General Motors' latest concept car, the “electric networked-vehicle,” or EN-V, is about 5 feet by 5 feet and weighs 880 pounds fully loaded.by Elaine Kurtenbach Associated Press Mar. 25, 2010 12:00 AM
SHANGHAI, China - It's not quite as foldable as the space vehicle that cartoon figure George Jetson pops into his briefcase as he bops into the office.
But the EN-V concept car, GM's "automobile solution" for the future, just might fit into an apartment foyer.
General Motors and its Chinese partner SAIC will showcase the "electric networked-vehicle," launched Wednesday, in their joint pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, which opens May 1 and runs for six months.
The EN-V, pronounced "envy," is GM's latest effort to burnish its credentials as a future-focused, environmentally friendly company and shed its image as the bastion of the gas-guzzling Hummer.
The automaker is winding down Hummer after a deal collapsed to sell it to a Chinese heavy-equipment maker.
GM is not alone in viewing China as the ultimate landscape for tiny urban vehicles.
Daimler introduced its Smart ultracompact here in 2008, though few of them can be seen yet on Shanghai streets.
The two-wheel, two-seat EN-V, which looks something like an oversize vacuum cleaner, is not just about making vehicles small, lightweight and emission-free, the company says.
"What we're talking about here is completely redoing the automobile," says Michael Albano, director of product and technology communications at General Motors International Operations, its global headquarters for international business in Shanghai.
With the trunk-less EN-V, GM has jettisoned the traditional "three box" system and gasoline-fueled engine in place of a pure-electric minivehicle meant strictly for city driving.
Five fit in the parking space needed for one conventional vehicle, says Kevin Wale, president and managing director for GM China Group.
"GM's vision with SAIC is petroleum-free, emission-free, accident-free and congestion-free," Wale said. "We think we can do that by combining the benefits of electricity and connectivity."
The EN-V, about 5 feet by 5 feet, appears to build on GM's earlier work with Segway Inc. in developing the PUMA, or personal urban mobility and accessibility, vehicle.
It will use the same types of battery cells as the Segway and the same battery supplier, Valence Technology Inc., says Christopher Borroni-Bird, GM's director of advanced-technology vehicle concepts.
The EN-V's maximum speed of 24 mph - even now city roads average only 12 mph and often less - and other high-tech features reduce the need for heavy, high-stress steel, bumpers, air bags and crumple zones, Albano says.
Apart from its diminutive size and light weight - 880 pounds, including the passengers - the vehicle would offer drivers the option of "autonomous driving": letting the car drive itself via an elaborate system of GPS systems, digital maps, roadway and vehicle sensors, cameras and other devices.
In theory, EN-Vs could be hitched together to allow drivers to commute to work while finishing up shaving or making phone calls.
