I test drove a Reva G-Wiz today, a tiny tiny electric car. Its so small, you strap one onto each foot.

Well, actually, not quite, but it is tiny: certainly far smaller than a SMART FourTwo.



Despite that, it has four seats and can take two adults and two children, or three adults on short journeys.

Maximum speed is 40mph, and although it is best used for pottering around town rather than going anywhere far, it does a good job. It certainly kept up with the traffic around town when I was driving it today - and was small enough to squeeze through gaps that other cars couldnt even contemplate.

Ride was firm but not choppy and the car handled unmade roads with less bouncing around than I expected. Speed humps are best taken carefully though - the tiny wheelbase and the small wheels mean taking speed humps at speed would be not particularly comfortable.

Handling is not wonderful, but is safe. Taking a corner a little too enthusiastically makes the car drift wide. That said, it is a lot of fun to drive and buzzing silently along the road is actually a lot of fun.

Inner-city dual carriageway driving is fine, but I would probably think twice before going out onto the motorways or fast dual carriageways with the G-Wiz. Where it is best is driving around town at speeds of 30-40mph.

I have to say I really enjoyed driving it and was quite impressed with it. Ive got a thing about microcars and electric cars, so I was always going to be easily impressed by it, but for a little town car it does things remarkably well.

Turning circle is staggeringly good. I can almost turn the car around on my driveway without using the reverse gear! There is no power steering and bakes are of the good old drum variety front and rear with no servo assistance, but once youre used to that, it really isnt a problem.

Boot space is limited: you either have rear seats or a boot, not both. However, there is a storage compartment under the bonnet as well, so various bags and bits can be put in there. Fold the seats down and you have a fair amount of space for luggage: certainly more than you get in a SMART.

As for overall appearance, you can see it is a low production vehicle, with amateurish over-large rubber door seals spoiling the looks on the outside. The windows slide rather than go up and down, there are various creaks from the plastics and the interior trim is screwed together, but not particularly nicely finished: an hour or sos worth of work to finish everything off properly would make the world of difference.

The car is fully electric with two modes - economy and performance. In performance mode, the car goes well and certainly wont have trouble with the ebb and flow of town traffic. Economy is a little more sedate, but even so I was able to keep up with traffic pulling away from the lights on flat roads in economy mode.

You sit up quite high up in the car. I was suprised to find myself sitting at the same height as the occupants in a Citroen Picasso, and looking down at Fiesta drivers. This height seemed to help: certainly I didnt come across anyone trying to bully me in the same way as you get bullied if you normally drive a small car. It also helped with overall vision - you can easily place the four corners of the car.

The amount of space you have in the car depends on where you have the seats. If you have anyone in the back, youre leg room isnt going to be wonderful, and at 6 tall, I have to have the seat back adjusted back in order to give me enough headroom. If you arent using the rear seats, you can slide the front seats right back and then you do have a good amount of space - certainly legroom than I find I have in an old-shape Ford Fiesta.

I didnt try getting into the back of the car - I dont think I would have fitted, although a slightly shorter adult did get into the back of the car - without the use of a shoe-horn.

I was very impressed with one option on the car that I had previously dismissed as a gadget: climate controlled seats. The test car had leather seats and today was a warm day, so it wasnt long before my back was getting hot and sticky. Turn on the climate control seats to cool and within a minute I had to turn the system off because I was getting too cold! Ive been told that the heating is just as good as well. Apparently, it doesnt make that much of a difference on battery range either, which is good.

Another nice feature is the remote control heater, which allows you to turn the heater or air conditioner on whilst the car is parked up on charge: so when you get into the car it is the right temperature and you havent used up any precious battery juice. The main heater and air conditioner does use up a considerable amount of juice so this is a nice feature.

There are a fair few cubby holes dotted around, including two cup holders in the front - something I always look for, and the car also comes with DAB radio/CD player which is a definate nice to have.

So: what does it cost? Well, the basic model costs Ã,£6999 whilst the luxury model with leather seats, DAB radio/CD player and remote control heater and central locking costs Ã,£7799. The only options are air conditioning, climate controlled seats and alloy wheels.

So would I buy one? The short answer is yes I would. In fact, the slightly longer answer is yes and I am buying one. For shorter journeys it is absolutely ideal and we dont need two petrol powered cars for what we do as a family.

Whats it cost to run?

no tax, grp 1 insurance, free parking in lots of places, even free charging in lots of places.

they quote a theroetical 600mpg, it charges in about 5 hours and lasts for up to 150miles so they say.

Sounds good but how much does it cost to charge it up? Does it say, roughly?

Quote from: brummieSounds good but how much does it cost to charge it up? Does it say, roughly?

they didnt mention that, or i didnt ask more so. ill have a google as i think i have read it somewhere.

Probably pence rather than pounds.

QuoteCharge cost: off-peak 27p peak 54p,
(<1p per mile av.)

http://www.goingreen.co.uk/?PageID=TechySpecs

Personally I would still prefer the French aircar as it doesnt require the batteries this does but the amount it saves means that any commuter who travels less than 50 miles is going to find this very interesting, especially in London. 300*Ã,£5 = Ã,£1500 saving if you go into London regulrly.

Why do they have to make all these cars look like something Postman Pat would use, its no way to sell to the market. :?

In the end a car is something to get you from A to B, this ones intentionally on the cheap. They also tend to have a load of regulations and stuff to get through which costs money and ups the price. Most of all though they cant afford top designers to do the work so what you end up with is more 2CV than Ferarri.  Damn shame but life sucks sometimes.

Lastly if it looked like a sports car you might expect it to move like one and it would take more room to park, more resources to make, etc. etc..

diggnation video podcast was discussing how an american company have taken a Ford F50 pickup truck (one of those massive supped up gangster mobiles), and converted it to run on electric.

Apparantly the kit is unique in that its easy or something to install in ANY car or van. It also supplies enough power and torque to lift the current loads that the F50 is specced at, at highway speeds apparantly. Thats if I remember rightly but just check out diggnation for more info.

Quote from: DEViANCEthey quote a theroetical 600mpg, it charges in about 5 hours and lasts for up to 150miles so they say.

Just seen this when I looked back at their site -

QuoteRange: up to 40 miles on one charge, depending upon temperature,

http://www.goingreen.co.uk/?PageID=TechySpecs

So unless they have changed something...

Alternative that might be preferable when they start selling them

http://www.theaircar.com/

At least one report says the aircar is dodgy on range ATM, although they are still supposedly working on it.