Test Drive Citroen C-Zero since 2010 Hatchback
Around the world for 250 euros
If it were not for ELECTRIC ODYSSEY. The First World Tour in A Standard Electric Car on a dusty sidewall, no one would gues that the matiz-like hatchback Citroen is a serial electric car making around the world. The narrow wheels of the Puchglase of Baby managed to drive along the roads of America and Asia, and I will have to manage an unusual Citroen from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow!
Crew of Citroen C-Zero French-merchant, Antonin Gi, Advisor of the Government of France on Economic Risks, and Xavier Degon, Engineer of the Energy Sports Company. Their journey looks very large-scale: in eight months, the guys will overcome 25,000 kilometers through the territory of 17 countries, having spent an electric vehicle for charging no more than 250 euros. And this task is almost done! To the native France to file with hand, and only 17 euros left for the payment of electricity ...
Does your country really sell Mitsubishi I-MIEV? Asks Antonin and, having heard the affirmative response, continues. Our Citroen C-Zero is a twin of the Japanese car, so you won't see anything new. But you will find out what an electric car is in practice! How long is it charging? What distance can drove on one charging? Just dress warmer: In order to save the battery charge, we do not use the heater. But you can capture your favorite tape recorders, like the rest of the onboard electronics, is eaten from a separate battery.
With the Russians, the guys communicate unaccompired by phrases: I am French. Electrotore, socket!. Young ladies that work in roadside restaurants and at gas stations, from smile and accent flash and willingly agree to connect the extension to the outlet ... do not take money, but always ask to leave an autograph or take a picture
Sorry. Inside Mitsubishi as Mitsubishi only double chevron on the rabble and glossy piano plastic instead of matte silver finishes, it is a French C-Zero, and not Japanese I-MIEV. All electrical filling the designers were placed under the floor of the body, so in the tiny 168-liter trunk, half of which occupies a 5-meter cord for charging from the household network, the place for our bags was simply not found ... not trouble! We are covered with a spacious Berlingo van, and loaded the baby's kid like it.
Rotating the key The instrument panel comes to life and the green inscription ready is lit. The selector, as on the usual automatic machines, is to the DRIVE position. Go! The first time you look at the arrow economometer, but this fun rapidly anniversary the arrow actually shows the position of the current pedal. If it were not for absolute silence, which accompanies overclocking, then the dynamics of C-Zero would resemble the dynamics of the usual microlley like Daewoo Matiz.
In the interior there is nothing special: rigid plastic and at least frills. For large drivers, C-Zero is small (there is not enough longitudinal adjustment range, and the armchair will seem narrow to the centerast passengers), but due to the high landing and a large area of \u200b\u200bglazing the feeling of tightness does not occur
And where is the trolleybus moment on low revs? Stuck in gear ratio of the gearbox: 6.07 corresponds to the third transmission of the machine, so that the Citroen is not capable of accelerating physically. But it is necessary only to accelerate to medium speeds ... Divide, gasoline and diesel turtles, electric car flies! At 180 nm of the C-ZERO torque, the C-Zero shoots from a speed of 40 km / h and pleases with a powerful acceleration until the speedometer arrow will cross the mark 100.
You only need to get used to it, that the accelerator is configured in peculiarity: let's press the pedal half, and the cut from the car is a little, and only with a completely recessed pedal C-Zero begins to accelerate, confidently slamming 15-inch wheels on the pits and irregularities, forcing the speed only to the largest Colds. Great! And on the trajectory, the hatchback fired by the batteries is clearly lacking only a reactive action on the ram. To the brake pedals, they rarely touch: Citroen slows down recuperatively, if you release the right pedal.
For a complete charge from the household network, electrical Citroen requires at least six hours (usually 8-10). In the States, due to low voltage, C-Zero was daily eats for a long 14 hours, and in Japan, due to the presence of 380-volt charging terminals, the car was charged in 30 minutes
Alex, you're going very well: accelerates you quickly, you hold other cars, it is very good for Xavier. But let's go to eat! I know that here you can accelerate up to 90 km / h ... You see, before leaving, Citroen engineers informed us that the optimal speed for C-Zero is no more than 55 km / h. Therefore, the plan today will be like this: in a couple of hours I am driving to the Gorokhovets, they dock there and they charge four hours, and then, I do not reach Vladimir a little, we get up for a short two-hour charging. Good?
I quickly calculated: on a 220-kilometer way we will spend at least eight hours! Yes, the slowest from the buses that Nizhny Novgorod-Vladimir run on the route, with all the stops it will reach the end item in four hours! And there is warm and cozy, and here it is cold and humid, because the stove or air conditioner is incomplete luxury: the first eats up to half the stock of the stroke, and the second to cool the tiny saloon is required 25% of the total electricity reserve.
The world's first world tour on the electric car Antonin and Xavier were preparing a year and a half, and here ... Another Frenchman, Francois Demere, started a similar project! His Tesla Roadster every day takes up to 400 km, ferry, he prefers transport aircraft, and therefore has every chance to finish before the guys on C-Zero
What will happen if discharge completely traction battery? In practice, see the end of the world I did not have the opportunity, but the French told the following: when the fuel supply scale is reduced to two squares, the warning icon lights up on the instrument panel, and when the squares disappear completely, the heater and air conditioning are turned off and the machine is well losing both in speed and in the speed Dynamics This electronics limits the voltage supplied to the engine.
