There are several experimental ideas that car makers are toying around with. The good thing is that most of them have very positive impact on the way mobility will take place in the future.
With a wide range of items and goodies under its stable, General Motors is never afraid of looking at meticulous-sounding ideas. This was the case with Chevrolet EN-V, a small car it brought around to test carsharing waters. From what was reported, there was a positive outcome and we probably might see this idea hit the large-scale market.
Beginning in 2015, GM participated in a carsharing trial in Shanghai at Jiao Tong University using Chevrolet EN-V 2.0 electric cars. This test program would conclude in 2017, with 16 EN-V cars recording about 90,000 kilometers of shared journeys at SJTU’s Minhang campus in Shanghai.
This accounted to 35,000 rentals over the course of the two years, which translates to about 70 rentals per operational day. Being a test operation, this wasn’t bad at all and underlined the potential of the idea at large.
It is one of the areas where GM eyes with keen interest, with GM China President Matt Tsien saying,
“GM regards car sharing as an important building block for future personal mobility. The pilot program provided GM valuable data and insights into real-world sharing practices and electric vehicle usage. It will help advance our development of sustainable personal mobility solutions for China and the world.”
Talking of mobility solutions, the EN-V requires as little parking space as possible can be afforded. Its power comes from air-cooled lithium-ion phosphate batteries (similar to the ones found on the Chevrolet Volt).
It is fitted with a 3.2 kWh battery that allows the EN-V to travel make 25 miles on a single charge hitting speeds of between 25 and 30 mph.
Is this one of the solutions to parking and swift autonomous driving for the future? No doubt we are looking at such a possibility with this one.
Image Source: Unsplash
