September 30, 2010. Copyright 2010, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Electric vehicles will charge up Paris Car Show
By Neil Winton

LONDON, September 30, Graphic News:  Electric vehicles like the Peugeot iOn will be the stars of the biennial Paris Car Show, which is just as well given that most mainstream car manufacturers don’t have much new to offer.

Visitors to the show are likely to turn out in their hundreds of thousands, but buyers are expected to keep their wallets shut as worries about the economy force people to concentrate on necessities rather than splurging on new wheels. Car sales in Western Europe this year are expected to be about seven percent lower than last. Projections for 2011 are clouded by government forecasts showing European economies stagnating. Nobody expects sales to return to the pre-recession glory days of 2007 any time soon.

Ford has perhaps the only big new mass market product launch with the new Focus and its C-Max and Grand C-Max derivatives. Other new unveilings include the BMW X3 SUV, Hyundai ix20 MPV, and the Mercedes CLS.

The show will be packed with new battery and hybrid cars, as manufacturers prepare to meet tough European Union carbon dioxide (CO2) emission standards which start to bite in 2012.

The four-seat Peugeot iOn city car, a rebadged version of the Mitsubishi iMiEV, will be leading this charge. Citroen, owned by Peugeot, will also be selling a version of the iMiEV, the C-Zero. The iOn is powered by a battery, which Peugeot says has a potential range of 150km (93 miles) and takes six hours to recharge. If anyone thinks that sounds less than impressive, Peugeot points out that 90 percent of daily trips are less than 56km (35 miles). Because the lithium ion batteries (they are just like laptop batteries, only on a huge scale) make the car prohibitively expensive to buy, in Britain, Peugeot is offering the iOn on a lease, charging £415 a month. That’s about £50 a month more than for a BMW 320d. Other companies like Renault are planning on selling the battery cars without the battery, which they will then lease separately.

Peugeot says that the iOn has unbeatable running costs. But a recent report called these numbers into question, pointing out that if you bought a battery-powered car, the huge depreciation would wipe out all the savings from cheap, electric recharging.

Also drawing crowds at the show will be the Nissan Leaf, another battery-only car which goes on sale soon. The Chevrolet Volt will also be making its final appearance before going on the market later this year. The Volt uses a battery to go about 48km (30 miles), but also has a small, internal combustion engine which keeps the battery charged. This car has a range of close to 480km (300 miles), and effectively beats the battery-only drawback of “range anxiety”.

The manufacturers of these battery cars often claim “zero emissions” of CO2, although in fact they mostly draw their power from coal-fired generating stations. At least during their time in France, where about 80 percent of electricity is generated by nuclear power, these claims make sense.
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Peugeot iOn
Electric motor 
Power – 64 bhp @ 3,500 to 8,000rpm
Torque – 180 Nm from 0 to 2,000rpm 
Drive – rear wheels
Battery – lithium ion manganese oxide 16 Kw
Range – “potential” 150km / 93 miles 
Acceleration – 0-62mph/100km/h – 15.9 seconds
Top speed – 80mph-130km/h
C02 – zero locally
Suspension – McPherson/silent block, panhard rod
Length – 3,474mm
Width – 1,475mm
Height – 1,608mm
Wheel-base – 2,550mm
Weight – 1,120kg
Boot capacity – 168 litres
Price (UK) – £415 a month for four years.
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