The details about the pure electric version of the Chevrolet Beat (a.k.a. Spark in the United States) has been released ahead of its Los Angeles debut later this month.
The Beat EV was showcased in India in the summer of 2011. The car had a 45 KW electric motor, but the Spark EV that is going to America has at least 100 KW (134 bhp) of power, according to GM.
The power output combined with a colossal 542 Nm (wow!) of torque which is available from the word go would propel the small hatchback to 100 kmph from rest in less then 8 seconds. Now who said EVs are not fun to drive?
Mr. Chuck Russell, GM's Chief engineer responsible for Spark EV said, "When our team set out to develop the propulsion system for Spark EV, we knew we had to provide surprising fun to drive acceleration with maximum efficiency."
The pure electric hatchback derives its energy from a Li-ion battery pack which has a capacity of around 20 KWh. The battery pack carries a warranty of 8 years/ 1,60,000 km and comes with an industry first SAE combo charger which allows the customers to charge the battery up to 80% in 20 minutes.
The battery can be fully charged in less than 7 hours using a 240V outlet and the charging status can be monitored by a smart phone application. The battery used in Spark EV is exhaustively tested for around 2,00,000 hours.
GM has planned to start the production of Spark EV in early 2013 and to start selling the car in California in summer 2013.
GM has not released images showing the car in its full skin.
[Source: Carscoop.blogspot.com]
