Renault DeZir: 'leccy sex machine Renault has released more information — and a series of teaser images — of its DeZir concept car, set to debut at October's Paris Motor Show. Renault DeZir concept car The Renault DeZir, inspired by 'liquid sensation, wave-like movement and contrasts in light' The all-electric two seater, Renault claims, will accelerate …
or French cars.
But that is damned sexy. And an 80 mile range with a 20 minute charge (at home, from mains-charged battery & inverter and at work, through the 3-phase line + expensive coffee for the boss & building manager) sounds pretty much perfect for 90% of my driving.
If they can pull it into a decent price bracket, I'd actually consider buying it.
Your kidding, it's got a Kevlar body.
So this, despite (hopefully) having a stupily low kerb weight (minus engine) it has an utterly has a crap range.
So when (if) it goes into production with an ali body (most likely) , the range will drop. Unless they keep the massivley expensive kevlar body.
Bring on the Porsche.
...it's still a Renault, and I therefore wouldn't buy it if it cost a fiver. But then maybe I just hate French cars. It's the styling- even in this one, it's just all wrong. And what's with the Delorean doors? Apart from anything else, all your spare change, sweet wrappers, and used tissues will fall out of the door pockets every time you open them.
Well, sort of. It was bought up by a russian 24-year-old with a promise to keep it British... then he shifted the IP to his own company, announced a shift of the manufacturing to Turin and sacked a bunch of employees.
By the looks of things, they're shifting to the US now.
TVR _should_ be the UK's biggest manufacturer. I mean it produced cars that punched waay above their weight in terms of performance / cost, sounded fantastic and had styling that made the Italian's best efforts look a bit pedestrian.
... and bring back Nicole to advertise it.
My commute to work is around 5miles each way, so a full charge would last the week and more. But to travel anywhere more meaningfull would require a round trip of almost 100miles (45miles to the nearest large city).
So not much use for anything other than commuting, which is a shame - coz it sure is purty.
That'll be a refreshing change from the numb-arse-and-sciatica comfort that Renault seats are more usually associated with.
Then again, the longer quote following that would seem to suggest that they wrote the PR while smoking something seriously illegal anyway, so it's probably bollocks.
if you drive at 25 mph, or a range of 2.5 miles if you drive like Clarkson.
When will people realise, at the moment, that electric powered vehicles have 2 uses
1) Delivering milk
2) Defeating the congestion charge
They wont be any good until, until they take 3 mins to charge and you can do 1000 miles on a charge, at that point they will be kinda interesting.
Batteries will always suck for cars anyway, hydrogen fuel cells are the way forward with wind/wave/solar providing the leccy for the hydrogren to be produced.
BUT for a daily drive such as to work and back 100 miles would be more than enough for most people.
I think you will find that most people do far less than 100 miles a day, and rarely go beyond that kind of range. So most people can benefit from these types of cars, particularly 2 car families where their other one is a normal oil fuelled model for the occasional long drive.
Personally I drive a 10 mile each way trip to and from work and would happily drive something like this (although not necessarily this particular car) if it could make my daily drive cheaper, as well as more fun. Unfortunately the cost of the cars at this time are likely to make it more expensive, but I don't think we're too far off from getting decent priced electric cars.
Admittedly a 100 mile range is a little on the low side, but the Tesla already demonstrates much longer ranges which are likely to get much better over the next few years. No oil fuelled cars I know of can do 1000 miles on one tank of fuel, so why would you expect it from an electric car?
... until it is as convenient as petrol/diesel. I want a range of at least 450 miles (equivalent to my current Subaru's range) at motorway speeds, refuelling from empty to full in 5 minutes maximum, and the ability to carry a cheap, lightweight backup just in case I run out of fuel, which can be applied quickly at the side of the road (or up a Derbyshire white in the middle of the night). Electric does not seem to meet any, let alone all, of these criteria, nor do they look likely to be met in the near future. And, to be honest, nothing else is close, either.
It costs an order of magnitude less to charge an electric car than the equivilent petrol cost, there are zero emissions and considerably less unwanted noise.
The combined effects of Peak Oil and Climate Change mean that trying to maintain the status quo simply isn't a smart option.
Really, you ruined your argument right there.
What makes your electricity? The free energy monster? We still are not a a stage where renewable or clean power generation are effective. Therefore you are still causing emissions. Just because they are not right under your nose does not mean they are not there.
Though an argument of less localised pollution would have been better.
hoist by your own petard there I'm afraid......where do you think that wonderful electricity comes from?
A better option still at the moment is an LPG conversion for a standard petrol engined car. Half the price for the fuel, >80% of the range/performance and the only thing coming out of the exhaust is water vapour.
Until you can provide VERY large scale solar/wind/geo-thermal electricity generators or accept that nuclear power is an option then you are stuck with fossil-fuelled power stations making electric cars a poor option taking into account transmission losses etc.
..but it really isn't just water that comes out of the exhaust. It does actually make CO2 when it burns, just like any other hydrocarbon.
Still, the part about needing cheap, pollution-free electricity generation before being able to claim that electric cars are environmentally friendly is true enough.
There is one other point though. I get the impression that the manufacturers and dealers are much less happy about the reliability of electric vehicles in general -
... electric motors have fewer parts to wear out than an oil burner
... the need for an expensive and complex transmission is more or less eliminated due to the different torque characteristics
... there is no problem with lubricants being burned while the engine is operating, hence regular oil changes are not necessary
... reduced wear and tear on brakes since dynamic braking & KERS are such a natural fit
So it may be much harder for dealers & garages to justify so much servicing. Of course, it may just happen that charges per hour go up substantially to compensate for the reduced number of hours of work required, like they did with the improvements in reliability of cars between the '80s and now.....
Bit more relevant...
"Ginetta enter the low carbon vehicle arena for the first time with their Ginetta G50 Electric Vehicle. Using 100% electric power, this two-seater sports car is capable of 120 mph and has a range of 250 miles on a full charge."
http://www.ginettacars.com/roadcar_range_details.php?id=5
.... they haven't considered the requirements of the future economy. Most people won't buy one unless they HAVE TO. (ie, no more oil. )
.... now just bear with me, and imagine one of these parked behind the business end of a horse at a roundabout.
On the other hand, why bother with batteries at all, and go the "scalextric" route?
Its real range is 50 miles! 50 there, 50 back! Unless of course you can use the electricity at your destination, also batteries fade after a few years/ few months
They need battery stations where you pay to have the battery removed and replaced with freshly charged ones, two mins with a forklift sorted :)
Also means the clock / radio / security would need a CR2032 like a motherboard! :)
Interesting comment, that.
I've wondered how Toyota's Prius batteries are doing, now that they have a good few years on them. Also, as an electric car needs no fiddling with engine timing or regular motor lubricant replacement, do battery replacements every 5th year (or so) total the same as 5 years of engine tuning and oil changes? Surely the savings in petrol count for something too.
Carbon neutrality is all well and good, but what of the economics of the thing?
We should be told...
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