Bolloré reports 3,300 reservations for electric Pininfarina BlueCar
Pininfarina B0 concept - Click above for a high-res gallery
Back at the beginning of March, Pininfarina began accepting reservations for the new electric BlueCar hatchback, which it co-designed with French battery maker Bolloré. According to the Bolloré Group's latest financial report, the firms have already collected a whopping 3,300 orders for the electric hatchback.
Pininfarina is planning to lease the BlueCar for €330 per month and hopes to produce 10,000 cars in 2010, 20,000 in 2011 and 30,000 units in 2012. Each machine is powered by an electric motor with 68 horsepower (50 kW) and relies on a lithium polymer battery pack to provide a range of about 155 miles (250 kilometers) per 5-hour charge. Initially, the BlueCar will be available in France, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain and Switzerland, but plans are currently in place to bring the vehicle to the United States and Asia. Thanks for the tip, Luca!
Gallery: Pininfarina B0
[Source: Reuters via NoevelObs.com (translated)]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zeph 9:43AM (4/14/2009)
Lease? Do they think people don't remember the EV1 fiasco? No, just sell the damn things. Anyone else get the impression that the auto industry dosen't really want to do electric? That consumer demand is deafening in it's forced silence? That oil interests overshadow the whole situation?
Build them, sell them, stop dragging your feet carmakers, it's time already. If not, just roll over and die and let the electric upstarts pick up the slack.
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paulwesterberg 9:49AM (4/14/2009)
$438 per month - still a little pricey for leasing, but this is my favorite of the new electric designs and I would probably sign up if they sold it here.
I think they have access to manufacture them in Montreal.
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jharlan 10:36AM (4/14/2009)
It's still too expensive. You enter into a contract for this lease and within a year there will be equivalent cars available for much less. If you have to have an EV now, this one looks better than most. Not that many usable EVs are on the showroom floor right now, but dozens will be within a year or 2. As the competition heats up, the price will be driven down. Patience here is golden.
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onlineo 12:05PM (4/14/2009)
If you think that in 2 years time there will be lots of EV's running around for sale, I think you will be sadly mistaken. Having followed the slow EV progress for the last 3 years, I can tell you that most EV's will be very late, sold in small numbers at high prices or scrapped. For some companies they are just PR for there design talent. I would love this not to be true, but you will need to wait 5 years minimum before you can get an EV at a fairly reasonable price, and prob 10-20 years until they become competitive with petrol and diesel for the mass market.
If you like this car and want one next year I would order straight away as I bet they wont even manage to produce 5,000 cars in 2010. Good luck, and I hope many companies make it.
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cephus 5:09PM (4/14/2009)
Taking my three main criteria into account for a reasonable EV, this one is the best I've seen:
Range is well over my needs, as I rarely take a trip over 200 km.
Top speed of 130 km/h as specified on their site fits my driving profile (even on the Autobahn)
price meets or beats what I pay for my current ICE car (including gas at 1.23 per liter as it stands right now in Germany)
I also like the solar panel roof. But what about the batteries? On the site, they mention the battery is a Lithium Metal Polymer battery, solid state. Is that a capacitor? will it lose charge when not in use like other solid state batteries do? If so, how fast? And can the solar panel recharge it as fast as it's losing charge?
So many questions, but such a pretty car :-) Nice to see something like this in Europe.
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Chris M 2:46AM (4/15/2009)
A lithium polymer battery is not a capacitor, it uses a special polymer for the electrolyte between the electrodes. Since the electrolyte is a solid gel, the battery won't leak if punctured, and I think that's what they were referring to by "solid state". .
These batteries will slowly loose charge over time, like most batteries do, but it would take months to loose a significant amount of charge when unused and not recharged.
Paul 3:27AM (4/15/2009)
Good news, it doesn't sound like they're putting their hand out like Tesla and asking for $5,000 per car before the factory is even built!
How long before Ev makers like this stop being so anal about battery warranty liablility and actually sell the things?? Doesn't show much product confidence!
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Jean 3:41PM (4/27/2009)
The car uses both a battery and capacitors. The later are used to provide higher instantaneous power while increasing the lifetime of the Lithium battery.
The lease is reasonable and may be reassuring in case of technical failure of the car during its lifetime. That said I would also have the option to buy the car.
I would also like to have the option to buy or lease a smaller range EV - 100 km -. The smaller range means lower upfront cost and lower operating cost because Lithium batteries die after a number of years even if not used. I would be happy to rent additional batteries occasionally for longer trips.
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Daniele 11:34AM (5/02/2009)
Hello there,
here is my personal video about Bluecar, maded past in Geneva. Enjoy it !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wyZMSS7MGk
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pabs333 7:34AM (9/21/2009)
Any news on this?....
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