Click above for more images of Top Gear's crashed G-Wiz

Top Gear has never been kind to the G-Wiz, that electric Quadricycle that's only available across the pond in Europe. In this video, Jeremy Clarkson - star of the U.K. Top Gear shows - definitively proves that a table is a better, faster and safer mode of transportation. But, that's not the only time that Top Gear has tested the G-Wiz's safety. In this video, Top Gear tested the electric vehicle's crashworthiness by smashing one head-first into a concrete barrier at 40 miles per hour. Considering that the G-Wiz is not required to meet safety regulations - it is not intended to be driven at high speeds - the results are rather predictable, but a bit scary nonetheless. After the test, it seems that the wrecked G-Wiz EV was ignominiously left for dead at the Top Gear offices in the U.K. Anybody interested in picking up a slightly used, though still currently registered, G-Wiz can check the eBay auction here. Proceeds go to the Children in Need charity.


[Sources: eBay, Top Gear]

When most people look over a Reva G-Wiz, "award-winning" isn't usually the expression that comes to mind. However, the makers of the little electric quadricycle, the Reva Electric Car Company (RECC), are now in a position to claim such an accolade. Because of their impressive sales volume, market penetration, and high customer satisfaction in the electric vehicle (EV) sector, the 2008 Frost & Sullivan European Automotive Powertrain Company of the Year award has been bestowed upon their heretofore unadorned brow. And while it might seem ill-mannered to raise the point that they are practically the only company in their sector with a product available, it is indeed the case. That is not to understate their accomplishments though. Sales-wise, they manged to sell an average of a car a day in 2007 and with their recent upgrades, they are the first company to sell, in volume, an EV with a AC motor.

If their ambitious goals for the future come to pass, this may not be their last award. They have plans to begin construction of a ultra low energy plant that can churn out at least 30,000 vehicles by the end of this year as well as introduce a new model and variant each year. Get all the delicious details in the press release after the break.

At first we thought somebody out there was exercising their ninja photoshop skillz but then it occurred to us that those folks would probably not be busying themselves with the likes of the G-Wiz. No, this had to be the product of a mind so sick, so twisted, that it created the original Reva G-Wiz, on which this pick-em-up truck appears to be based, to begin with. Luckily, we live in the age of the internets and after sending out a correctly formatted query down a tube, back shot the hoped-for response.

From a page created somewhere back in the mist of time (2006) came the reassuring news that this crime sin peccancy iteration of the G-Wiz was a one-off built as a test bed for a phosphoric acid fuel cell. This cell used methanol instead of hydrogen as an energy source and negated the need for a hydrogen storage system. Of course, it also created the need for a methanol storage system but that's beside the point. Since nary a peep has been heard about this creation since an article describing the project was published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, we feel it's safe to assume the concept has been put to rest. If you want to make sure that this is the case you'll have to pick up a copy of the latest magazine published by the Battery Vehicle Society (BVS) and look for an article about the truck written by Mike Boxwell.

[Source: G-Wiz Owners Club]

Often when a product is "new and improved" the upgrades are mostly to the packaging. In the case of the Reva G-Wiz, the ever popular letter "i" added to its moniker gives us the external change while the majority of improvements lay unseen beneath the dent- and scratch-proof ABS body panels. This doesn't mean they will go unnoticed as evidenced when Danny Fleet of EV vlog, Danny's Contentment, takes us for a spin in his latest test-driving episode. He catches even the subtlest of differences like the curve of the windshield and the heavier "thunk" of doors that have been modified with better side impact protection.

Many of the changes in the new Wiz are safety oriented but there are performance improvements as well. Top speed has increased to 50mph while the acceleration is smoother and quicker. Range is now just short of 50 miles in the cool climes of the British Isles but, of course, YMMV. Check out the London retailer, GoinGreen for the complete rundown of the technological advancements.

Watch Danny in all is test-driving glory after the jump. Also check out the bonus videos of G-Wiz crashes before and after the improvements.

[Source: Danny's Contentment]

Reva Electric Car Company (RECC) says it will launch a new electric car by the end of the year and a new electric car (or variant) every year after that. Reva also says they have built a plant with a 33,000-unit capacity, five times their current capacity. The cars will be exported all over the world, wherever there is new interest in the environment and tax breaks, says Reva. Here is exactly what Reva's deputy chairman and chief technology officer, Chetan Kumaar Maini says:

We will launch one new vehicle and one variant every year and by the end of 2008 calendar year, we will rollout another electric car with more advanced features, and fitted with a battery that can traverse wider distance. ... Governments across different countries are offering incentives for electric vehicles. With such fiscal benefits and growing awareness, the market for these vehicles will expand globally as well as in India

Reva's electric car, the G-Wiz, is very popular in countries like the UK and Japan. G-Wiz, which actually qualifies as 4-wheelers and don't require crash testing, were upgraded last year after crash tests showed the cars were not very safe. Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, in particular, gleefully pointed out the G-Wiz's faults, at one point crashing the car into a dinning room table. The table did not move while the G-Wiz crumbled.

