The Pininfarina BLUECAR

10 March, 2009 09:19:00

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Pininfarina and Bollore electric car joint venture has displayed the latest version of the Pininfarina BLUECAR at the Geneva Motor Show.

The Pininfarina BLUECAR will go into production in Italy at Pininfarina starting from 2010 with the first units. Production on an industrial scale will take place between 2011 and 2017, with forecast output by 2015 being about 60,000.

With awareness of the need to act to protect the environment going global, and with the use of cars being more and more concentrated in towns and limited to daily mileages of less than 60 km, the car market is undergoing a cultural revolution that opens new and promising scenarios for hybrid or totally electric vehicles like the Pininfarina BLUECAR: recent studies have estimated that in the medium term 1.5-2 million electric vehicles will be introduced on the European market alone.

An elegant compact MPV with automatic transmission, conceived as a four-seater five-door, the Pininfarina BLUECAR is supplied by LMP (Lythium Metal Polymere) batteries, combined with a device for energy storage (“supercapacity”), manufactured in the Bollore plants at Quimper (Francia) and Montreal (Canada), which retrieves and stores energy during braking and makes it available when the vehicle re-starts. This means greater acceleration, an increased range and longer lifespan for the car’s battery.

This LMP battery can store five times more energy than a traditional battery weight for weight, and can be recharged in a matter of hours. It does not require any maintenance and has a lifespan of around 200,000 km, providing outstanding safety throughout. Moreover, the LMP battery is made out of non-polluting materials that do not pose any danger for the environment. At the end of its life, it can be retrieved and all its components recycled or reused.

The battery is housed below the floorpan and between the two axles. Due to its low centre of gravity, roadholding is outstanding. Moreover, the electric car produces no gas or fine particle emissions and no noise: LMP batteries thus make a real contribution to the fight against atmospheric pollution.

The 410 V BatScap battery pack has a capacity of 30 kWh, and peak power output of 45 kW. Gravimetric energy density is 100 Wh/kg, and volumetric energy density is 100 Wh/L.

The LMP battery can be recharged at a traditional mains plug and supports a range of 250 km (155 miles). The battery pack is housed below the floorpan and between the two axles. The BLUECAR uses a 50 kW traction motor.

Part of the car’s hood is covered with high-performance solar panels which help power some of its equipment. Consistently with an ecologically responsible overall approach, all the materials employed for construction, the battery and interior trim have been carefully selected for their low environmental impact and are recyclable or reutilisable. The Bollore group is also looking into the design of photovoltaic cell panels to be installed in private or public places to allow partial or total recharging of the batteries through solar energy alone.

The Pininfarina BLUECAR also fit a tyre concept developed by Pininfarina in cooperation with Dunlop. Extremely light, these tyres of new design can significantly reduce energy consumption while roadholding remains excellent.

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