New York 2010: Tiny Spin in the Amp'd Equinox all-electric SUV

AMP's all-electric conversion of the Chevrolet Equinox was on hand at the New York Auto Show, and we got the chance to squeal the tires just a little bit while we were in town. We can't give a full report on how the CUV drives – the indoor track was a whole 500 or so feet long – but we can say that the Equinox, like AMP's first conversion, the Saturn Sky, has a lot of potential for people looking for an all-electric vehicle. AMP doesn't have everything totally figured out quite yet, but the company's strategy to leverage the work General Motors did in developing the Equinox into an affordable electric vehicle (EV) is on the right track.

Like with the Sky, the Equinox's electric motors are quite loud. Thankfully, they're also quite powerful, as we found out on the short straightaway on the EV Pavilion at the show. These are motors from Remy International, which AMP also uses in the Sky. AMP president Steve Burns has called the Remy's HVH250TM electric motors, "simply the best on the market today." When used in the Equinox, where AMP spent some time evenly balancing the weight of the all-electric powertrain, the motors add to the vehicle's solid driving feel, and we imagine taking the CUV for a real drive would be quite pleasurable. We'll have to wait and see if this is true.

The AMP'd Equinox will be available this summer fro $50,000 (after government incentives). The CUV has a range of up to 150 miles per charge and a top speed of 90 miles per hour. It can hit 60 mph in about eight seconds, AMP says, and we look forward to trying this for ourselves some day.

Live photos by Sebastian Blanco / Copyright ©2010 Weblogs, Inc.