Related:

• Video: Jeremy Clarkson reviews G-Wiz
  
• Test of the tiny, all-electric G-wiz and NICE Mega City (VIDEO)
• AutoblogGreen's mini test drive of the Riva EV
• Moderate speed crash in Indian EV likely to be fatal
• G-Wiz gets some safety upgrades, still not a car
• Jeremy Clarkson takes on the Reva G-Wiz

[Source: Domain-b]

For those of you in England who like to live small, GoingGreen is offering up special deals on the G-Wiz electric car. The UK distributor of the the Indian-built quadricycle is offering up ex-demo units for only £2,999 compared to a base price of about £6,300 for a new model without air conditioning. GoingGreen is also knocking £500 of the price of used models that they have available and giving free leather seats on the somewhat improved G-Wiz i. The deals are available while supplies last or until the end of January.

[Source: SmartPlanet, thanks to Matthew for the tip]

If you've been paying any attention at all, you'll be aware that we hold the G-Wiz electric quadricycle in the same sort of "high" regard that Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson does. What more can be said about a "car" that implodes in a standard crash test and goes from naught to 40mph in "quite a while"? Apparently, the Top Gear crew felt that in spite of it's "sparkling" performance racing against a table (although it did come out much worse than the table in the crash test) there was still room for improvement. They added some extra batteries, and a radio control setup and ran it against a Mustang Shelby GT on the drag-strip where it performed admirably for once. To evaluate the handling of the upgraded G-Wiz, they handed the controller to The Stig for a competition against Richard Hammond and a more conventional radio controlled truck. Check out the results after the jump.

[Source: Top Gear, YouTube]

The Indian-built G-Wiz has come under some scrutiny in recent months in the UK for it's apparent lack of safety. After Top Gear commissioned a standard 40 mph offset frontal crash test, people began to realize that these vehicles could have serious issues in crashes at even moderate speeds. The G-Wiz is classed as a quadri-cycle in Europe meaning that it's largely exempt from safety standards much like three-wheeled Zap Xebras are in the U.S. Unfortunately most buyers see these and other electric vehicles and assume they meet the same rules as "real" cars without realizing they are not even close.

GoinGreen, the UK importer of the G-Wiz, has announced that manufacturer Reva Electric Car Company has upgraded the car for 2008. Reva collaborated with Lotus Engineering to beef up the structure of the car with more front and side impact protection. They also added a "creep" feature to allow the car to hold its position without rolling backward on a hill. Performance of the car has also been improved with the range extended to 48 miles and acceleration enhanced. Space for two adults remains marginal. You can see the video of the crash test after the jump.

[Source: BusinessGreen.com, thanks to Domenick for the tip]

Below the fold is a video of Jeremy Clarkson, of the TV show Top Gear, reviewing the all electric G-Wiz. The review of the G-Wiz starts at 2 minutes 45 seconds after Jeremy makes fun of French sport cars. Highlights from the review of the G-Wiz include a race between the G-Wiz and a table, which ends very much like Top Gear's race between Jason and the Th!nk electric car.

Jeremy says the G-Wiz has no redeeming features and that God has not created a creature that can fit in the back seat. You drive the G-Wiz to save the world, Jeremy explains, because we used to have such nice weather. He, of course, is being sarcastic because British weather sucks. He then suggests people "buy a Range Rover and warm this country up." I doubt the results of the crash test between the table and G-Wiz because the table never moved.

The review ends at 7 minutes with Jeremy, for the second time, suggesting you get a table instead of a G-Wiz. After 7 minutes Jeremy goes back to insulting the French. Watch it after the jump.

This isn't a new video, and you can buy the DVD from Amazon UK.

[Source: Gametrailers]

Jeremy Clarkson is host of the TV show Top Gear. He is not a fan of green cars like the G-Wiz or Prius. In the video above, Jeremy uses the Prius for target practice. So it might surprise you to find out, Jeremy is apparently a big fan of fuel cells. In a recent article Jeremy writes "I think that, soon, the holy grail will be cracked: the hydrogen fuel cell. ... The best way of storing hydrogen is between the atoms in metal. Already some scientists reckon they have gone one better and have worked out a way of putting 30 litres in a single gram of graphite. And 30 litres would be enough to take a family saloon of the future 5,000 miles. So there we are. Problem solved. Personal transportation will survive."

