New breeds of city cars vary greatly but do share a greener focus, writes JOHN COLLINS
FIRST THINGS first: a few qualifications. Modern cars leave me cold – my previous article in Motors related to my love of classic Volkswagens. I own two from the 1970s because I admire their character. I’m happy to leave the performance and luxury cars to someone else.
What has me testing these cars then? Two reasons: I would be a potential buyer for a small city runabout that doesn’t ruin the environment; and the Reva-i’s Irish distributor offered a test drive in their car, stating they had a preference to have it tested by a non-motoring journalist.
So off we went to pick-up our eco-friendly plug-in electric Reva-i.
A briefing from Irish distributors GreenAer showed that driving the Reva-i is simplicity itself – although the dash-mounted handbrake proved challenging for this novice motoring journalist. Transmission is automatic. Accelerate too hard and a red light warns you that you are draining the battery too much, while a green light comes on when you decelerate to show that you are saving the battery.
Toyota’s iQ also has a green Eco light on the dash, which means your CO2 emissions are just 110g/km (for the 1.0 litre Multidrive automatic transmission model I tested). Like the Reva, it is a city car that seats two adults and two children. With four passengers there’s no storage space to speak of.
The Reva is much thinner, but even with four passengers you have some storage in the back and above the batteries in the front compartment. The iQ actually looks like a decent-sized family car from the front.
Given this driver is 6’4”, the iQ won out on leg room. It also triumphed over the Reva with features like voice activated Bluetooth phone controls, the full gamut of safety options and steering wheel-mounted radio controls, although the car does cost over €5,700 more.
With its gangly looks, driving the Reva-i is not for the shy. Everyone from the East Link toll collector (“I should probably only charge you half for that”), to a passing motorcyclist who enquired about the battery technology, had a question to ask.
If truth be told it feels more like a souped-up buggy than a car. Although the manufacturers have made improvements on safety, such as a collapsible steering column, you still feel very exposed when driving one, and I wouldn’t recommend motorway driving.
The car’s silence means you have to be very aware of pedestrians. Suspension could also be better for the pot-holed streets of Dublin, never mind the speed bumps.
The iQ feels and drives much more like a family car. Despite the 1.0 litre engine it still has plenty of poke for motorways, and even while cruising on the M50 it claimed to be performing in reduced emissions mode.
The Reva-i has an advertised range of 80km in ideal conditions – ie, relatively flat.
GreenAer told me the car had been fully charged before a round trip to Sandyford from Blackrock.
I then drove from Blackrock to Drumcondra via East Point Business Park. I brought the kids for a spin and later that evening up to Phibsboro and back.
The next day we drove to the Phoenix Park, and half-way back the dial was in the yellow and the battery light was telling us to recharge. I’d been warned that driving with the dial in the red was likely to damage the battery, but we made it back while still safely in the yellow.
This raises a big issue with electric cars – supporting infrastructure is not in place. Need power? You better be near home or work, or know someone who won’t mind you dropping in. Need it fixed? Your mechanic is likely to be stumped.
That of course is all going to change very soon.
The iQ will be available in a full battery mode in 2012, while other manufacturers such as Mitsubishi already have small electric cars on offer, albeit not yet on sale in Ireland.
The target set by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, to have 10 per cent electric vehicles on the road by 2020 still seems ambitious, but supporting infrastructure is going to be a lot more common.
On the upside, with the Reva-i, you smugly pass petrol stations, and if you carry out the eight-hour charging overnight your cost of fuel can be as low as 1 cent per kilometre. The best that can be said about the looks is that it could work as a novelty billboard.
What would really change the economics of buying one was if hefty tax breaks, like in Denmark, reduced the price. Otherwise this is really only a car for very determined eco-conscious drivers.
The iQ does not have quite the same eco-credentials, but if more city dwellers shifted to small economical cars like this (it claims almost 50mpg for the multidrive model), emissions would be significantly reduced.
Although not an option for a family; older people or singletons who want a safe and stylish drive won’t be disappointed.
Factfile How do they compare?
TOYOTA
Model: Toyota iQ, VVT-i with Multidrive
Price: €15,785
Fuel: Petrol
Transmission: Automatic
Engine size: 998 cc
Max power: 68bhp
Top speed: 150km/hour
Wheelbase: 2 metres
Size: 2.985m (length), 1.68m (width), 1.5m (height)
Weight: 1,210kg
Turning circle: 3.9m
REVA
Model: Reva-i
Price: €9,995
Fuel: Mains electricity
Transmission: Automatic
Motor: High torque (52 nm), 3 phase AC induction
Top speed: 80km/hour
Wheelbase: 1.7m
Size: 2.6m (length), 1.3m (width), 1.6m (height).
Weight: 750kg
Turning circle: 3.5m