Most approaches towards electric car design has so far led to vehicles that either are too heavy and too expensive or fail to meet standard safety requirements for new cars.
Now, BMW and Daimler, together with scientists at the Technical University Munich (TUM), are attempting to develop concepts for electric cars that are efficient, safe, and inexpensive.
The parties have formed the joint research project ‘Visio.M’ and have received over $14 million from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).
The goal of Visio.M is to explore how the price and safety of small, efficient electric cars can be brought to a level enabling them to achieve a significant share of the new car market. A basic concept has already been theorised: a small hatchback weighing just 880 pounds without its battery and propelled by an electric motor rated at just 20 horsepower and a top speed of under 50 mph - in other words a category L7e heavy quadricycle - perhaps this will be the true heir to the G-Wiz.
