The New Electric Ariel Nomad Is The Frog-Shaped Future Of Off-Roading
Image: Ariel Motor
Ariel recently revamped its Nomad off-road buggy, which it now calls Nomad 2, creating a better all-around car from the ground up. Now, the company has unveiled a streamlined version of the open-cockpit off-roader fitted with a powerful Cascadia Motion electric motor and a rack of batteries for quiet and torquey terrain ripping power. This so-called E-Nomad concept is still extremely lightweight, which is exactly what Ariel is good at. I bet it’s an absolute riot to drive.
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Image: Ariel Motor
Looking a bit like a little green frog wearing a matching hat, the E-Nomad has an interesting, if cutesy, look. Especially when compared to its stripped-down weapons-grade Nomad 2 siblings. The new composite body panels (crafted from flax instead of carbon) give the car a much more aerodynamic shape than the tubes and floorpan shape of the gas Nomad. This slightly unwieldy body cuts drag from the standard model by 30 percent, helping you go just a bit farther.
Image: Ariel Motor
Weighing an impressively light 1,975 pounds, this electric machine is only 400 pounds heavier than it would be with a Ford Focus ST engine slung out back. The E-Nomad carries a 41 kWh battery pack, and according to Ariel it’ll go about 150 miles on a full charge. Put it on a DC fast charger and it’ll fill back up from 20 to 80 percent in 25 minutes. So what do you get out of that swap to electric? The E-Nomad’s electric motor puts out 282 horsepower and 361 lb-ft of torque. It’ll run from 0-60 in what I assume is an extremely traction-limited 3.4 seconds.
Image: Ariel Motor
Simon Saunders, Ariel Director: “While the E-Nomad is a concept, it does show production intent for the vehicle and hints at just a small part of Ariel’s future. Once it has been through our usual, gruelling testing regime we could opt to add E-Nomad alongside its ICE Nomad 2 sibling, so we’ll take great interest in customer feedback on the concept car.”
Image: Ariel Motor
It seems like this car would be easily feasible for production. Don’t forget that Ariel is already developing its Hipercar lightweight electric sports car with 1,180 horsepower for production. This would be a comparatively light lift for the tiny British automaker. This isn’t even the first time a Nomad has been fitted with an electric motor, as Borgwarner built one back in 2019!
