Proton and Detroit Electric detail their forthcoming rechargeable offerings
By Tim Stevens 
posted Mar 30th 2009 9:46AM
posted Mar 30th 2009 9:46AM
[Via Financial Times]
posted Mar 30th 2009 9:46AM
Estimated time drivers save by using real-time GPS traffic updates
Drivers that use GPS systems with real-time traffic info spend 18% less time behind the wheel than those who do not.
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Link didn't work, or rather it loads a blank page?
Link worked fine for me.
Not a bad looking car...though not great looking either - just not Prius ugly). The problem I have with it is that there is no method of charging absent finding a plug in. Shouldn't they use a small engine in there for those that need to go over the 112/200 miles? I didn't take note of them addressing that problem on their site.
@duke I think its better used as a city car first rather than a long range tourer. If we can reduce the number of internal combustion engine running around ...say, new york - imagine how clean the air will be.
i'd say get one of this for city, and your fav tourer for the longer journeys.
I understand what you mean, as Chicago could use less gas cars as well. Yet, if I'm in a 1 car family and here and there I do leave the confines of the city, it would be nice to have a back-up to handle the issue like the Volt has. It seems that such a solution would give the car more appeal to people.
Satria Neo please.
From that pic it looks like an EV that is more realistically achievable. Not saying that the Tesla and the Volt won't make it just they seem a little too concept.
The only car i think i would never buy is the Chevy Volt, 620 miles of range with the fuel extender and a full tank of gas? are they serious?
A Honda hybrid or a Toyota Prius that's like 2 years old already gives you 950+ miles on a single tank of gas and guess what it only cost about 20k, Now the Tesla is a good deal all around i think.
A neither a Prius nor Insight can go a single mile on pure electrical battery energy. Unless you're in a Prius going 10mph all the way to work.
A Volt can go more than 620 miles on an EMPTY tank of gas if your commute is less than 40 miles and you can charge it while you're there.
@Sean, The chevy Volt only gives you 40 miles on electric, if you wanna go beyond that you have to fill in the gas tank which will then extend the range to 620 miles which is about 29 MPG, A Prius does 48+ MPG, and will cost 20K less than the Volt.
@snitch.
The two cars are just for two different types of people. "I" (read: not you) would much rather have a volt. The volt for me would pretty much never burn a drop of gas (read:e85, since I have always used e85 whether the vehicle was made for it or not, no problems BTW).
Though I will almost never burn a drop of fuel in it, I like the fact that I can, If I need to go further, on the very few occasions that I might need to.
A pure EV is not for me, I don't want 2 cars, in case I have to drive long distance. Though with a 200 mile range I could live with it.
A normal hybrid is really not for me, since I don't want to use ANY gas on a day to day basis.
An extended range hybrid IS for me, I drive between 20-30 miles a day, most of the time, but drive 100 miles once every month or so.
Just a word of caution .. i'm from malaysia and proton cars are notoriously low quality. Most malaysian are basically forced to buy their cars thanks to our lovely government for imposing 250 to 300 percent import tax of foreign cars.. So don't expect any quality products from proton..
Here's the link
FAQ
http://paultan.org/archives/2009/03/30/detroit-electric-faq-a-background-on-electric-cars/
and
http://paultan.org/archives/2009/03/30/detroit-electric-to-sell-electric-persona-and-gen2/
Just too little too late. Shame US car makers didn't decide to innovate the car years ago. Oh wait, GM did - created a car tons of people wanted but then took them away and destroyed them killing a completely workable electric car.
I am pissed my tax dollars are going to those ... I wonder what screw ups they are going to do with the public's money this year?
I see that Proton sourced their wheels from a Focus SVT European Appearance Package.
Nice looking car. Sounds promising too. Wonder when I'll be able to get one. Oh wait I'm in Canada, a country whose legislators are so backwards that we won't even legally allow an electric car built in our country on the roads (referring to the ZENN). So I imagine we'll be seeing this car in the-true-north-strong-and-free sometime around the year 2052.
Nice looking concept though. Hope it plays out.
With regards to the ZENN, The issue is not that the government has outright banned the car, what happened is that they originally approved "low speed vehicle" regulations long before the concept of "low speed electric cars for neighborhood use" was invented. So they are approving other kinds of "low speed vehicles" under the regs but they are saying that they need a totally new set of regs to cover "low speed electric cars" (i.e. NEVs). For now it seems they are leaving it up to the provincial governments as to whether the ZENN is legal ot not in their province.
Proton coudn't make good car,i,myself own a proton before the build quality just sucks big time yet they're selling $20,000 for a 16years old car "Proton Wira" which got no airbag,SRS.
I won't buy anything Proton.... our neighbor's technical expertise is... ermm..... questionable.
proton sux ballz this thing will probably break down/explode within the 1st 5 charges