Tuesday 10 January 2012

Road - Electric Beetle

Volkswagen has a number of new machines at the Detroit show, including this all-electric Beetle. The
two-seat E-Bugster has an 85 kWh electric motor which can propel it from 0 to 60 mph in 10.9 seconds, and offers a range of at least 110 miles from the 28.3 kWh lithium-ion batteries.  

The engineers have also overcome one of the biggest drawbacks to owning an electric car by providing it with a fast-charging function which allows complete recharging in just 35 minutes.

The quick charging system was developed in co-operation with Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, Ford and General Motors/Opel.  This allows charging via a 230 Volt European domestic outlet or via ultra-fast DC sources at specific charging stations. 

The E-Bugster also incorporates an on-board re-charging facility whereby kinetic energy is transformed into electricity and stored in the battery.  Applying the brakes increases the intensity of regeneration and this is indicated to the driver in the instrument panel.  Other instruments include driving range and battery status indicators, and a meter that shows how much energy the driver is requesting via the accelerator pedal.

At 4,278 mm long and 1,838 mm wide, the E-Bugster is the same length as a standard Beetle but 30 mm wider, while the new roof lowers the height by around 90 mm to 1,400 mm. 

The E-Bugster has another trick up its sleeve. When the ‘Start’ button is pressed, the interior is bathed in white light, then blue light.  It starts with a light pulse in the instrument cluster which then spreads through a one millimetre-wide strip into the doors and around the air nozzles.

It makes you wonder just how quickly the weans could drain the battery if they were playing with it!

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