Check out this street-legal scaled-up 60 mph Tamiya R/C car that fits two adults
Have you ever sent an R/C car ripping across the dirt or asphalt and wondered what it would be like to shrink down and ride inside of it? Well, don’t be silly, that’s impossible. But don’t give up hope, either! The Little Car Company has done the next best thing: They’ve scaled one up so that you can get that same thrilling experience without going all Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Meet the new Tamiya Wild One MAX Launch Edition.
If you’re not familiar with Tamiya, that’s the Japanese model company that just might be single-handedly responsible for the R/C craze that exploded in the 1980s. Many of today’s leading engineers and designers got their start tinkering with Tamiya models and R/C cars, and the term “Tamiya Standard” has become an industry byword for quality to which others aspire.
Now one of the company’s most popular models, the Tamiya Wild One R/C car originally launched in 1985, is headed to the big leagues thanks to a licensing deal with The Little Car Company. It’s not the first time the company has reproduced scaled versions of popular cars to create reincarnated electric versions, but they’re usually shrinking them down instead of scaling them up. This time though, they’re working backwards. And that means the Tamiya Wild One MAX is ready for a significant upgrade.
UK-based The Little Car Company first unveiled plans to supersize the Tamiya R/C car a few years ago, but compared to earlier renders, the company has just unveiled a new version with several key design changes. It will now become part of a 100-unit Launch Edition for the upcoming open-wheeled fun-mobile.
The Little Car Company spent the last few years refining the design by using feedback from early reservation holders and its larger community. Major changes to the 500 kg (1,100 lb.) vehicle include replacing the original trailing arm front suspension with more sophisticated and higher performance dual-wishbone suspension, as well as smoothing the turrets that hold those coilover shocks for better visibility.
Many early adopters who put down the first deposits requested a two-seater setup instead of the classic single-seat design, and their wishes have been answered thanks to the inclusion of two Cobra bucket seats complete with four-point harnesses.
The Tamiya Wild One MAX Launch Edition is said to hit a top speed of 60 mph (96.5 km/h), which puts it at around 50% faster than the original R/C version. It also has a much larger battery, to the tune of 14.4 kWh. But in keeping with the original R/C car, the battery will be removable for charging outside of the vehicle, if necessary. In order to achieve that feat, the battery is divided into eight sub packs that are approximately the capacity of a Gogoro removable battery or large e-bike battery.
It’s all part of making the car as fun and as usable as possible, explained The Little Car Company’s CEO Ben Hedley:
We are absolutely thrilled to be one step closer to revealing our Tamiya Wild One MAX Launch Edition. Whilst there have undoubtedly been a few hurdles along the way with industry-wide supply issues, our team have done a tremendous job of bringing an R/C car to life at full size , and I couldn’t be prouder of them.
I want to thank all our Tamiya deposit holder community, who have provided us with some invaluable contributions and suggestions for how we can make the Wild One MAX the best possible vehicle. We have listened to every single one of them since the first unveiling and have taken their ideas on board. Their feedback has helped us develop a new type of vehicle which illustrates that electric cars can be fun, without having to rely on brain-scrambling acceleration. By simplifying the design and reducing weight, this car is a perfect example of not requiring 500 horsepower to make an enjoyable drivers’ car. We are incredibly excited to show you the finished car and can’t wait for everyone to experience it for themselves.
Speaking of making the car more usable, when asked if they would prefer a street-legal version of the Tamiya Wild One MAX, 95% of early reservation holders responded yes. To allow on-road operation, The Little Car Company will release the Launch Edition of the vehicle with a “road legal pack” in the UK and EU that qualifies the vehicle under L7e quadricycle regulations.
For US customers, the company is initially eyeing an LSV version, though is also exploring other options that wouldn’t require it to be limited to the rather slow 25 mph (40 km/h) speed from current LSV regulations in the US. Kit cars that could be assembled by the owner (just like the original Tamiya R/C cars!) and other options are being floated.
Performance testing on the vehicle is currently underway ahead of production slated for 2024. According to the company, a public unveiling will be coming later this year along with confirmed performance figures, range, and pricing.
Electrek’s Take
This project is positively steeped in nostalgia for anyone who grew up in the ’80s and enjoyed cars. Growing up as a ’90s kid myself, I have fond memories of playing my dad’s Tamiya Hornet R/C car, which was released in 1984, just a year before the Tamiya Wild One that has now graduated into The Little Car Company’s amazing creation unveiled today.
My biggest remaining questions are around pricing, power, and range – and those are also the three key figures that haven’t yet been released.
I’m guessing the vehicle won’t come cheap. For comparison, The Little Car Company’s slick-looking scaled-down Aston Martin DB5 (seen below) is priced at between £39,000–£90,000, which is around US $48,000–$112,000 or €45,000–€103,000, depending on the performance level.
Keep in mind though that the top end DB5 model has James Bond-style miniguns that pop out of the headlights along with other spy kit like an oil slick, rotating license plate holder, etc. So perhaps we’ll be looking at the lower end of that price range for the Tamiya.
But let’s just say that anyone who buys one of these cars isn’t hard up on cash. They’re likely a collector of finer things, and these big-little cars look pretty darn fine. With high-end lifted golf carts going for tens of thousands of dollars, I could see an adult-sized R/C car making some stiff competition.
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In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.
France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.
At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.
And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:
While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.
That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.
“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”
The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.
You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.
Electrek’s Take
MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.
He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”
With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.
SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.
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GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.
GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.
At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.
The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.
Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”
SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.
Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction
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