AutoblogGreen

Let's speak about a French company that makes lithium batteries, called Batscap. A couple of years ago, they introduced at the Geneva Auto Show a benchmark for their energy storage technologies. It was the prototype of a city car, 3.05 meters long (the size of a classic Mini), called the BlueCar.

The announced specifications are quite good. Thanks to the batteries weighing 5 times less than lead-acid ones, the car is surprisingly light (700kg, about 1550 pounds). This helps in making the car able to have a range of more than 200 km (120 miles). The battery technology allows the car to be fully recharged in 6 hours, although with a few minutes there's enough to get over a bad situation. The car is good for 125 km/h of maximum speed (80 miles), just around the European speed limits thanks to the 50 kW motor (equivalent to 65 HP). It seats 3 at the front, optionally an additional pair at the back, although the default combination is keeping the back for storage (up to 800 dm3).

The design was made by a subsidiary of Pininfarina, who also built the car. The company originally announced that they wouldn't make the car but sell it to a carmaker. Later, they announced that their technology has been sold to Valeo and PSA (Citroën-Peugeot).

We're definitely keeping an eye on them.

Batscap belongs to Bolloré, a long-time electric development French company near Paris and EDF, the French national electricity company. EDF and the French government have subsidized the transformation of regular production cars (such as the Peugeot 106) to EVs.

[Source: Moteurnature]