Now while Gordon Murray and his iStream manufacturing process are now most closely linked to TVR, it shouldn't be forgotten that it was introduced on the small
T25 city car
App will tell you all about fuel economy
That idea has been taken on by Shell now, the result being this concept car called the, er, Shell Concept Car. And while it may not be the most attractive concept ever seen, it's crammed full of engineering intrigue and some very promising numbers.
It weighs just 550kg thanks to the use of recycled carbon fibre and with an unnamed petrol engine the Shell concept is said to return 107mpg at a constant 45mph. It's claimed that on the NEDC test cycle this car betters the emissions of a conventional petrol powered city car by 28 per cent and a hybrid car by 32 per cent. With Shell's fancy new Helix Ultra oil, CO2 is said to be reduced by seven per cent on the cold part of the NEDC test compared to regular oils. Finally, just while we're on the numbers, independent testing is said to have shown that a car like this would take half the energy to build and run of a "typical small family car". Switch that for an SUV and it's said to be 69 per cent less.
Like the T25, this concept has room for three people in its "extremely novel" seating arrangement. The turning circle is said to be six metres, just the thing for turning around when you see someone you know...
Sorry, that's unfair. The prospect of a small, light, efficient city car sounds like just the thing for our congested city streets, particularly with some Gordon Murray nous behind it. But let's just hope Peter Stevens can be roped in for some design work before it's on sale...
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