Friday, February 23, 2007

Electric Mini: 0-60 in 4 Seconds

This is an older news item but worth a revisit. If this car ever goes into commercial production, my dream of a Green Mini will come true ;-)
A British engineering firm has put together a high-performance hybrid version of BMW's Mini Cooper. The PML Mini QED has a top speed of 150 mph, a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds. The car uses a small gasoline engine with four 160 horsepower electric motors — one on each wheel. The car has been designed to run for four hours of combined urban/extra urban driving, powered only by a battery and bank of ultra capacitors. The QED supports an all-electric range of 200-250 miles and has a total range of about 932 miles (1,500 km). For longer journeys at higher speeds, a small conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) is used to re-charge the battery. In this hybrid mode, fuel economies of up to 80mpg can be achieved.

Electric Mini: 0-60 in 4 Seconds: It Has Motors In Its Wheels (TreeHugger)

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