While at first glance this car looks more like it belongs in Cars, the movie, and not cars, the real life daily saga of commuting and living in the world, it is actually a concept car from Shell.
(Editor’s Note: Just because I mentioned Cars does not mean it is anything more than the worst Pixar movie ever created. I still hold the idea that it is the worst.)
This teeny, tiny car is a part of Project M, a collaboration of Shell, automotive company Gordon Murray Design, and engine experts Geo Technology. The goal was to design a car that was both small and efficient. The concept car was revealed on Friday with the promise that this car would “deliver a 34 percent reduction in primary energy use over its entire lifecycle when compared to a typical city car.” It would use around 50 percent of the energy of a typical family car and 69 percent less than a sports car. (Editor’s Note: These are all based on UK numbers.)
The car was tested at a rate of 107 miles per gallon and in an independent test it produced 28 percent lower emissions than a gas-powered city car and 32 percent lower CO2 emissions than an hybrid. Drivers can access the Shell Drive App in order to see how their driving affects fuel consumption.
It’s a three-seater car–two passengers behind a driver–that weighs in at just over 1200 pounds. As noted it’s a very small car that can comfortably fit on top of a ping-pong table. It’s just 8.2 feet long, 4.4 feet wide, and 5.2 feet tall. The dimensions means that it also a tiny turning radius of just 6m. The design of this tiny car took 4,800 hours of manpower to develop and 12,500 project hours and includes over 1,000 unique component designs.
It also offers a semi-automatic sequential 5-speed transmission, a tubular steel chassis and 64 Nm of torque.
The frame is made from recycled carbon fiber, and interestingly, you can recycle almost the entire car when it’s ready to go to the great junkyard in the sky. Ninty-three parts in the car were 3D printed, which accelerated the construction time for the prototype, if not any mass marketing.
It has a max speed of about 96 mph, though it was restricted to 90 mph. It can go 0 to 62mph in 15.8 seconds. It’s crowning achievement is offering up 107 mpg at a steady speed of 45 mph. The test car traveled over 3,000 miles during testing with six different drivers.