The first stop was really done under the Gorokhovets, but four hours did not have enough after a few kilometers again I had to look for a socket, because the previously accumulated squares suddenly sat down! In twilight, desired to Vladimir, where they had dinner on the outskirts and again recharged. Total 14 hours, given the traffic jams of the lower and extra stop. So sorry, dear readers that I didn't have enough patience to Moscow, I did not have enough in Vladimir, with the joy of trashing an eco-friendly electric car on a smoking diesel bus.
Stop, removed!
The Mitsubishi electrical program started with creak. Even by choosing the cheapest way to create an electric vehicle (the Japanese simply translated on the electrical machine popular on the Islands of Hatchback I), the company could not release a novelty to the market did not have enough funds for the launch of a plant producing traction batteries ... and here there were economical French: without spending any uniform EUROPERS FOR DEVELOPMENT, CITROEN AND PEUGEOT acquired fashionable in Europe with super-environmental models, and Mitsubishi received missing investments and guaranteed sales volumes. So it seemed at first.
Power steering, lighting and side electronics are powered by a separate 12-volt battery, and therefore does not affect the stroke. But the heater and air conditioning are connected to the main battery and forcing travelers to come with comfort: during the trip, the guys have never used the climate setting of C-Zero!
But with the volume of sales and the bluff came out. In 2012, our buyers found only 935 Citroen C-Zero and 852 Peugeot Ion! But annually it was planned to sell up to 75 thousand electrohotkbacks of all three brands ... And while the French Ksawye and Antonin were driving around the cross, the PSA concern's leadership took the only correct decision: the sale of European clones Mitsubishi I-MIEV was stopped, and the C-Zero and Ion model from production Removed. And how much I-MIEV will stretch without your brothers on the conveyor unknown.
For the use of a rosette, money from travelers was taken only once: in the Bashkir village, Kandra, the guys rolled off on a nonundable 680 rubles. According to the calculations of the locals, C-Zero, eating 20 kWh charging cycle, 150 kWh of local electricity used on the Bashkir Earth!
Although the idea initially seemed win-win. Take the rear-engine (and, consequently, rear-wheel drive) hatchback and replace the gasoline motor electric: the latter gives 50 kW of peak power at 2500-8000 rpm and 180 nm of torque at 0-2000 rpm. Under high passenger compartment, 230-kilogram (!) Truck battery with a rated voltage 330 V and a capacity of 16 kWh, consisting of 88 lithium-ion elements, and under the hollow of the trunk, a converter and a charger with a rectifier are stubborn. Everything is simple and compact!
The electric car has two filling troughs on both sides. On the left connector for charging constant (!) Current voltage of 380 volts from a special terminal (such charging takes no more than half an hour), the usual extension can be connected to the right 220 volt network.
But even for Europeans others, an harmless electric vehicle was too expensive. Citroen and Peugeot sold their cars in a cunning scheme into leasing for 60 months, promising free maintenance. But the monthly payment of the whole 499 euros! Why so expensive? According to expert counts, the specific value of lithium-ion batteries is at least 700 euros for 1 kWh. That is, the small battery Mitsubishi I-MIEV on 16 kWh costs more than 11,000 euros ...
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There are other problems. Charger express terminals capable of downloading 20% \u200b\u200bcharge in battery in 5 minutes, rarity, so the future owner of the electric vehicle will have to get the habit always and see the outlet: I came to work, at the cottage, do not forget to put the car for charging! And if the office or apartment on the 9th floor? What length do you need a wire? Yes, and not every electric grid will withstand the consumer for 3.5 kWh in old summer cottages, the end of the world often happens if two neighbors will simultaneously include only electric fuel ...
But such machines do not harm the environment, the ecology chases will be repaired. Oh? In our country, 66% of electricity is produced by thermal stations, in which hydrocarbons of oil, fuel oil, powered, coal and gas are burned ... Although experts continue to assure: in terms of a mileage kilometer, even the most ancient TPPs throw away much less carbon dioxide, rather than modern MOs. But about the harm caused by nature in the production and disposal of batteries, ecologists are silent.
Any obstacles to Antonin and Xavier overcome with a whisper of the sparking is not! Fortunately, even Remkomplekt during the trip never needed. In general, the repair of the electric vehicle was needed only once: in the US, the pebbles broke through the cooling radiator of the traction battery, but the problem was solved quickly
Savings on gasoline? If the owner of the hybrid Toyota Prius will take 25 thousand km every year, it will leave at least 30,000 rubles at refills (when we calculate the price of one liter AI-95 for 30 rubles, and the average fuel consumption for 4 l / 100 km), then the owner Mitsubishi I-Miev from Moscow will have to spend only 5,600 rubles. But it is worth Toyota by 610,000 rubles cheaper than Mitsubishi! Even if we consider that the electric vehicle does not require the replacement of oil and filters obvious savings on the side of the hybrid. About economical and inexpensive microllers and do not have to talk ...
Do you think the participants of the Armenia experienced travelers? Nothing like this! Antonin GI to this expedition did not drive any machines at all, and C-Zero his first car after the end of the driving school. But it did not prevent the guys to find a dozen sponsors, among which the Citroen provided an electrocar
So the mass appearance of electric vehicles on the streets of cities is a very distant perspective question. To do this, find cheap batteries or repeatedly reduce the cost of lithium-ion batteries. But where did you get the investment from where the planet's economy lives on petrodollara? Are energy-sales companies ready to focus on a new consumer? But we will not be pessimists: we may, and wait until the point where the [email protected] project will appear instead of [email protected].
Alexey Kovanov
Photo by the author, travel participants and Citroen
Source: AUTO.Mail.Ru.