Green gets a new look from Chrysler, through its GEM division. It's called the Peapod, and it's the hot -- and also very cool -- sibling of the plain vanilla golf cart, all dressed up and grown up.
Like it's golf cart relatives, the Peapod has a top speed of 25 miles per hour and a range of 30 miles per charge -- more than enough to get you to and from the supermarket and the commuter rail station. Because of its limited speed, it is not street-legal on all roads. So stay off the Interstate -- except maybe the infamous 405 in Los Angeles in rush hour, where you don't have to worry about driving faster than 25mph. Recharge it overnight in any standard 110-volt outlet. No gas, no emissions, no fuss.
Plug-in golf carts have been growing in popularity and uses beyond the places where you would find Tiger Woods. They've been adopted by sprawling Caribbean resorts to transport guests and luggage, and by both college campuses and corporate campuses to shuttle workers between far-flung buildings. In the the famous pedestrian-only Alpine village of Zermatt, Switzerland, where vehicles are not permitted, call a taxi and what you get is an electric cart.
But none of those utilitarian little electrics looks like the new Peapod design, which will be produced starting in 2009. GEM is headquartered in Fargo, N.D.
This is a pure electric vehicle -- just plug it, charge it up, and go. Designs like this used to be called NEV -- for Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, and the neighborhoods include planned communities like retirement communities where people drive them to visit neighbors and get to the supermarket. But Chrysler is re-designing the NEV tag, too. The new name is 'GreenEcoMobility' - how clever for Chrysler to use the GEM acronym for the new generation of an existing concept -- the electric golf cart.
Peapod is sleek and streamlined and reminds me of the Smart fortwo, which is owned by Daimler-Benz, which bought and then quickly sold Chrysler. Hmm. I wonder. Maybe Smart's success inspired and encouraged the 'divorced' Chrysler to add a stylish cover to the golf cart. Smart move.
Just so you know -- GEM vehicles have been driven a combined 200 million miles and prevented more than 150 tons of pollutants from reaching the air, while saving 10 million gallons of gasoline. That's pretty impressive.
photo courtesy GEM Corporation
Comments
I don't think it's quite accurate to call plug-in electric like the GEM "emissions-free" because the electricity has to be made somehow, and until we get more nuke plants up an running, that's mostly going to be coal (although the president-elect has promised to put any utility building a new coal plant out of business by regulatory strong arming). So emissions free? I think not.
I absolutely agree that an issue with electric cars is that it moves the emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack. But let's not overlook the dual advantages of a 'commuter car' that gets the equivalent of 60-ish miles per gallon, and costs less than 10-thou.
This is an interesting development. But how many will Chrysler have to sell at what price to be solvent again?
JAVIDVRI GOOD
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