SmartPlanet.com drives the smart ed. We're jealous
Thanks to tipster Adam, we've read the first review of the smart ed, and now we wish even more that we could buy one for ourselves. If you've never heard of ed, as we like to call it, smart's U.K. operations has made available an electric version of the diminutive microcar to companies willing to power it using electricity generated only from renewable means. So far, the general public is unable to purchase ed, no matter where they live. This is a real shame, because it sounds like ed's a perfect little electric city runabout. Being able to reach 60 miles per hour and travel for 72 miles in between charging in a near-silent and completely non-polluting - not to mention safe - car really does sound smart.
Ed uses a sodium-nickel chloride battery along with a Zytek electric motor and is able to hit 30 miles per hour from a dead stop in 6.5 seconds. Not bad for a city car! Also, that 60 mile per hour top speed is electronically limited, so there could be enough power for highway travel, depending on how long the stretch of roadway is. In short, the smart ed is a real car, one that just happens to be powered by electrons. We want.
[Source: Smart Planet, thanks Adam!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph 5:58PM (3/06/2008)
It uses sodium-nickel chloride batteries? No wonder it's so slow! I don't know why they would want to use those batteries for their test fleet. They operate at a very high temperature and have low-power output, and aren't mass-produced at all. However, I believe I've heard that they're durable.
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Matthijs 7:04PM (3/06/2008)
Here you can hear the reason the general public is unable to purchase an Smart EV (ED) Bla Bla Bla.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaxaXJogy4A
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mike 7:10PM (3/06/2008)
Gosh, it's taking a long time to get an EV.
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rgseidl 2:31AM (3/07/2008)
I expect the reason the EV version of the smart isn't yet available to the public is that it's a project pushed by the sales organization in the UK, rather than engineering at HQ in Germany. The price point at which the version would be profitable is another. Finally, someone in HQ may strongly favor compact Li-ion technology over the relatively bulky Zebra battery.
All of this is a great shame because Daimler is missing a golden opportunity for the smart brand, especially in the UK and in US, where consumers intuitively expect the fortwo to be an electric vehicle. As a fringe benefit, an EV version should be able to make do without the manumatic Americans are complaining about.
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