Well you don’t get much news for a while and all of a sudden two things happen at once. Today, thanks to the guys at Better Place relaying this type of news, two prototypes of Zero Emission fully Electric Vehicles have been unveiled. One is by Renault, the other by Nissan. Now I’m a big fan of EVs and I really hope these will quickly replace the gas guzzlers (mine included) currently clogging our roads and warming the atmosphere. However, these vehicles still need to be viable for the market as it changes so let’s see what these new models have to offer.
The first is the Renault ZE. While thi sis still at the prototype stage, I’m having mixed feelings about this model. On the one hand it has innovative solutions like the gel padded bumpers, on the other, well let’s face it it’s ugly. In fact it just reminds me of those EVs that are currenly available for too much money and little if at all performance with only 2 seats and barely enough space at the back to store your shopping. I’m kinda hoping this will remain a “concept” car with lots of ideas to be applied to upcoming EVs which are morelikely to appeal to the general public (seriously, I’m really not sure about those fluorescent-tinted windows 😆 ). It looks like a toy actually, but … it’s still a step in the right direction.
The second one is the Nissan EV platform. It doesn’t seem to have a model name really but it’s due to be released in the US and Japan (but not the UK it seems 😥 ) by early 2010. Yes that’s right 2010. I’m not sure what sort of infrastructure they’ll use but it’ll be interesting to see how it sells. Performance-wise it can go up to 99 miles or so and go to speeds up to 107 mph (who needs to go faster than 85 anyway?). What I do like is the concept that the car communicates wirelessly with your smartphone to indicate the level of charcge so that for example, if you’re out shopping and you left your car at a charging point, you can receive a text message from your car telling you it’s now fully charged. IT also uses regenerative breaking so you don’t waste quite so much energy. So overall a pretty good model and it looks like a normal car too 🙂
Will we see those in the UK anytime soon? Well the Renault, probably not, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see them release a commercially viable prototype before the end of the year. The Nissan would be a reality if the construction of the infrastructure for such cars weren’t so confined to little pockets across the country…