The French are feeling feisty. Yesterday we brought you information on Renault's new DeZir fully electric sports car concept and today Citroen is taking their turn at grabbing the sexy, French electric sports car spotlight.
Last March, Citroen showed off their Survolt electric supercar concept at the Geneva Motor Show. At the time it was but one of many plug-in car concepts to make a debut at Geneva 2010, which made it kind of fade into the background noise, sadly. And concept cars, while incredibly cool and inspiring, can be kind of a let down... just come on and build them already, no?
As it turns out, Citroen had real plans for the Survolt and will be debuting it in the flesh, with real electric motors, at the Le Mans Classic on July 10. By way of teasing the debut, Citroen has released some stylized pictures and a short video clip of the car in action.
The Survolt has dual electric motors producing a combined 300 HP with 100% of their torque available from 0 rpm. It is also made incredibly light due to extensive use of carbon fiber over a tubular chassis. Citroen claims that the car can get from 0-60 mph in less than 5 seconds and has a top speed of 160 mph. It also has two 31 kWh lithium-ion batteries that provide a range of 124 miles and can be recharged in 2 hours at 220 Volts.
While it may seem that this type of vehicle has no application to reality and doesn't help to solve our energy problems, consider that flashy vehicles like the Tesla Roadster, the Renault DeZir and the Survolt all help to dispel the myths that EVs are underpowered, ugly and uninspired. In the end, that does much more good than harm for the plug-in cause.
Citroen Survolt makes its video debut in the flesh
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