There are many different visions of our automotive future, but one of the most appealing variants finds us all in sharply styled, very fast sports cars with zero emissions.
The Tesla roadster has certainly gotten the press excited about battery electric cars, but it’s not the only game in town. Major carmakers are getting involved, and some showed off their wares at the deeply green Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany last week. Nissan unveiled its Mixim, a tiny urban pod with a unique four-seat driving configuration and a vague resemblance to the Smart Car. Nissan claims a 90 to 125-mile range and 112 mph. With lithium-ion batteries like the Tesla, the Mixim offers four-wheel drive and electric motors at both the front and rear wheels.
t’s unlikely the Mixim will go on sale soon. BMW also showed off a hybrid concept version of its X6. More exciting was the Volvo Recharge, a concept plug-in hybrid variant of the C30 with an electric motor at each wheel that can supposedly go 60 miles on just battery power. See the plug in the photo below? If Volvo were to get this on the market before the GM and Toyota plug-ins it could make history, but the company is saying “after 2015.” So maybe the future really is electric.
