Hasta La Gadget!

Italian industrial firm Tazzari has announced preliminary specs and launched a new website for its plug-in auto, the Zero. Measuring 113.5 inches long and sporting 15-inch wheels, the city-bound electric car weighs in at 1,200 pounds — 312 of that from the lithium-ion Fe battery. It’ll handle 88 miles with a full charge that takes 9 hours to fill, but you can reportedly juice up to 80% in just 50 minutes. Top speed is 56 MPH, so don’t expect to be driving this on the highway, and it can go from 0 to 31 in under 5 seconds. The company says it’s due out later this year in Europe and the Carribean for less than 20,000 Euros ($25,760), and yes, there’s a dozen Crayola-inspired colors available. Hit up the official site for a trailer.

[Via Autoblog Green]

Read – Preliminary specs
Read – Official Tazzari Zero website

Filed under: Transportation

Tazzari Zero’s preliminary specs released originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ford Motor Co. and Canadian-based Magna International are working on an electric vehicle that Ford plans to bring to market in America by 2011, putting it in potential competition with GM’s Chevy Volt due around the same time, according to the Detroit News.

The report said that Magna surprised Ford back in September, following months of talks, by driving up one day in a Ford Focus that Magna had converted to battery power on their own in secret. “It was a phenomenal car,” said Lisa Drake, Ford’s chief engineer for hybrid programs, in the report. “We were highly, highly impressed.”

Fast forward four months: Executive chairman Bill Ford Jr. told the press gathered in Cobo Arena plans to bring a car based on that prototype to market in 2011. Ford has been racing plug-in hybrid versions of the Ford Escape on testing grounds, but is now pursuing this joint venture with Magna in a pure battery-powered vehicle in tandem.

The report said that the production vehicle being developed with Magna will be based on the new global Focus platform, due out in 2010. “The electric version will have no gasoline motor, but will be limited to a range of 100 miles on a single charge—enough, Ford says, because most motorists in America average less than 40 miles a day.”

Japanese minicar manufacturer Takeoka Jidosha Kogei’s Milieu R is the perfect car for anti-social folks, featuring only one seat and a range of 50km that’s just enough to make your commute while being limited enough to get you out of going to the bar afterward. Thus far those who socialize only with (very) small animals have been left out of the company’s offerings, but that all changes with this new prototype, the T10. It’s ever so slightly larger, gaining 90mm in length and 40mm in width, making room for a shelf to the left of the driver’s seat intended for some sort of pet (we’re guessing hamster, possibly a petite guinea pig). The other specs, including that 50 km range and top speed of 55 km/h, stay the same, meaning there’d still be no concerns about getting to work early or having to socialize afterward, but we’re not sure its charming looks make up for a price tag set to be somewhere north of ¥856,000 (about $9,520); awfully close to that of a “real” car. At least it looks a little safer than the HUVO.

Filed under: Transportation

Takeoka Jidosha Kogei’s electric minicar gets slightly more macro, even more cute originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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General Motors is extending its extended-range electric car line across the Atlantic Ocean with the planned introduction of the Opel Ampera at the Geneva Auto Show in March. Opel is GM’s European subsidiary and and the Ampera shares the same drivetrain as the Chevrolet Volt as well as with the Cadillac Converj (see Electric Cars Take Center Stage at Detroit Auto Show) that was introduced at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show this month. The five-door, four-seat Ampera will run for up to 60 km (36 miles) on electric power and then switch to an internal combustion engine for as long as the gas tank or your bladder holds out. The lithium ion batteries will charge on 230-volt electric power; in the U.S. there are options for 120 volt charging (slow but 120 VAC is probably already in your garage) or 230 volts (only in the garage if you’ve got an electric dryer).

Although the swoopy Aptera electric went up for pre-orders back in October of 2007, we haven’t really seen much of the futuristic car outside of the odd Star Trek cameo. Hopefully that’s about to change, though — the company just rolled out the first pre-production example its flagship model, the 2e. The three-wheeled car gets the equivalent of 200mpg, and the company claims the lithium-ion battery pack will last for 100 miles on a single charge. Aptera isn’t giving out final pricing information apart from “between $25,000 and $45,000” but it says over 4,000 potential customers have already signed up for a planned California-only October release. We’ll see how it goes — and we’d bet the folks at the Automotive X-Prize are keeping a sharp eye as well.

Filed under: Transportation

Aptera rolls out first pre-production vehicle, promises shipments in October originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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