Heuliez begins accepting orders for Friendly electric car in France
Last fall at the Paris Motor Show, auto parts supplier and part-time vehicle assembler Heuliez debuted an electric car called the Friendly. As of Thursday, the three-seat electric vehicles were made available for pre-order on the internet. Three different versions of the Friendly will be available, all sporting nickel metal hydride battery packs that offer a range of between 100 and 250 kilometers (60-155 miles). Starting price is 12,000 euros ($15,500 in the U.S.). A deposit of 10 euros reportedly places the purchaser on a priority ordering list and deliveries are expected to begin in February of 2010.
Earlier this month, Pininfarina and Bolloré put their French electric car up for order as well. Called the BlueCar, this EV will cost €330 per month to lease (no purchases) and will also be good for 250 kilometers (155 miles). What's the over/under on which one makes it to production first?
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lad 6:37PM (3/14/2009)
Rest easy everyone! There will be real, well engineered, all electric cars after the initial rush of new ideas and concepts to the market. These should start arriving in the 2010 model years, initally as plugin hybrids and BEVs, with the PHEVs handled by range extention ICEs and the BEVs range extention handled by battery swap out technology; then as fast charge more effenient batteries become available, the ICE will be less used and high power quick charge stations will become available. In any case, the future for cars is BEVs and renewable energy power stations supported by Vehicle to Grid battery storage over a smart grid.
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Stan Wellaway 7:08PM (3/14/2009)
I agree. These early-to-market novelty EVs help to keep the media actively interested, but half a dozen global carmakers will have their own EVs appearing in showrooms around the world in 2011,2012,2013. Before which, fleet orders for elctric vans and trucks will help establiosh volume production of batteries.
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Chris M 9:10PM (3/14/2009)
The flexibility of the electric drive systems allows an astonishing variety of designs to be used, from plain-jane practical to the really cool to the wildly flamboyant eccentrics. We'll be seeing ulra-streamlined EVs like Aptera, single person commuters like NMG, tandem seat arrangements like Tango and Persu, sports cars like the Roadster, 4 door sedans like the Model S, mini-vans, SUVs, and trucks. So, there's probably room in the market for a cute little micro-van like this, and just like some people loved the VW beetle, some folks will go for this. .
But even with the variety of shapes and sizes possible, I predict that most plug-ins sold will be the more ordinary looking conventional cars
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