Welcome to Turin, Fiat Phylla
By Susan Wilson
A little electric vehicle powered by the sun, was unveiled in Turin last week. Fiat has created a nice little car for Italy that includes solar panels in the roof, engines in the wheels and zero emissions. The only change you might want to see, is in the acceleration. 0-30 mph in six seconds is nothing to write home about.
According to Autobloggreen, Fiat unveiled the Phylla in Turin Environment Park in Italy. The Phylla is what is known as a “2+2″ seat subcompact. This electric vehicle has four motors, one in each wheel that propel the car and is powered by either lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries.
With lithium polymer batteries, the car will go 137 miles versus 90 miles using a lithium ion battery. Acceleration is not the best as previously mentioned, 0-30 mph in six seconds. The tip speed is 80 mph, which is a respectable top speed. However couple acceleration of six seconds just to get to 30 mph with the additional time it would take to get to 80 mph and getting onto most expressways except during stop and go traffic could be death defying. Most expressways don’t have run on lanes that will accommodate such slow acceleration.
The car batteries are charged by the solar panels built into the cars roof. While being incredibly environmentally friendly, charging only by solar panels could prove problematic except on sunny days. Motorizing each wheel is something that has been seen before but only on prototypes like this car.
The car’s body is based on a light-weight aluminum frame. The rest of the body appears to be composed of composites in order to keep the weight down and improve driving distance.
In Europe, driving 90 to 137 miles could easily take you between countries. In the United States, that distance is between two cities within the same state.
This is a great zero-emissions car, for sunny climbs. Currently at the prototype stage, this nifty looking small car will be great in the sunny climbs of Southern Europe and Africa but probably won’t pack enough punch for the American market.
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