Subaru to Begin Delivery of Plug-in STELLA This Summer
17 January 2009
Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), maker of Subarus, will begin delivery of the plug-in STELLA (earlier post) this summer, according to FHI President & CEO Ikuo Mori in his New Year press conference speech.
More than 100 units are to be delivered mainly in metropolitan areas of Japan. FHI is calling 2009 the “First Year of Electric Vehicle”.
The Subaru Plug-in STELLA Concept combines the electric drive system employed in the R1e (earlier post) with the Subaru STELLA minicar platform. FHI plans to use the plug-in STELLA Concept in the development and test-marketing of the next generation of EVs in Japan in the near future.
The STELLA EV seats four, has a maximum speed of 100 kph (62 mph) and a range of 80km (50 miles) per charge. A 9.2 kWh, 346V Li-ion battery pack drives an electric motor with 40 kW output and that develops 150 Nm torque.
Apparently to some there is virtually no difference between a "Concept" and a production vehicle. FHI first committed to produce five of these EVs and has now upped that to 100. Can we now assume that any "Concept" car is also a limited production car?
Good on Fuji and NEC for building their 9.2 kWh pack. While this size may work in small vehicles like this - it seems questionable if 80km AER is enough for a real active fleet vehicle.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 17 January 2009 at 06:27 AM