Could this be the future of urban driving?
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The T.25 combines efficiency and practical urban design
I always like to see where the automotive and transportation industry might be heading as the urgently needed transition toward vehicles that offer better fuel economy or run from renewable energy make more headway. While hybrid engines are making growing inroads into market share overall vehicles that are designed for urban living still remain somewhat of a novelty item. This in itself is a pity as the growing urbanization of our populations means that in the coming decades a personal vehicle designed with city living very much in mind will become much more of a necessity in addition to being more desirable. If you ever looked to park in London or New York, Paris or other large cities you know a smaller vehicle would have huge benefits in addition to practicalities as so many journeys need not be of very great distance. As urban car design takes on the changes I anticipate in the years ahead I think a common option may be very similar to something just released in the UK.
Gordon Murray Design have finally shared the design for something I originally read about a few years ago. The T.25 City Car made its debit at Oxford University in England during the Smith School’s World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment. This really might be the future of city driving and it would meet the bill in terms of reduced fuel consumption. The compact city design offers amazing fuel consumption of 74 mpg / 3.8 l / 100km while also offering extremely low emissions results. One element of design that will really turn heads is that the vehicle promises to have the power and acceleration of a standard 2.0 litre engine which would truly assist it in gaining a foothold in the market. It is certainly a very small car however, although it can seat up to 3 adults from nose to tail it measures just 8 feet with a width of only 4 feet. While the mileage offered is very encouraging the maker stresses that the size of the car would have huge impact to congestion and other concerns if this can become your typical city set of wheels. Consider these facts:
- Its compact size will allow ‘2’ T.25’s to travel in one UK motorway (highway) lane. Trebling the capacity and reducing congestion.
- ‘3’ T.25’s can easily fit into ‘1’ standard parallel parking space, trebling much needed urban parking, reducing pressures for inner cities as well as the disruption to traffic flow.
- Delays caused by congestion are prominent in urban areas and easing or eliminating existing congestion on the road network would be save billions annually in GDP
- The compact size of the T.25, being half the size of the average car,will still achieve the highest safety standards.
- T.25 will have a better power-to-weight ratio than the average 2 litre luxury saloon. Reversing the trend towards larger, heavier and more powerful cars.
- Accident repair costs are kept low by way of replaceable body panels.
Whether this car can reinvent city driving remains to be seen. At present the designer is seeking financial support to enable the car to be mass produced. The logic is strong though, especially where it concerns congestion reduction but I’ve a feeling the design would need to be sold to one of the existing giants to make it take off. Either way its exciting to see the next generation of concept cars become reality.
Learn much more about the T.25 City Car at the Gordon Murray Design website.
Model shows how the T.25 would reduce congestion
6 Comments
June 30th, 2010 at 12:37 am
This looks an awful lot like a car called the “Tango” that we reported on back in March and, much as I would like to get on the EV bandwagon, the simple fact of the matter is that we MUST power down. Regardless of how much energy the sun, the wind and geothermal can provide for us, IMHO, we need to really start thinking about mass transit and car sharing.
Of course it would be best if the cars we were sharing were electric. . .
June 30th, 2010 at 12:51 am
Thanks for writing Kimberly, the ‘Tango’ does indeed look like a petite relative to the T.25 Do you know if they are making inroads in terms of orders?
Gordon Murray Design do plan to offer an electric version also but details are still pending so I focused on the model that is confirmed. I think we’ll see (and are already seeing) Europe and perhaps Japan be the proving grounds for these urban commuters, especially if they so often have but one occupant. The moves made in European cities to have urban congestion charges and perimeters has already taken hundreds of thousands of drivers off of the roads. These smaller vehicles will I think have a role to play in the not too distant future, especially if certain roads, parking and access options are opened to them due to the size alone. Public transport is of course the best solution.
June 30th, 2010 at 6:49 am
Here in our Minneapolis-St Paul metro area of ~ 3 million people in 7 counties, we have hundreds of millions of $$$ in road construction annually to widen roads with the goal of reducing congestion. My observation is that improving one interchange for close to a billion $$$ results in shifting bottleneck to next point requiring another billion $$$. This is a huge waste of our resources. Yet, President Obama used stimulus money to speed not production of mass transit or more efficient vehicles but road construction. This year is a record in MN. My solution is to get pods off the ground. These pods would be called up using GPS locator to indicate where passenger is leaving from. They touch in coordinates of their desired destination. Pod arrives. They climb aboard and without handling controls the automated route finder takes passenger(s) to their next stop. Programming to find best route, without danger of getting too close to anothr pod would be handled by network of smart computers who continue to update info/data base. Fuel would be solar propulsion. Noise pollution minimal to be most effective. Think of a helicopter without those blasted rotors, noise, sucking up high octane fuel and requiring a pilot who must figure out his own route.
The other vehicle I would like to see mass produced is bicycles geared for 50 mph. Peddler climbs into a clear cowling to minimize wind resistance. As we see oil prices escalate, since we are passing peak oil (that is demand is now exceeding supply) less people will be able to afford a single occupancy vehicle and the roads will empty, leaving lanes open for these fast bikes.
Go out there and make it a new world. It is our only hope of surviving the twin crises of peak oil and climate change.
June 30th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Douglas,
Thanks so much for your comments. I tend to agree, while the overall problem will obviously not correct itself, the response from government and bigger corporations alike seem to be passive at best. Supply and demand rather than common sense and long term strategies seem to dictate the transport equation both in the States and elsewhere. Mass transit will be the forced solution rather than the planned one unless we realise that moderate increases in fuel efficiency fail to even offset the global need for oil due to growth and urbanization.
I don’t think the solutions need to be 20 or 30 years down the road, with sound investment and logical thinking the changes can and should be achieved this decade.
Tim
June 30th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
I’m not sure that mixing these little cars with full-sized traffic is safe. It would be better if they were given physically separate traffic lanes. Otherwise, larger vehicles can easily encroach upon their space. If separate lanes are adopted, can we afford the space and cost to build them?
I’m also not sure about reducing congestion. These cars might use less space, but we’d still have about as many drivers all funneling into the same areas. They can’t replace carpools that include more than three adults. I agree that parking should be easier, if larger cars are kept out of spaces intended for T.25s.
What is the battery range? There is no mention on the Gordon Murray Design web site. There is little doubt that these cars could be effective in big cities, but most of the population (especially in the U.S.) commutes at least twenty miles per day. Also, can these cars keep up with traffic on high speed roads like Interstates? Can they do it and still get enough battery range? We can’t expect a massive population shift from the suburbs to cities – it’s not practical.
I’d like to see concepts like this work out. But I think that it will take decades to evolve to it.
June 30th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Thanks for writing and visiting Gary.
I would think safer than motorcycles or scooters? I think the ultimate goal would be separate lanes, much as carpool lanes are currently used. Most of Europe also has bus,cycle and taxi lanes in urban areas. I don’t think the goal is to replace carpooling (which is ideal) but to make more parking space available for the many urban drivers who do travel every day alone. Top speed is 65mph which is aimed at urban commuters. The specs on the electric version are still unconfirmed. I agree it won’t happen overnight in a Denver or a Dallas, but for New York, San Francisco, Toronto or London I think they’d be great. You hit the nail on the head – in theory it could take decades, unless the current strategies and consumer acceptance change drastically. A $8 gallon of gas might just speed the process of change toward micro cars and public transport as we see in Europe and Asia.