We can question for a while what kind of car BYD will be, but with Mercedes brand on top of Electric Car question will be how much consumer will be ready to pay for "feel good" top auto brand experience. Race is hitting on and mainstream media reporting horror stories about Chinese domination of Rare Earth Elements markets: REE and Lithium necessary for building Electric Dreams.
"Mercedes-Benz will take its first step towards the production of an electric car when it unveils the BlueZero E-cell Plus concept at this month’s Frankfurt motor show.
Riding on a modified version of the existing A-class platform, the third in a series of BlueZero concept cars features a range-extender petrol/electric powertrain like the Vauxhall Ampera’s, and it will go into limited production next year.
Riding on a modified version of the existing A-class platform, the third in a series of BlueZero concept cars features a range-extender petrol/electric powertrain like the Vauxhall Ampera’s, and it will go into limited production next year.
Using the A-class’s sandwich floor to house an 18kWh lithium ion battery pack, as in the first BlueZero E-cell concept shown in Detroit in January, the Plus adds a 50kW (67bhp) petrol engine.
Taken from the Smart, the three-cylinder unit is also rear-mounted in the E-cell Plus. It is mated to a generator to provide energy for an electric motor, the sole drive for the front wheels.
Producing 70kW (94bhp) and 236lb ft, the electric motor is said to push the E-cell Plus to 62mph in under 11sec and on to a top speed of 93mph.
The 4200mm-long five-door hatch, whose styling provides clues to the appearance of the next B-class (due in 2012), is claimed to have a range on a single charge of 62 miles, which extends to 373 miles on a single tank of fuel when the range extender starts operating. The batteries take less than 30 minutes to recharge.
The Blue Zero will keep Mercedes’ patented flat-floor sandwich body architecture in production, but the next A-class and B-class models will make a dramatic switch to a more conventional and cheaper-to-make platform that eschews a flat floor for conventional footwells.
Greg Kable"
1 comment:
It is great to hear such a big company as Mercedes Benz and backing the idea of electric cars and have come up with a fabulous model, which not only gives a normal un-alien like look with a fabulous interior, but a hope that electric cars will be common on the road, and something everyone wants and needs. Since GM destroyed all its EV1s most car companies have shied away from the idea, maybe they just don't want to spend so much on creating something that might fail. But now that Mercedes Benz, a great and well known car company has created the BlueZero E-Cell, which hopefully more people will grow to love and want in the future, and will not let it fail like many pervious electric cars, costing millions. But like you said, the big question is, will the consumers want to pay so much, double if not triple the amount of a car they can get already, which still might not top other standards on a normal gas engine? But then again, who doesn't want to have that feel good, eco, top auto brand, experience car to own? Hopefully this is the car of the future. Well known company, well known cars and performance, fabulous new model... I hope this will succeed.
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