Singapore's steadily growing economy might have placed the country among the Four Asian Tigers, but someone has to look after a tiger's health, especially when pollution in China is reaching record high levels.
This is where EVA comes into play dressed as 'an electric car explicitly designed as a taxi for tropical megacities'. The EV was developed by engineers from Germany's Technische Universitat Munchen, who worked together with scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore under the TUM CREATE project name.
The final version of the electric taxi has four smart seats equipped with a purpose-built system that sucks away moisture and heat from the surface of the seat for a better level of comfort.
Moreover, the front passenger seat can be folded forward to reveal an integrated child seat that can safely accommodate children aged nine months to three years old. Once inside, passengers can make online booking and payments on the go via the car's infotainment system, but there's also the possibility of adjusting the air-conditioning and audio setting through a smartphone app.
The technical side
By now, the petrolhead within would want to know about EVA's powertrain, right? In this case, let's not waste any time and cut to the chase. The all-electric tropical taxi has a 50 kW (67 HP) motor powered by a 50 kWh battery pack allowing the EV to go for 330 km (205 miles) on a full charge. It can also sprint from 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 10 seconds, which seems decent.
However, in Singapore taxis are used on two shifts which means the above-stated range won't be enough. As a solution, EVA received a 15-minute fast-charging systems, using two chargers to juice-up the battery. On that note, nevermind Singapore, we want this taxi to be fully operational all over the world!
Google News