Sports Car Modification

The result of close technological collaboration between Venturi Automobiles and Michelin, the Venturi Volage, marks a major step forward in the evolution of the Automobile. This new Venturi incorporates innovations which have enabled radical changes in terms of the vehicle’s architecture, style, dynamic behaviour and, more generally, the design of a modern vehicle. All these changes constitute several world premières which, with the presentation of the Venturi Volage, reinforce Venturi’s capability for constant innovation, as well as its position as the most advanced company in the field of electric vehicles.

The Volage takes the electric sports car concept and really runs with it — the all carbon-fiber car is equipped with the first application we've seen of the Michelin Active Wheel, the compact unit using in-wheel electric drive motors is installed at all four corners with a suspension driven by a second set of e-motors. With 4 drive wheels with active suspension, the Venturi Volage has no equivalent. “Michelin Active Wheel” technology in fact incorporates 2 electric motors per wheel (1 for suspension and 1 for drive), ie. a total of 8 electric motors piloted in real time by spearhead electronics.

Playing down the mechanical aspect in favor of electronics, close to the concept of a robot, this car belongs to a new era, the digital era. Thanks to a dashboard touch screen, the driver can configure the vehicle entirely as he wishes. This total control marks significant progress in terms of management, particularly of the energy stored in the car’s batteries: the driver can, for example, decide to give preference in certain cases to range rather than power, comfort rather than speed, an important factor for an electric car.

The only part that the Venturi Volage shares with the Venturi Fétish is its carbon fiber bodywork. Developed by the Venturi Design Office, this body is still a unique concept worldwide, as it is the only one to have been specifically designed to be that of an electric car and thus carry batteries within its very structure. The ideal distribution of the Venturi Volage’s masses - 45% at the front, 55% at the rear – and its perfectly mastered weight of 1,075 kilos enable it to attain 100 km/hr (62 mph) in less than 5 seconds.

A real demonstration of spearhead technology, the car presented in its world première is entirely operational and prefigures the production of a limited series of this model, scheduled as from 2012. Like the Venturi Fétish assembled in our workshops in Monaco, the Venturi Volage will be assembled by hand, in the form of very limited production. 

The technological repercussions of these two cars positioned at the very top end of the market are to be found on other vehicles bearing the Venturi brand, enabling as many people as possible to benefit from the firm’s advances in the field of sustainable mobility.