MAGIC: The "Magic" (Miao) is one of three different prototype models of Electric Networked-Vehicle (EN-V) that GM has produced. The others are "Pride" (Jiao) and "Laugh" (Xiao). EN-V is a two-seat electric vehicle designed to alleviate concerns surrounding traffic congestion, parking availability, air quality and affordability for tomorrow's cities, according to GM.
Image: © GM CO.
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As drivers await the arrival of General Motors's much-anticipated Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid car later this year, GM unveiled an electric vehicle of an entirely different stripe on Wednesday at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The company's Electric Networked Vehicle (EN-V) is a mini electric vehicle built for two, unless you are using it to go shopping, in which case you might have room for yourself and a bag of groceries.
Working with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. Group (SAIC), GM designed the EN-V to meet the challenges of getting around major metropolises as urban populations swell. The EN-V resembles more an enclosed pedicab—minus the bike—than it does a car. In fact, the 1.5-meter-long vehicle is three times shorter than a typical car and weighs less than 500 kilograms, one third as much as most cars on the road today.
The EN-V relies on dynamic stabilization technology similar to that of the one-person Segway scooter to keep its balance, and can be operated autonomously or under manual control. In autonomous mode the EN-V is designed to use high-speed wireless connectivity and GPS navigation to automatically select the fastest route, based on real-time traffic conditions gleaned from the Web or some other networked source of traffic information.
Although the EN-V is currently only a concept vehicle, GM's goal is to equip them with sensors for autonomous functioning—helping drivers park and even avoid collisions. The vehicles are also expected to include systems that allow drivers to talk to other EN-V drivers while on the road. The EN-V is powered by lithium ion batteries that can last up to 40 kilometers between charges, and the vehicle is designed to be plugged into a standard wall outlet for recharging.
GM also styled its EN-V prototypes—which have a top speed of 40 kilometers per hour—to appeal to urban professionals on the move. The vehicle's body and canopy are constructed from carbon fiber, custom tinted plastics, and acrylic, which the company says makes it light but durable.
By 2030, more than 60 percent of the world's population will be living in urban areas, says Chris Borroni-Bird, GM's director of advanced technology vehicle concepts. In densely populated cities around the world, including New York City, "driving is not a practical way of moving around," he says, adding that a third of city congestion is typically caused by drivers looking for parking spaces. Several cities, including Athens, México City and Bogotá, Colombia, have resorted to "road space rationing," allowing a vehicle to enter the city only on certain days (or during rush hour), based on whether its license plate number ends in an odd or even number.
Borroni-Bird compares today's cars with 1980s-era PCs, which were clunky and largely operated without any network connections. Continuing that analogy, EN-V is like the smart phones and other wireless handheld devices that today keep people connected around the clock.
The EN-V evolved from the Segway-based Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (PUMA) prototype that GM introduced about a year ago. PUMA weighed 136 kilograms, ran on a lithium ion battery and could travel at speeds up to 56 kilometers per hour, with a range up to 56 kilometers between recharges. The EN-V's additional weight comes courtesy of its upgraded chassis and the electronics that support the automated driving system (the PUMA did not operate autonomously). This weight, plus the more complex electronics, play a role in the EN-V's slower top speed and shorter range between charges.
Borroni-Bird acknowledges that the EN-V will be a tougher sell in U.S. cities, where a significant portion of people have grown accustomed to traversing the streets fully enclosed in weatherproof cars, trucks and buses. More likely, the EN-V will appeal more in places such as Mumbai and Shanghai, where urbanites are more used to walking and biking around their cities. "This vehicle wouldn't be as much of an outlier in other countries as it would be in the U.S.," he adds. Places like New York City might require bigger versions of the EN-V or perhaps a dedicated travel lane such as those available for cyclists.
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20 Comments
Add CommentGreat! Is it going to have headlights and wind shield wipers incase its GM quality parts go on the blink?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, it LOOKS like a bastardized Segue, not that thats a bad thing...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyone who has traveled a bit has seen that cities in other countries have a preponderance of much smaller vehicles - from scooters and covered motorcycles to various other types. This will fit in fine there, its just a question whether or not the "bigger is better" American mentality can adjust and accept something like this.
