Vauxhall has taken it to heart to be known as a low-emissions automaker by the year 2012. With such a target in mind, the carmaker has come up with a small, all-electric city car called Trixx which is a 3+1 seater targeted at the Toyota iQ. Its electric powertrain is its primary attraction.

To shorten the distance between the showroom and the street, the carmaker will be utilizing the hybrid powertrain that was originally developed for the latest Ampera model. In an attempt to maintain a level of lightweightness, the 1.4-liter gasoline powerplant which provides the Ampera with almost a 300-mile range will not be used. Currently, the new Vauxhall model can attain a 90 mile range between charges, ideal for city driving. The obstacle, however, remains the price of the batteries which, alone, has been placed at roughly ￡8,000 (computed at the rate of ￡500 per kWh). Thus, the carmaker may be forced to adopt a leasing scheme for its EVs, similar to that being suggested by its rival company Renault. This means that if you buy the new Vauxhall model, you will own the car, but Vauxhall will own the batteries.

[via autoexpress]

Tags: car news, vauxhall news, vauxhall trixx, vauxhall trixx details, vauxhall trixx news

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 6:29 pm and is filed under 0-50k, 2009, 4wheels News, Automakers, Body style, Categories, Electric cars, Hatchback, Price, U.K., Vauxhall, Year, Zone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.