That's appropriate, considering its target market: scenic, traditional towns and cities. It's like a little city runabout you'd see in an early Bond movie. It even has bamboo floors and those awesome fan doors.
According to the Italian design house, the Nido EV is a "veritable laboratory designed both to explore the electrification of a small city car and to develop a modular floorpan."
The 2,905mm-long two seater prototype uses a tubular steel frame, but the final version will have a lighter aluminium space frame. Pininfarina claims that the structure was designed to be able spawn up to four different, completely electric or hybrid vehicles including two-seater, 2+2, pickup and van models.
Other than some potential spin-offs using the Model S platform (like an electric GT), there's a lot of capacity. That's where Toyota steps in. Toyota and Tesla will be working together to develop electric vehicles. their parts, and the engineering behind them.
The new facility will hire up to 1,000 new employees initially from one of the brightest pools around: Silicon Valley.
The rotary engine is mounted in place of the fuel tank, which has shrunk to 12 liters / 3.2 gallons. It gives the little city car an extra 190 miles of road to travel on top of its 50-mile electric range.
The "Black Current" bug is powered by a pair of forklift truck motors with 60 12 volt batteries and a Gearvendor over/under drive unit. This set-up is said to produce around 1200lb/ft of torque offering the Beetle EV a 0-60mph time of around 3 seconds.
The Valencia Plant also will produce the seven-seat version of the minivan called the Grand C-MAX for export to North America beginning in late 2011.
"The Hybrid Electric and Plug-In Hybrid Electric derivatives of the all-new Ford C-MAX are great news for the Valencia plant and region, for Spain, and for Ford customers across Europe, said John Fleming, CEO of Ford of Europe
China's BAIC (Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Co.) opened its own dedicated alternate propulsion division a while back in the form of the Beijing New Energy Automotive Company. Now that's a name that rolls off the tongue.
B-NEAC's goal is to build a few hundred test vehicles as taxis that would be rechargeable throughout Beijing. If the taxis are successful, stage two would consist of building a bunch more and lease them directly to the public.
According to Volkswagen, in 2013, the production Golf Blue-e-Motion that's powered by a 115HP electric motor will be joined by the new Up blue-e-motion city car (previewed by the Up! concept series) and the technically closely-related Jetta blue-e-motion.
In the same timeframe, the Lavida blue-e-motion sedan, which was shown in concept form at last week's Beijing Motor Show, will also launch in China.
The "Golf blue-e-motion" concept, which was presented today to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is powered by an electric motor integrated in the engine compartment driving the front wheels. It produces 85kW or 115-horsepwoer and a maximum torque of 270Nm or 199 lb-ft right from a stop.
Claimed to have "supercar performance in a city car's size", Atomik's 500 features a bunch of fancy tech under its carbon fiber skin: "high performance LiFePO4 batteries", brushless synchronous motors, two new transmissions (resulting in permanent AWD), a ceramic heater, and a carbon/Nomex rear chassis (by the way, Nomex is what Batman's suit is made out of).
General Motors said that the it build more pre-production Amperas in the coming months. The pre-production vehicles will not be sold at dealerships, but used for testing and validating the production intent design as well as developing the final vehicle software and control.
"With this innovative vehicle, designed from the ground up, we will be creating new benchmarks for electric mobility from 2013 on, said BMW Chairman Norbert Reithofer. "Our Megacity Vehicle will be significantly lighter than conventional cars and, in terms of sustainability, will set a new standard across the entire value-added chain."
The car is currently being developed as part of BMW Group's "project i" programme and will be available under a sub-brand of BMW, comparable to the firm's "M" badge. In other words, expect to see something in the likes of 'E' or 'EV' series.
Big things first: power comes from GM's lithium ion T-battery and a 1.4 liter engine generator, as one would expect. The battery will provide 51.5 km / 32 miles per charge, while the gasoline generator contributes an extra 482 km / 299.5 miles.
So, what is it other than a smaller Orlando with a Volt nose-job and power train? An expander, that's what. This model is GM's next step in creating a new sub-brand within GM, much like Audi's upcoming e-tron line.
The mini-MPV-esque show car measures just 3.73 meters in length, 1.66 meters in width and 1.60 meters in height, making it shorter and narrower than the Fox. It features a single swivel-sliding door on the passenger's side that opens in a forward direction.
Volkswagen says that the Milano Taxi concept is capable of carrying two passengers at the rear in comfort with legroom at the back measuring a luxury-saloon-rivaling 120mm. To improve space, the car uses the front passenger seat to carry luggage.
As noted by our friends over at GM Inside News, the compact people carrier depicted in the drawings appears to be the same vehicle seen standing alongside the forthcoming Chevrolet Orlando MPV in a leaked video last year (see photo on the right).
It's been rumored that GM is planning to introduce a compact crossover prototype equipped with the Volt's extended range electric / gasoline powerplant at this month's Beijing Auto Show.
The French automaker said that customers in Europe and in a few more select countries including Singapore, South Africa and Russia, who are interested in the two models can pre-reserve their vehicle at "www.renault-ze.com" with first deliveries expected in the first half of 2011.
The Fluence Z.E. will be built at the OYAK-Renault factory in Bursa, Turkey, on the same production line as the internal combustion engine-powered versions of Fluence.
It goes without saying that the folks from the BMW Group didn't bring the MINI E to the notorious Nürburgring-Nordschleife circuit to break any records but to show that their all-electric test vehicle can manage a respectable lap time on the 'Ring.
The 2011 XJ-based Limo Green makes use of a Chevy Volt-like hybrid powertrain with a range extending gasoline engine that was developed in conjunction with Lotus, MIRA and Caparo.
According to SGL ACF LLC, the end result will be carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) "used for BMW Group's upcoming Megacity Vehicle." They're referring to what will be the end result of BMW's Project i, a mode of transport "designed for fully electric, zero-emission driving."
The actual MSRP (not including applicable tax, title and license fees) for the Leaf is $32,780, but there's a $7,500 federal tax credit which brings the price down to $25,280 for the entry-level version. According to the automaker, the Leaf can leased for a monthly payment beginning at $349.
Nissan said that there is an array of state and local incentives that may further reduce the costs such as a $5,000 statewide tax rebate in California; a $5,000 tax credit in Georgia; a $1,500 tax credit in Oregon; and carpool-lane access in some states, including California.
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