All men would want a car like this. It is a chick magnet clearly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy should the rest of the world have to clean up after the mess of people like you? The globe is warming. CO2 IS an essential plant nutrient, but also a greenhouse gas, a well understood phenomena. Oil is finite, as there's only so many creatures that died millions of years ago for us to exploit them. And whilst the amount of CO2 produced by internal congestion engines may have the potential to be broken down within a few weeks, in those few weeks not only would all these vehicles have emitted more CO2, so would every single animal on the planet, including the 7 billion humans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe reality is, this is a global crisis that doesn't actually care about American culture or lifestyle, or the culture or lifestyle of any population of humans on the goddamn planet. And solutions like this aren't driven by nature worship. Those would be "Stop driving, stop consuming, go hug bunnies". These are solutions driven by science, technology, consumerism and self-preservation.
... DAMNIT. I fed the troll >_<
I'm an American and I drive very small vehicles like this every day just mine are far more simple, lower cost. This is typical of GM making things needlessly complicated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust by deleting the electronics, adding a wheel or 2 and using medium tech composites one could have an aerodynamic 100mph, 100 mile range EV, 500mpg equivalent under 1k lbs though a little longer that can be produced for under $10k with a good profit. I do this with 40-100yr old composite, forklift tech Sadly I have to build my own as no one will build them for me.
Great but you can stay home when you need only a cup of coffee and say Hi to your old friend by telephone.You can use your feet bring you a thing from the store byside.To reduce the miles to go is more easy..NIRVANA.....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDo you have evidence, or at least references to back these claims up?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow. 40 kph and you have to recharge every 40 kilometers. I hope you errands don't make you commute much more than an hour total.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow. 40 kph and you have to recharge every 40 kilometers. I hope you errands don't make you commute much more than an hour total.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow. 40 kph and you have to recharge every 40 kilometers. I hope you errands don't make you commute much more than an hour total.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think this is still an outrageous waste of energy, and probably money. Consider bicycles and tricycles. A Sinner Mango velomobile is thinner, a little longer, much lighter, can (probably) cruise at 40kph, and has a much larger range. That's a high-tech tricycle, sold today.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOrdinary bicycles will cruise pretty comfortably at 12-18mph, and have longer range. Cargo bicycles, sold today, give you most of the nimbleness of a regular bike, but can easily carry heavy loads (I have carried a shrubbery too heavy and unwieldy for one person to lift; 50 lbs of groceries ride no hands, a 100lb child on the back is no big deal, even uphill).
And face it, most of us in the US need the exercise anyway. If we're going to remake our transit system for greater efficiency, let's get some serious savings. The bikes are ready now -- what about us, what about our roads?
And for bad weather, we use these things called "clothes".
Gee. 6 years after a Toyota's i-Unit was featured at the Aichi World Expo in Japan, GM comes up with its own personal vehicle prototypes. What a surprise. Same old GM.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisfrgough, Global warming is a real consequence of re-radiated Co2 (we obey the laws of thermodynamics in my house), oil is NOT abundant but about to peak, and even the Kuwaiti oil scientists are admitting 2014 is when humanity will pump the most.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35838273/
After peak it will decline somewhere between 3% (if we are very, very lucky) and 8% per year, depending on how badly the Middle East have wounded the bigger fields with excessively fast production.
Oh, and as the domestic economies of producers rise, so does their domestic consumption of oil. So it doesn't take long for today's oil exporters to suddenly switch and become *importers*.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_land_model
I expect oil rationing even in America in 5 to 10 years... getting more severe each year.
Is it possible to know which material you are talking about?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow Eclipse! CO2 is re-radiated? How do you do that?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Funeral Homes will be delighted.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy not just put the cars onto T-Rails that could be built over existing streets and highways? Then they could join into 'trains' on the highways to get speeds around 300mph..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisand because electric engines average about 40 cents a gallon compared to gas, we'd save energy, money, and pollution. (yes, coal fire plants are much more efficient then a combustion engine, pollute less per volume of energy)
Yeah... GM fucked it all up with the trolley car faggotry back in the 50's and 60's.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't remember the Havoline - Firestone - GM scandal?
Indeed this car looks like a cell phone..I would rather call it
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this" a moving armchair"........
It's like a bicycle, but with integrated GPS and it's automated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this