GM EN-V Concept To Appear in Shanghai
GM and joint-venture partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. is set to take three versions of the new EN-V “urban mobility” concept to the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. The EN-V is a very small, two-seat, two-wheeled vehicle meant for transporting people around urban centers.
The two companies couldn’t have chosen a better venue to display such a vehicle. Shanghai has the largest number of people living in the city proper than any other place in the world. With nearly 20 million people living in the entire metropolitan area, the city’s traffic is infamously bad. The EN-V will be shown in the SAIC-GM Pavillion with a system meant to clear up Shanghai’s traffic jams.
The EN-V, or Electric Networked-Vehicle, however is not just meant for cities in China. The two automakers, along with Segway, worked to develop the machine for metropolitan areas worldwide, where 60% of the world’s population is expected to live by 2030.
The machine is equipped with GPS and vehicle-to-vehicle communication and has an ability to choose its own driving route. Cameras and sensors around the EN-V allow it to react to a changing environment and avoid accidents.
The electric motors built into the wheels are run by lithium-ion batteries with a 40 km range. The vehicle can be easily plugged into a household outlet for recharging. The EN-V is a development on Segway’s Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility concept shown off last April. Engineers used acryllic, carbon fiber and Lexan to keep the vehicle’s weight at 500 kilograms (1102 lbs).
The EN-V will be on display in Shangai beginning on May 1.
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