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NEWS
GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Giugiaro Clipper
Italian design house conjures up a mould-breaking Volkswagen-based SUV with upward opening doors and an electric powertrainItaldesign Giugiaro is generally associated with slinky, low-slung concepts, but the Italian styling studio’s star attraction at the Geneva motor show was a relatively restrained SUV concept dubbed Clipper.
Based on Volkswagen’s enormously flexible MQB platform, the all-wheel-drive Clipper can seat up to six occupants (or four people and up to 900 litres of cargo), but its most distinctive feature is upward opening portals (scissor doors at the front and gullwings at the rear) that provide easy ingress/egress.
Propulsion for the SUV comes from a pair of electric motors – one at the front and the other at the rear, with each of these generating 110kW for a total quota of 220kW.
Its creator claims the 1800kg wagon – named after a sailing ship – can hit a top speed of 204km/h and travel up to 540km on a single charge.
The Clipper’s packaging efficiency is maximised by the fact the batteries that power the electric motors are mounted in the floor, with the result that the cavernous cabin spans across virtually the entire footprint of the 4534mm-long vehicle.
Although Italdesign’s past offerings have included cutting-edge concepts, the company says the Clipper is “deliberately not a futuristic car”, presumably so that the end result could conceivably be put into production (albeit in all likelihood without the upward opening doors).
The Clipper’s interior was conceived to provide a feeling of airiness, with the usual dashboard-mounted controls being housed instead in a floating tablet mounted on the centre console.
Other surprise-and-delight features include two-tone Alcantara upholstery and four iPad Minis integrated into the headrests of the first and second row seats.
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Written byGautam Sharma
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