Sitting in front of your computing machine , you click " Buy Now . " Making sure the correct selection is in your online basket before you assure out , you discover the lodge total . For one item , the cost will be £ 9,194.00 , about $ 18,000 USD as of February 2008 . But this unusually mellow toll for something buy over the net does n’t enervate you , because you ’re not buying a really expensive playscript or getting ripped off by a third - party vendor onAmazon.com– the Cartesian product you ’re ordering is theReva G - Wiz Automatic Electric Vehicle , an emanation - freeelectric automobilemade in India and usable through UK retailer GoinGreen .
Ordering from an on-line salesroom is just one of the company ’s manoeuvre that aim to cut cost and lessen the effect urban travelers have on the environs . With smaller , more efficient cars like theSmart Carall the rage in England , the G - Wiz has chop-chop become one of the UK ’s most pop electric vehicles , with more than 900 models driving around the streets of London [ informant : GoinGreen ] . GoinGreen advertises the G - Wiz as the green fomite available for purchase in England – its vane site claim the G - Wiz ’s galvanising railway locomotive produces zero verbatim emissions , and a full , eight - hour charge cost about $ 1 ( 50 pence ) , the combining weight of nearly 600 mile per gallon . The vehicle is also nontaxable from London ’s respectable novel over-crowding charges , and drivers can park for free in certain areas and make use of on - street charging points while away from the G - Wiz .
So buying a somewhat cheap electrical car , saving more in the future tense on energy price and helping the surround all sound like peachy fun – but is it too good to be true ? The idea of ordering an automobile online and having it delivered to you instead of going to a railway car franchise might be enough to mark off some warning lights . On top of that , some awful publicity and business over rubber have granted the G - Wiz as many knocker as admirer .
How much are the automakers sacrifice in rubber to make an affordable , clean machine ? Is it really an effective automobile , or are GoinGreen and Reva justgreenwashingthe Brits ? In this article , we ’ll take a looking at the G - Wiz and some of the arguing surrounding it .
G-Wiz Specifications
The G - Wiz is actually known as a " quadricycle " in Britain – the gismo weighs about 880 pounds ( 400 kg ) without thebatteryand produces less than 15 kW of power , so according to the European Commission , it ’s not a car . Although it ’s effectual to push a G - Wiz on any road in the United Kingdom , GoinGreen stresses that the vehicle was " designed as a scurvy hurrying urban roadster and commuter train railcar , " and they " do not recommend it is used [ sic ] on motorways and debauched roadstead . "
There are three different G - Wiz models available . Reva no longer produces the original two interlingual rendition , the G - Wiz dc and the G - Wiz ac , but GoinGreen still offers used example on its Web situation . The new version , the G - Wiz i , has meliorate base hit standard and will be available in February 2008 .
Despite the dissimilar names and depart condom packages , each type has the same world-wide expert specifications . A G - Wiz is a two door , " 2 + 2 " seat arrangement , which signify two adult can fit up front and two children can squeeze in the back . Eight six - volt lead - Lucy in the sky with diamonds batteries , located under the front seats , power the midget quadricycle’selectric motor , which is located in the back . you’re able to charge the barrage fire of the G - Wiz by simply plugging a charge cable into the side of the vehicle and any electric outlet , the same means you would charge yourcell speech sound . ( GoinGreen does recommend protect a typical household outlet with an RCD ( Residual Current gadget ) , or a surge guardian ) . Two and a half time of day will charge the stamp battery 80 percent , while an eight - hour charge will give the motorcar its full charge . Using electricity , especially from a renewable source , can economize you money and help the environment – a years worth of power would cost about $ 100 – but the downside is the life sentence of the battery . A substitution large number of eight batteries cost £ 1,595 , or more than $ 3,000 , and the batteries last between two and three years . This is the main reason why many people are looking towardfuel cells , which are charge quickly and do n’t call for interchange .
The range of a G - Wiz is only about 50 miles per battery charge , but as mentioned before , the quadricycle was n’t built for farseeing drive through the English countryside . The top speed of the vehicles range between 40 and 50 miles per time of day ( 64 - 80 km / h ) – very tiresome compare to most other car on the road , but this emphasizes why the G - Wiz is for an urban environment . The speed limit point in London , for example , are typically no faster than 40 miles per hour ( 64 km / h ) , and data download from G - Wizzes driving around the city prove that customers recorded an average velocity of 10 mph ( 16 klick / h ) . London does happen to have the slowesttrafficin Europe – UK dealings information service KeepMoving.co.uk reported that all traffic , G - Wiz or not , moves at an average of 12 mph ( 19 kilometre / h ) in England ’s uppercase .
So the G - Wiz can save you money – but will it save you from a head - on collision with a delivery truck ? understand the next varlet to find out .
G-Wiz Safety Concerns
One of the main concerns with compact railway car is the safety of the vehicle . The light weight of these vehicles makes them more susceptible to damage in an fortuity , and carmaker want to be creative if they desire to build a substantial , protective body . The tight quarters also put drivers and passengers at an increased risk of being hurt by poorly designed crumple zones or broken windshields .
The G - Wiz is very thick – it ’s only about 8.5 feet long and 5 feet tall – and since it ’s separate as a quadricycle , it ’s not required to undergo the same kinds of safety tests even automobiles do .
So in 2004 , Reva introduced the G - Wiz dc onto London street , following up in 2006 with the G - Wiz ac . No official crash trial were performed on these vehicles , so consumer had no idea how someone would come in a collision . It was n’t until the summertime of 2007 that UK car magazine Top Gear performed its own serial publication of crash trial with the G - Wiz . hoi polloi were ultimately able-bodied to see the destruction a paries – or better yet , a simple table – could render to the popularelectric fomite .
The results of the crash tests , which you could view on theJalopnik vane site , are atrocious to watch over . One video recording present a G - Wiz drive into a paries at 40 mph , while another shows two G - Wizzes , traveling at 30 mph , hitting each other . In both , the front segment of the G - Wiz gets entirely torn asunder and crumpled in toward the driver and passenger dumbbell . Another television , seenhere on YouTube , puts the G - Wiz up against a table , with at the same time comical and horrifying effect .
GoinGreen offers only this explanation on their connection site : " Whilst orotund , heavy cars in ecumenical perform better in clangor tests , statistics show they tend to be driven less defensively and at higher speed and so they are also more likely to injure other road drug user . " Reva no longer manufacture the framework used in the tests , but they still offer used versions of the G - Wiz dc and G - Wiz ac on their entanglement site . More than 900 of these initial models are driving around the street of London , and more than 2,000 elsewhere around the world .
On top of this , Reva had to recall several hundred G - Wizzes in November 2007 to replace or repair every battery charger – one of the quadricycles suddenly overheated and split into flames while parked . fortuitously , no one was offend , but the idea that the G - Wiz was a ticking time bomb calorimeter , whether or not it was driving , was n’t soothe to many .
There seem to be good purpose and a few proficient ideas behind the " socially responsible for " G - Wiz . Even the distribution method is interesting – after dictate online , the G - Wiz is either driven to you if you subsist in London or give up by dawdler if you live elsewhere in England . But the G - Wiz , design in California and manufactured in India , seems to sacrifice too much to make the fomite affordable and environmentally friendly . The G - Wiz does n’t even get withairbags , only because , according to GoinGreen , the " bulk of the machine on the route in the UK do not have these features . " Another offbeat and efficient fomite , on the other deal , theAptera , also came out of California – its manufacturer went above and beyond to insure refuge standards were n’t just fit , but exceeded .
If you desire to know more about electric cable car and other quirky vehicle , take a look at the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
