News from Forbes.com
by Dan Lienert
Vehicle of the Week
OK, so, the title of this story is something of a red herring: to automotive enthusiasts, an 'exotic car' is exotic not just for where it is built, but for otherworldly performance capability.
But for this story, we have deemed the REVA-NXG electric vehicle 'exotic' because of its point of origin: India. The nation, which is becoming increasingly famous as a technological hub, has now produced a bold-looking electric car, a type of automobile that many had thought was headed for extinction, but appears to be enjoying a resurgence--at least as a kind of prototype.
The REVA-NXG was made by REVA Electric Car Company (RECC), which recently unveiled the concept car--an automotive industry term for prototypes--in Monaco. The car is a two-seat roadster with a range of 124 miles per charge and a top speed of 75 miles per hour.
Using a 50-horsepower motor to drive the front wheels, the REVA-NXG has sodium-nickel-chloride batteries instead of conventional lead-acid batteries, which have a shorter life. Its hydraulic brakes are regenerative, as well--i.e. they convert thermal energy burned during braking into potential energy for the vehicle to use.
Inside the cockpit, the car has what RECC calls a 'wireless tablet'--an appliance that integrates into a high-resolution, single touch-screen display all of the vehicle's dashboard functions, including speed, state-of-charge, range and critical sensor inputs, as well as a GPS-based navigation system, a modem and MP3 compatibility.
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