint, from standstill, to 100km/h in less than 2.5 seconds and top out at least 400km/h.

Speaking to Brit mag, Top Gear, the Hennessey said: “Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren have done a great job at proving that hybrid technology works, but I’m not interested in hybrids. I’d only do the Venom with an engine or as a straight electric”.

Investigations into converting the current Venom have already begun, according to Hennessey’s founder: “We’re considering doing something with electricity. We’ve looked at it and I’ve got friends in that field”.

What’s stopping Hennessey from progressing with converting the Venom to a zero-emission (tailpipe, at least) version of his hypercar is the Texas-based car-maker is in the middle of the development of its Venom GT-replacing F5.

Powered by a twin-turbo 7.0-litre V8 engine, the F5 will be capable of generating up to 1044kW, the follow-up to the Venom GT will be priced at roughly $1.28 million and be limited to just 30 units. Hennessey is likely to once again have a crack at beating the world's fastest production car record when it goes on sale in 2016.

The car-maker’s founder also said he was waiting for battery cell energy density to increase. Hennessey also added that the weight of next-generation batteries would also need to reduce substantially, before his vision of a lightweight electric-powered hypercar could be realised.