Jeremy is not all positive in the article. In the same article where he praises recent discoveries in fuel cells, he writes the Prius is "designed only to assuage the guilt of people whose opinions come from a man so hopeless he couldn't even beat George Bush to the White House." Jeremy also writes that electric cars, as the G-Wiz proves, "Do. Not. Work... They run out of juice whenever it's raining, or dry, or windy." Even the hydrogen future, predicted by "eggheads," has a potential problem: "What's the world going to look like when 600m motor vehicles start to chuck water out of their tail-pipes? A point only I seem to have spotted thus far. Which means it's probably irrelevant."

That is an interesting idea. Could you consider water vapor a pollutant? It is a greenhouse gas, after all.

[Source: Times Online]

Recently, Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson wrote a rather scathing review of the G-Wiz electric vehicle sold in Europe and popular in London. Clarkson is not one to hold back his opinion, which we respect - even when we disagree, and hold back he did not. He hated the G-Wiz and cited its' lackluster safety when rammed head on into an immovable object. He also said it was slow and cramped, except he used more lively words to say it.

GoinGreen is the company which distributes the G-Wiz in London, and they have responded to Clarkson's review. I have copied the entire response past the break, if you are interested. They mention the fact that as a "quadricycle", the machine does not need to be tested by ramming it into large immovable objects, and that the machine has a stellar safety record. One might think that the low-speed of the vehicle would be a boon for its safety record.

The real question might be whether the quadricycle should be exempt from safety tests; and if not, what safety tests should it have to pass?

Related:

• Jeremy Clarkson takes on the Reva G-Wiz

[Source: GoinGreen via Treehugger]

We don't use the word "quadricycle" around here much. But over in the UK, quardicycles are a specific vehicle type defined as "a vehicle with four wheels whose unladen mass is not more than 400kg (excluding batteries if it is an electric vehicle) and whose maximum continuous rated power does not exceed 15 kW," according to the Department for Transport. Basically, a teeny-tiny NEV (just right for Elton John).

Yesterday, the DfT said it wants a review of the European safety regulations for these vehicles now that they're becoming more popular. The original standards were set up at a time when no one thought that vehicles that fit the technical definitions of a quadricycle, like the REVA G-Wiz EV (pictured), would be used much. Now that this is coming to pass, DfT says it's time to take another look.

in response, GoinGreen, the UK importer and retailer of the G-Wiz, released a statement today saying the G-Wiz "has an exemplary safety record" and "no reported serious injuries." But, if you must test, then "we welcome any informed debate or Government initiatives to make quadricycles an even safer means of urban transport."

Official statements from both organizations are after the break.


Related:

• G-Wiz EV AC has greater range and higher top speed

[Source: Department for Transport, GoinGreen Ltd.]

I think all the news of the Tesla Roadster and the Chevy Volt that came out since last summer has reminded a lot of people that there are some serious contenders to the gasoline engine. The electric vehicle (EV) community certainly thinks 2006 was a good year for EVs. In fact, the past has seen some truly cool EVs, and the list of retired EVs is long and, for some, emotional: the EV1, the Ranger EV, the RAV4 EV and so on. But there should be no time for mourning and instead a look toward the future. Actually, we don't even need to guess what great EVs are coming down the pipe, there are already some wicked cool EVs available today. If you're ready to get off the gas in 2007, consider one of these, the Top Ten Electric Cars of 2007 (Aside from the Roadster, which certainly deserves the Number 1 spot, the list is in no real order).

Tesla Roadster - This car has reinvigorated the EV market like no other. While technically no one can buy it this year (all 100 vehicles that will be available later in 2007 have already been spoken for, I can't help but place it at No. 1. With a 0-60 time beneath four seconds and a look that makes you just want to hop in and drive, the Roadster (More)



UEV Spyder - Universal Electric Vehicle's Spyder made an impressive debut at the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo last December, even though I heard a lot of people ask, "Is this the Tesla?" This EV will be available with different battery configurations at different price levels (some comparable to the Roadster). You don't hear so many people talk the Spyder up, but it seems to share many of the same qualities that make the Roadster so exciting: speed, zero emissions, and sports-car styling. (More)



Phoenix SUT – Yeah, it's expensive ($45,000), but EVs aren't cheap. Heck, retired Toyota RAV4 EVs regularly go for more than $50,000 on eBay, and the batteries in those things are old. Phoenix has been working with Altairnano Technologies on new batteries and is bringing this sports utility truck to market with better range than the RAV4 (but, admittedly, not as much size). Phoenix says they hope to sell 500 SUTs by the end of the year. Perhaps a better name will pump up sales. (More)

Miles ZX40 – While the Spyder and the Roadster don't really ask the driver to make any sacrifices (aside from in the bank account), EVs like those from Miles are not a replacement for a "standard" car, but a solid contender for second vehicle for certain families or individuals, or as a main vehicle for those who don't have to go very far. The Miles ZX40 is like a lot of NEVs – limited to a top speed of 25 mph, a range of around 50 miles per charge and a price of about $12,000-$20,000. (We don't actually know the price of the ZX40, but other NEVs are priced in this range). Another Miles model, the OR70, can go 35 mph. (More)

