Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Sports/GTs, Green
Obvio!, Lotus to create multifuel, microsports cars
It's really easy to get excited when you hear Lotus is teaming up with a Brazilian carmaker to produce a small (89" wheelbase), light (1,648 lbs), three-seat sportscar called the 012. Then to hear it gets 40 mpg on the highway from its 1.6L 4 cylinder and offers a choice of paddle-shifted CVT or 6-speed manual and it's starts to sound very interesting especially when the list base price is only $28,000! And there's more? Sportier models offer 170 hp, and 250 hp Tritec engines. With that power to weight ratio, you'll be the Autocross king! My god, that's better than the GT3, the Sport Exige and even better than the Caterham R400! Those numbers, according Obvio, the company planning the 012, are attained while running ethanol or compressed natural gas. Pump good old gasoline into the tank and see a 10% boost!
If only you didn't live in the lawsuit-happy U.S.A . With luck, you'll get to drive it on your vacation to Brazil next summer.
Cancel the trip, because ZAP!, the company importing the first Smart cars into the States, has signed a contract with Obvio to buy 50,000 of their little funcars over three years beginning in 2008. There will also be an electric plug-in version of the car, with 0-60 times in the 4.5 second range, a top speed of 120 mph and a starting price of $59,000.
If you like your sporty economy cars to look more econ than sport, check out the Obvio 828 and more details on both models after the jump.
[Source: Motor Authority]
Lotus is also helping Obvio develop the slightly more practical 828 which boasts the same impressive performance numbers of the 012, three seats and small profile, but base price starts much lower at $14,000. It will also be available in an electric version, 828E, with a starting price of $49,000.
Both cars' engines are sourced from Tritec, a Brazilian engine manufacturer that was set up in 1997 by Chrysler and Rover. The 1.6L engine used by Obvio is the same as used in the first generation Mini and the PT Cruiser. The 170 hp option mentioned in Obvio literature is probably the same powerplant used in the last gen Mini Cooper S.
These wee little performance cars face enormous regulatory hurdles before they ever roll side-by-side with Escalades and Chargers. Add in the fact that the promotional material on the Obvio website lists just about every gee-whiz gadget you can stuff into a car as optional equipment and our skepticismometer starts to reach the red. Involvement by Lotus is encouraging, however, and we hope to see what a 5.2:1 power to weight ratio feels like.Obvio's site is filled with page after page of company history, design sketches, development videos and photos. You get a good sense of the enthusiasm the young company has and, as you can tell from this post's introduction, it's infectious. We think an efficient, multi-fuel, sporty vehicle will find several U.S. buyers at a $14,000 low-end. Whether Zap! can sell 16,000 of them a year here is a question to be answered. Hopefully in 2008 we'll get a chance to see how the 828 and 012 stack up against Smart and other mini cars.
From left, Smart ForTwo, Smart Crossblade and the Obvio 828.
|
Obvio ! |
Vehicle dimensions and weight |
|
Models |
828 |
012 |
|
Width |
1,650 mm (65 in.) |
1,800 mm (71 in.) |
|
Wheelbase |
1,750 mm (69 in.) |
2,250 mm (89 in.) |
|
Height |
1,500 mm (59.0 in.) |
1,500 mm (59.0 in.) |
|
Overall lenght |
2,650 mm (104 in.) |
3,200 mm (126 in.) |
|
Curb weight |
600 kg (1,318 lb.) |
750 kg (1,648 lb.) |
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
porker 9:07AM (12/26/2006)
I like my cars to look sporty, but at least to look like cars, not some computer mouse that somebody stepped on!
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isrltrkfn 9:24AM (12/26/2006)
UGLY!!! why do little cars have to be cutesy???
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V 9:25AM (12/26/2006)
Tone down the whole "stupid looking" thing, and they'll have a winner.
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CJ 10:14AM (12/26/2006)
Hm, the earlier 012 sketches I saw looked much better. This looks like something a Dodge Charger threw up IMO.
