Indian Car Blog – Carazoo.com

The world is acknowledging the word “Green” and how? Two of the world’s largest car firms kicked off trials of their flagship electric vehicles in the UK as part of a nationwide pilot scheme backed by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).

Mitsubishi’s electric i-MiEVs and BMW’s electric Mini were both distributed to participants in the trial, which is intended to inform both the development of the yet-to-be-released vehicles and the government’s wider electric car strategy.

In the trial that began in Oxford, about 40 customers picked up their Mini electric car as part of a pilot scheme for six months that has seen a special charging points fitted at the homes of the successful applicants and data collection devices fitted to each of the Mini Es.
This was to evaluate the psychological, social and technical aspects of living with an electric car. The information will be collected by Oxford Brookes University and then made publicly available.

The Mini E is based on the Mini hatchback, but the back seat is converted to store batteries. The 35kWh lithium-ion battery powers a 201bhp electric motor, which provides similar acceleration to a standard mini.

BMW, which owns Mini claims that the overall CO2 emissions from the car equates to roughly 68g/km, which is around half the CO2 emitted by a 1.25l Ford Fiesta. It also adds that the emissions related to the vehicle would fall over time as more renewable energy plays a greater role in the UK’s energy mix. It added that each full charge will give the vehicle a range of about 150 miles.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi’s pilot scheme has seen 25 i-MiEVs, the electric version of its compact four-seat, four-door, rear-engined “i” city car, distributed to customers in the midlands.

The cars were distributed as part of the £15m Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Vehicle Demonstrators (Cabled) project, which will ultimately see 110 vehicles trialed in Birmingham and Coventry. Under the scheme, Indian auto giant Tata Motors will contribute 25 electric Indicas, Microlab will provide 10 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Land Rover is to supply five Range_e plug-in hybrids and LTI will provide five electric taxis.

E.ON, Birmingham City Council and Coventry City Council will also install electrical charging points for the vehicles and arrange access to the University of Birmingham’s hydrogen refuelling station. The launch of the trials came as business secretary Lord Mandelson announced plans for a new £19m competition to help accelerate the development of electric vehicles. More details of the competition are expected to be announced in February.

posted by admin @ Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 9 Comments » link to this post

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