ZENN – Another player in the NEV field, ZENN's cars are "zero emission, no noise." Get it? ZENN. These NEVs have a lower range than Miles' offerings (only about 35 miles) and are a bit smaller, too. When I drove one in D.C. last year the battery was on its last legs and in need of a charge, but still drove well. The various options can add up to $2,500 to the $12,500 base price. But the most exciting part about ZENN's offerings are yet to come: the EESTOR ultra capacitor is still shrouded in mystery, but the potential is great for this new EV power source (as is the disappointment if the EESTOR doesn't live up to the hype). (More)

GEM e2 – Yes, they look funny. No, they can't go very far or very fast. But GEM electric vehicles have been available for years and the company has a wide range of models available (two through six seats, with or without a flatbed) and prices ($7,000-$12,500). GEMs are used around the country on various campuses, but models like the e2 are obviously targeted to home users. (More)



Smart EV - Available in Switzerland and the UK, the tiny Smart EVs are zero-emission versions of their fossil-fuel drinking cousins. These cars share the easy-parking abilities and unique styling of the standard Smarts, but are only available in the fortwo configuration and only to "to blue chip companies who are happy to meet our requirements to power the cars using only renewable energy sources," says Smart UK. Conversions for your standard Smart are also available. (More)

Mullen L1X-75 – Some of our readers are skeptical of Hybrid Technologies, maker of the Mullen L1X-75, saying their press releases promise more than they can ever deliver. The L1X-75 certainly promises a lot - 100-mile range on a 4-6 hour charge - and this comes at a price ($125,000). Still, the sports car look will attract the eye of those you zip by, and I'd certainly give one a whirl. (More)

G-Wiz EV – available in the UK (and desired by Sir Elton John), the G-Wiz costs a little bit (£8,299 to £6,999) more than some of the short-range EVs in America, but you get something extra in England, too: exemption from certain taxes and London congestion charges and free parking in some areas. There are even free charging stations in some locations. (More)

Kurrent – A tiny and very distinctive-looking NEV, the Kurrent's price ($10,600) includes home delivery because, as American Electric Vehicle president Scott Thornton told AutoblogGreen, if AEV allowed the Kurrent to be sold at just any dealership, the customer might not be able to drive it home thanks to U.S. laws that restrict NEVs to roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or below. Lead-acid batteries deliver a range of about 40-mile range. (More)



For Number 10, I cannot ignore all of the homemade EVs and converted EVs. People have been creating their own electric vehicles for year, and the trend continues. For examples, read more here, here and here.

There are more EVs available today, and if you feel I should've included any in this Top Ten list, add it yourself in the comments. Also, there are a lot of upcoming EVs to get excited about - Tesla's WhiteStar sedan, Zap!'s Lotus APX - so if you're sick of gassing up your car, consider going all-electric. They're not for everyone, but they might be perfect for you.

London, the city where you have to pay to drive your dirty, CO2-emitting car, is doing a lot to clean the air. City officials' latest move was the unveiling of two electric car-charging stations. Fuel-hungry EVs can find the stations in Wellington Street and Southampton Street near Covent Garden in the West End. The most amazing part? The juice is free.

Yes, I said free. And there are 48 more planned for Westminster City Council's car parks.

Councillor Alan Bradley told the BBC that, "Putting free charging points on the street where people need them most is a simple concept which we hope will help galvanise broader appeal for electric car use. Electric cars are ideally suited to city driving and we hope in years to come we will see more and more people using them to travel around the City of London" (British spellings kept to enhance the mood).

Oh, and don't forget that EVs are exempt from the city congestion charge. Over 750 G-Whiz electric vehicles have been sold in London, and if electric car sales don't take off in the city now, I don't know what will make it happen.

Related:

• G-Whiz sweepstakes winner returns EV because town can't charge it
• British company offering electric cars for rent

[Source: BBC via EV World]

Just as the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" opens in Australia, the country's only electric car may have to be exported or crushed due to government regulations.

A local businessman wants to import and sell the REVA, also known as the G-wiz, but the test evaluation import license expires in November. If a decision to allow the vehicle in the country isn't made before then, laws call for it to be crushed or exported. According to a story inthe Sydney Morning Herald, the West Australian government is considering another trial for the vehicle.

Apparently the Australian officials are classifying the REVA as a car and not a quadricycle as in Europe. As a car, the vehicle would have to pass stiffer crash tests. The businessman doesn't want to front the cost of three crash tests if the REVA must meet car standards.

[Source: Sydney Morning Herald]