Video: Interview with Cyril Lacroix about the Heuliez Friendly
Introduced last fall during the Paris Motor Show, the Heuliez Friendly is a French electric car with promising and realistic intentions. Heuliez is known for making short series of cars (such as the Opel Tigra TwinTop) and the retractable tops of Peugeots, so it's not a total newcomer to the auto market. Le Blog Auto interviewed Cyril Lacroix, chief developer at Heuliez, and got all the details on where the Friendly is today. We already knew that it's going to use nickel metal hydride batteries and that three different motors will be offered (offering 7, 18 or 25 kW).
The battery pack will offer an expected range of 100 km (60 miles) but two additional packages will be offered as options, so autonomy can be extended to 250 km (160 miles). It's also interesting to know that the Friendly is not an NEV, as it can reach highway speeds of 120 km/h (75mph). It can seat 3+1 like the Toyota iQ and Heuliez will offer three body styles and probably a van version. The best part, however, was getting confirmation that the car will go on sale April next year, with prices starting at €10,000. It shouldn't cost a fortune to maintain, although batteries are expected to last just four years or about 2,000 charge/recharge cycles. Watch the complete video in French after the jump.
[Source: Le Blog Auto]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Scott Leon 5:02PM (2/04/2009)
€ 10 000 = 12 856 U.S. dollars
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GoodCheer 5:27PM (2/04/2009)
"although batteries are expected to last just four years or about 2,000 charge/recharge cycles."
Er... 500 charge cycles per year? More than one a day? I would normally use 250 cycles/year as a lifetime estimate.... are they just being really conservative?
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Herm 9:15PM (2/04/2009)
As a second car it would be great, good for mom's daily driving around, great for students driving to school also. I also think the 500 charges a day is way too much. You could fit four of these in a typical 2 car garage :)
The cost is incredibly low, hopefully they can keep to it.
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jharlan 10:06PM (2/04/2009)
This could be a real winner because of the reasonable initial cost. By the time the batteries need replacement, it is possible (in fact probable) that replacement batteries would be better and less expensive.
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