Gordon getting on-iStream
October 11, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Gordon Murray is near to licensing his T.25 city car for production, reports Edmunds Inside Line. A ‘major car-maker’ is said to be interested, as well as a large – non-automotive – retailer, and Murray’s firm, Gordon Murray Design, is working with two car companies, including one major European manufacturer, on deals involving his iStream manufacturing concept.
The T.25 itself is a three-seat, ultra-lightweight city car with a three-cylinder, 660cc Mitsubishi engine and composite body panels. Murray is developing an-electric version,T.27, in collaboration with Zytek, and this will be revealed next year. The iStream process, meanwhile, entails the construction of different car body-types on a universal chassis – body-on-frame structures – and is said to save about 80% of production investment costs, 20% of necessary factory space, and 20% of vehicle weight.
Further news for the day:
- Australia switches on to EV use: a five-year trial involving 60 vehicles from a number of manufacturers, 180 citizens and 50 companies is to start in the state of Victoria. It’s backed by the state administration to the tune of AUS$5million.
- Parisian mayor Bertrand Delanoe has confirmed that the Autolib EV-hire scheme will start next year. The vehicular equivalent to the Velib bike-borrowing programme (which inspired London’s ‘Boris bikes’), it will involve membership (15 euros a month) plus a five-euro per half-hour usage charge. Cars can be picked up and parked at 700 different locations across Paris, all with guaranteed parking – in itself, a very powerful incentive to join.
