What's Wrong With This Picture: The Urban Electric Delivery Van Edition

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: July 22nd, 2011

what s wrong with this picture the urban electric delivery van edition

Would you be a little bit surprised if the man behind this tiny, funky little electric van was the man who styled the VW Passat CC and first-generation Mercedes SLK? Well, Murat Günak has been heavily into the electric car game since leaving Volkswagen, having designed one of my favorite EVs, the fresh-and-freaky Mindset. But even though the Mia and the Mindset seem a little more in the same vein, Günak has actually moved well past the Mindset’s super-high-end positioning, as this Mia is set to sell for the lowest price of any EV in the EU, starting at €19,500 ($28k). For comparison, Mitsubishi’s iMiEV (the cheapest EV in the US market) sells for €34,390, or nearly $50k… although its European price is set to drop to closer to €15k when production ramps up.

But the Mia isn’t just (relatively) inexpensive… it’s downright cool. Built by the French firm Heuliez in either 9.4 or 10.5 foot lengths (the latter with 53 cubic feet of cargo space), it comes with a McLaren F1-style central driver’s seat and doors designed to operate in tight urban conditions. With a range of only 60 miles and a top speed of only slightly more than 60 MPH, it’s strictly an urban runabout, but as a small business delivery vehicle it seems to hit a lot of the right buttons… especially the three-hour charging time (an 80-mile-range battery is optional but takes five hours to charge). Production hits 10,000 units next year, when sales to private customers begin. [via Autobild]

#3WTP #DeliveryVan #Design #Electric #Europe #EV #Green #NewCars #Vans

Edward Niedermeyer

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2 of 12 comments

Tosh on Jul 22, 2011

"What's wrong?" Since one of its versions is a taxi cab, it will need a quick-change battery (so where's the hatch for that)?

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Andy D on Jul 23, 2011

I would need 2 or 3 of these a day to complete my appointed rounds. A human powered vehicle is prolly more useful within that range

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Recent Comments

1995 SC The sad thing is GM tends to kill cars when they get them right, so this was probably a pretty good car
Mason Had this identical car as a 17 year old in the late 90's. What a ball of fun, one of many I wish I still had.
FinnEss At my age, sedans are difficult to get into without much neck and hip adjustment.I apologize sincerely but that is just the way it is. A truck is my ride of choice.Pronto
Ajla The market for sedans is weaker than it once was but I think some of you are way overstating the situation and I disagree that the sales numbers show sedans are some niche thing that full line manufacturers should ignore. There are still a sizeable amount of sales. This isn't sports car volume. So far this year the Camry and Civic are selling in the top 10, with the Corolla in 11 and the Accord, Sentra, and Model 3 in the top 20. And sedan volume is off it's nadir from a few years ago with many showing decent growth over the last two years, growth that is outpacing utilities. Cancelling all sedans now seems more of an error than back when Ford did it.
Duties The U.S . would have enough energy to satisfy our needs and export energy if JoeBama hadn’t singlehandedly shut down U.S. energy exploration and production. Furthermore, at current rates of consumption, the U.S. has over two centuries of crude oil, https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/exclusive-current-rates-consumption-us-has-more-two-centuries-oil-report.Imagine we lived in a world where all cars were EV's. And then along comes a new invention: the Internal Combustion Engine.Think how well they would sell. A vehicle HALF the weight, HALF the price that would cause only a quarter of the damage to the road. A vehicle that could be refueled in 1/10th the time, with a range of 4 times the distance in all weather conditions. One that does not rely on the environmentally damaging use of non-renewable rare earth elements to power it, and uses far less steel and other materials. A vehicle that could carry and tow far heavier loads. And is less likely to explode in your garage in the middle of the night and burn down your house with you in it. And ran on an energy source that is readily extracted with hundreds of years known supply.Just think how excited people would be for such technology. It would sell like hot cakes, with no tax credits! Whaddaya think? I'd buy one.