Must be Copenhagen or Christmas or the approaching auto show in Detroit... Whatever it is, the nexus of dates has bottlenecked the announcements by Volvo and BMW, in parallel, that each company will introduce a small electric vehicle at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and each company will then subject a small batch of cars to testing in the field.
Both companies are basing their small electric vehicles on existing conventional models; the 1 Series Coupe in BMW's case and the C30 hatch in Volvo's.
Volvo first announced the preliminary news of its C30 EV undergoing testing about two months ago. In 2011, the Swedish firm -- currently up for sale -- will commence fleet trials of roughly 50 cars. The trials will last two years.
According to Volvo, the C30 EV has a range of 150km and the front-mounted/front-drive 82kW electric motor will propel the car to 100km/h from a standing start in 10.5 seconds.
As for the BMW Concept ActiveE, the C30 EV stores its electrical power in lithium-ion batteries -- and they are located in the transmission tunnel and under the floor where the fuel tank lives in a petrol/diesel car.
"The first prototype helped us identify the main technological challenges, such as battery packaging and safety issues," said Lennart Stegland, Director of Volvo Cars Special Vehicles. "We have addressed these challenges without compromising the C30's cool and fun-to-drive personality."
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