As part of the AutoblogGreen Podcast number 3 (which you can listen to here), we spoke with Hugh Kemp, who is working on the Naro concept car. We introduced you to the Naro at the end of March, and this transcript of our interview should fill in a few more gaps in what we know about this unique vehicle. Enjoy.

ABG: I'm with Hugh Kemp and you are working on the Naro car which we wrote about, um, two days ago on this site and I just noticed that, I believe it is you – before we get into the Naro, you did some work on – with Lotus on the Elise is that true?

HK: Yes. Yeah, I used to be the engineering director at Lotus up until about 1996 and my last responsibility was to be the project director for the Elise.

ABG: So that should give people a little bit of confidence in your ability to design a nice looking car?

HK: That is right. I like a challenge and the Elise was a, you know, a performance car, lightweight and I think they achieved that, you know, with a fairly modest engine and we still have got super car performance out of the vehicle, really, so that is sort of a stretch there trying to follow. So Naro is the next step for me and I have now launched my own company. We are targeting the vehicle for city use. It's a meter wide, 2 1/2 meters long, 1.7 meters tall, carries two people in tandem, and the target really is to have an efficient, space efficient, fuel efficient, means of getting into work or transporting around a city basically. We see three applications: a commuter car for the sort of the city worker really, a single-seat taxi, currently in London 80 percent of the fares are single fares so why send a four-seat taxi when a one seat taxi will do and then the third one is to look at a van application, you know, some light cargo delivery vehicle, or something like DHL would use.

(continues after the break)

We give a brief recap of the green highlights of the New York Auto Show including the GM mini car triplets and the AFVI conference in Anaheim, California. Sam has an interview with Neal Anderson of the Automotive X-Prize and Sebastian talks to people behind the Naro car and the Connaught Type-D hybrid.


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Part bike (the size), part Moonbeam (the fuel efficiency), and part dream, the Naro vehicle concept will be on display at the AFVI Show in Anaheim next week. This tiny vehicle - designed for city use as a personal commuter, a taxi or a delivery vehicle - is intended to return over 100 miles per gallon (60 g/km of CO2 emissions) from a 400 cc, single-cylinder, 4-valve gasoline engine with a maximum of 20 bhp (there are more specs after the jump). Whether the vehicle on display will be a mule or a more-advanced prototype, we'll have to wait and see.

The Naro concept is part of a Welsh invasion of the AFVI show featuring Connaught Motor Co., the Narrow Motor Co., Breacon Coachworks, PEC, researchers from Cardiff University, the University of Glamorgan, and the Swansea School of Industrial Design. The other showcase vehicle is the upcoming Connaught Type D hybrid sports car. The team from Wales will also talk about upcoming hybrid midi-buses. We'll have more information and interviews with company execs from the show floor next week. A preview press release is after the break.



[Source: International Business Wales]