It’s done. The electric vehicle has arrived in carmakers’ heads. The question remains if it is going to stay there. At least at this year’s Geneva Auto Show almost every manufacturer proudly presented its new electric vehicle, plug-in or at least normal hybrid as part of the its future strategy. cars21.com is on the ground to give an overview of the EV premiers at the Auto Salon.

The scene of the first day of the International Auto Show in Geneva was clearly dominated by hybrid or pure electric vehicle technology. Europe’s largest carmaker Volkswagen finally joined Nissan, Mercedes, Toyota and the like to embark on an electric journey. VW announced to launch its first production series in 2013 (electric Golf and electric Jetta) and to become market leader of e-mobility by 2018 with 300,000 EV sold which would translate to 3% of all sales.

Porsche hops on the electric trend

The trends in Europe are clearly continuing towards zero emission and even Porsche unveiled its electric experiment. The plug-in electric hybrid 918 Spyder concept with the styling of the Carrera GT is powered by 500 horsepower V8 and one electric motor in each axle add 218 horsepower on top. From 0 to 100km/h in 3.2 seconds and high speed of 318 km/h the concept proves the perfect interaction of petrol and electric engines.

Daimler and BYD partner up for electric coalition

Also the Warren Buffet-funded Chinese carmaker BYE presented the full electric BYD e6, a family-oriented 5-seater with an expected range per charging of 330km. Acknowledging the potential of China to become one of the main markets for EVs, BYD signed a memorandum of understanding with Daimler to establish a technology partnership for EVs in China. The two companies intend to develop a new EV specific to the requirements of the Chinese market. It will be marketed under a new brand to combine the know-how of Daimler’s vehicle architecture and BYD’s battery technology and e-drive systems.

More electric premiers

Seat presented a new pure electric concept, the IBE, that features a 18kWh li-ion battery pack. It is a two-and-a-bit-seater coupe, shorter and lower than the Seat Ibiza but also wider and much sportier. As a concept study that runs purely on electricity, BMW reveiled the ActiveE, that is based on the BMW 1 series coupé. Moreover, the Toyota concept FT-EV II, a 4-seater with top-speed of over 100 km/h and 90km coverage is just one more step into electric mobility from the world largest car manufacturer.

Electric sports car - The Protoscar Lampo2

Protoscar SA unveiled its electric sports car prototype LAMPO2, the improved version of the LAMPO demonstration vehicle presented in 2009 at the Geneva Auto Show. The new version is more energy efficient, has a range over 200km and over 30 kWh of Lithium-Ion battery capacity. Weight, aerodynamics as well as the efficiency of individual components of the BRUSA drive train have been further optimised. This leads to a stunning 50% increase of the power to 408 horse power, and a maximum speed of 200km/h. In 0 to 100 in 5,6 seconds proves that the old cliché of the slow and little electric vehicle is completely obsolete and a new era of electric has begun.