Gordon Murray Working on Green City Car

Gordon Murray, former Formula One race car designer, is working on a city car based on lightweight materials that could come in hybrid, all-electric and gas versions. While the Surrey, UK-based venture, Gordon Murray Designs, has been pretty stealthy over the past year, the Wall Street Journal today has some more details on the startup in a story on green cars.

Murray tells the WSJ that he’s working on 14 variations of the vehicle, and the cars will be have a variety of power trains. The angle of Murray’s firm is to leverage the team’s background in lightweight plastic composite materials used in the Formula One cars. Murray says he doesn’t plan to build or sell the cars through his own firm, but wants to sell the car design to a car company or a big corporation “like Sony.” The company makes the bold prediction on its web site:

When this new class of vehicle is adopted by one or more manufacturers a quantifiable reduction in fuel usage emissions and road congestion will be achieved within 2 years of start up.

Gordon Murray Designs was launched July 2007 and is one of the newer startups looking to design greener cars with backing from Silicon Valley firms; the startup is backed by Mohr Davidow Ventures. On Murray’s web site, the company calls the car “Type 25″ and says it will be 400 kg lighter than most small cars based on its size, design and material selection.