oxford speed has always been paramount for supercar makers and now theyre in the race of their lives to go electric before climate policy cuts their combustion enginesthats why the likes of ferrari and mercedesbenz are turning to startups such as oxfordbased electric motor company yasa for expertise and technology to solve the unique challenges of electrifying the highestperformance vehiclesbatteries are immensely heavy and electric motors overheat if driven too hard big problems for a niche industry that charges hundreds of thousands of dollars for lightweight cars capable of screaming round 10 laps of a track at full throttlethis year daimler bought yasa which has developed an axial flux highperformance electric motor that weighs 23 kg 507 lb a fraction of a near300 kg v12 engine in a ferrari and is about the size and shape of a steering wheelyasa already makes motors for ferrari swedish supercar maker koenigsegg plus an unnamed british supercar company it will now supply the highperformance amg brand at daimler which will soon assume the name of its car business mercedesbenzbased just a few miles from yasa saietta has developed a range of watercooled axial flux motors the company is gearing up to produce motors for the vast asian motorbike market but told reuters it had created a larger prototype and was in talks with one hypercar maker and that two others had expressed interestthese manufacturers know combustion engines forwards backwards and inside out said saietta chief commercial officer graham lenden but they dont know electric powertrains and what theyre looking for is someone to hold their handyet this is uncharted territory with no clear road map to electric for highperformance vehicles yet supercar makers will have to invest billions of dollars to survive the disappearance of combustion engines with no guarantee that the technologies they adopt will pay off in the long termweight is the enemysupercars and the highestend hypercars both sportscars that verge on professional racing level performance are a highly profitable capital intensive niche market for automakersconsultancy alixpartners and data firm ihs markit estimate more than 152000 luxury and super luxury sportscars ranging in price from 100000 to 10 million pounds 137000137 million will be sold globally in 2021 with the market expected to rise nearly 50 to 223000 cars in 2026yasa founder woolmer said though that his companys longterm brief from daimler was to bring the costs down in future iterations of its motor so the german carmaker can use them across its entire car range as it shifts to electricautomotive technology doesnt scale to volume overnight you tend to start with the premium niche sectors woolmer saysmakers of highperformance electric cars will ultimately have to find ways to develop lighter more powerful batteries but as todays battery technology cannot compete with the sustained power of a petrol engine they are also rethinking everything from electric motors to car body materialsaxial flux electric motors are flat round devices dubbed pancakes that are lighter and more efficient