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JPhedin aka DrSmart 10:56AM (12/26/2006)
I read last year that the "tri-tec" motor plant was sold to the Chinese and shipped to China. On the matter of the Obvio "design"-remember that the car was designed in 1982-with a VW Beetle boxer motor for propulsion. The 828 has no leg room-no shoulder room for 3 adults and absolutely no trunk space. As far as the "Neiss aerounautical safety rings"-I couldn't find any references to them in aeronautical practice and have been told by Obvio that the car will be re-engineered by a European design house-good luck Lotus. Anyone who believes that they can produce such a car in limited quantities for the prices quoted must live in a fantasy land. The whole Obvio project is to make work at a plant that was made obsolete by the new BMW/Peugeot mini motor.
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CJ 12:28PM (12/26/2006)
Hey! I didnt notice this before... it has a bench seat!
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John P. 12:29PM (12/26/2006)
How do such lame designs get the go ahead to actually be built? This thing is a stinker, and a way overpriced one at that.
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bepsf 1:35PM (12/26/2006)
The little green and orange car has been at the SF Autoshow for the past 3-4 years...
I think it's kinda cute - just the thing for 3 friendly Brazilians to cruise down to Ipanema Beach w/ their swimwear and suntan lotion...
...but definatley not the thing for overfed Americans and their Ritalin-popping offspring on their bi-weekly trip to Costco/Home Depot/Wal-mart.
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Galley 4:49PM (12/26/2006)
Words cannot describe the hideousness of the 012.
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squish 5:09PM (12/26/2006)
haha I love the company logo, looks just as insane as the designs
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Johnny B 9:28PM (12/26/2006)
The colors are way too much...! It looks like some kids toy...Poor thinking on some ones part there...
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Carlos 6:46AM (12/27/2006)
Obvio! so far is a spam. Created to raise funds from official credit lines that will never be payed back. The factory plant was donated by the Rio de Janeiro's governor in a very doubtful situatuion. The 828 is a micro car 20 years old! It will never pass any crash test! Obvio! has a history of displaying known names as sponsors of the project until the Legal Department of these firms threaten to sue them! I believe this is the case here. Did you check the story with Lotus or did you naively believed in Obvio! or ZAP???? Beware!
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jay 8:55AM (12/27/2006)
It looks like a dodge neon with a wide-body kit spliced to the rear end!!!!! UGLY, not like the elise or exige!!!!
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isrltrkfn 9:57AM (12/27/2006)
UGLY!!!!!!!! why do little cars have to be cutesy? and too expensive
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D 5:12PM (12/27/2006)
#6
http://www.pistonheads.com/lotus/default.asp?storyId=15653
Lotus CEO talks about the OBVIO! partnership.
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john 6:06PM (12/28/2006)
Car #1 = baby Mitsubishi Eclipse.
Car #2 = Nissan Micra.
Anyone else agree? They're like, so totally teenage versions of the fully grown Mitsubishi and Nissan.
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Carlos 11:26PM (12/28/2006)
Oh, the brits! They love Brazil so much that they believed in the story! OK, time will tell, again!
Flex-fuel cars (any combination of ethanol and gasoline) are more than 50% of the brazilian market, pretty common here. Fiat (Palio line, compact cars) and Ford (Ranger) sells trifuel cars/trucks. Thousands of shops convert cars to natural gas (keeping them running in gasoline and ethanol), so this is not rocket science. And the tank is HUGE! Are they going to do like Red Bull's promotion cars and attach it to the car roof???
As far as I know, ZAP is the company that placed, out of the blue, an USD 1 Billion order of Smarts and now they are suing DaimlerChrysler because they didn't believe in them. OK, go ahead, trust them. At least this time is not a brazilian tax-payer that is wasting money in this scrap.
One last question: why this silly names with a exclamation mark at the end?? Both ZAP! and Obvio!
Judge yourself.
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egs 11:27PM (12/28/2006)
performance numbers that are a dream. it won't be built. like carlos said.
its too good to be true.
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