Liberty Electric Cars has built the first test mule of its electric light commercial vehicle project.
Green Automotive Company (GAC) announced its European based subsidiary, Liberty Electric Cars, has successfully completed the build of the first fully functioning example of DELIVER.
DELIVER is an electric delivery vehicle funded by the European Commissions’ 7th Framework Program which brings together ten partner companies from across Europe.
DELIVER will be premiered at the FISITA World Automotive Congress, which starts on June 2, 2014 in Maastricht (NL).
GAC said the DELIVER project started in November 2011 with the goal to reduce the environmental impact in urban areas by 40 percent and thus design and construct an electric light commercial vehicle which perfectly combines the needs of inner city traffic with the advantages of electric vehicles.
The result, explained GAC, is a lightweight commercial vehicle of 2,200 kg GVW and a payload of 700 kg, with a host of innovative features for the delivery driver and 18 percent additional capacity when compared with today’s vans of a similar wheelbase. The concept deploys the latest electric vehicle technologies with its electric drive train featuring in-wheel motors with 2-speed transmission and 80 prismatic Li-NMC cells in its battery pack to increase energy efficiency and total range.
GAC added the vehicle perfectly meets the demands of today’s busy delivery drivers. Thanks to its flexible ergonomic cabin concept and removal of the B pillar on the curb side, there is a decrease in both workload and the duration of the delivery process itself. The ability for the driver to easily exit the vehicle on the curb side not only minimizes walking distances around the vehicle, but improves driver safety. The “Walk in door” concept reduces potential obstacles caused by the door sills.
With a minimum range of 100 kilometers (62 miles) and a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph), Gac stated DELIVER represents an attractive proposition for light commercial vehicles with urban and intra urban applications such as postal, parcel, supermarket and city council service operations.
The project, which is co-funded by the European Commission as part of the European Green Vehicles Initiative, is coordinated by Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) of RWTH Aachen University and gathers ten partners from across Europe. The consortium comprises Fiat (IT), Volkswagen (DE), Liberty Electric Cars (UK), Michelin (CH), Polis Network (BE), SP – Technical Research Institute of Sweden (SE), HPL Prototypes (UK) as well as CADEM (TR) und Mobit (TR).
source: http://www.hybridcars.com/liberty-to-deliver-ev-test-mule/
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