Eco friendly cars

There is no new ideea in Michelin Active Wheels. From some time, wheels powered by electrical engines got the attention of green cars manufacturers. Michelin succedeed to do a first step with a first finished product and now tries to make it popular with Opel.

Obviously,  wheels with engines means heavier wheels. Subsequently, both suspension and  direction must be included in the wheel body. With an engine of 7 kg, each wheel will have about 43 kg . For testing ,an opel aguila was used.  The car was wheeled with these new wheels, with LI-ion batteries, weighting 900 kg, 75 kg less than the standard configuration. New wheels gave a constant power of 41 hp, but on short distances this can reach 82 hp . The car named Heuliez will reach 100 km/h in 10 seconds and a maximum decent  speed of 140 km/h.

Michelin will officially launch Heuliez Will in 2010 and in the next year  the car will be available in the market. The price will be around 20 000- 25 000 euros . Although not quite cheap, Michelin electrical car has a relatively accesible price.  For the start , there is no cost for fuel.

Opel was not the only choice for Michelin. They had disscussion with Venturi, the manufacturer of the  first serial  electrical  sport car  they intend to use this type of wheel for their next model.