HAMBURG: A spacious new electric car aims to revolutionise intercity travel by appealing to travellers who want to avoid climate-damaging short-haul flights and crowded airports.
The slippery shape of the Budget Airline Car concept has three rows of large separate seats with adjacent cabin baggage storage and is designed for long-distance cruising rather than flat-out performance.
Thanks to an efficient electric motor, the concept vehicle produces only two percent of the emissions per passenger compared to short flights.
At 5 metres the Budget Airline Car is as long as the Tesla Model X, Nio ES8 or Volvo XC90, but its 1.8 metre width and 1.5 metre height make it markedly more aerodynamic and thus more energy efficient.
Passengers would share the driving and have access to the Internet through shared service platforms. A suite of advanced driver assistance systems would aid safety, with autonomous drive available at a later stage.
The concept was designed during lockdown by the UK-based agency Car Design Research (CDR). The car is not earmarked for production but showcases new ideas and technology.
Design associates Yichen Shu in China and Aditya Jangid in India also came up with subtly different exterior design themes which show how the car might be marketed as an alternative to flying with today’s budget airline brands.
The makers say the design could realise a totally new way to travel in comfort from city to city in a "white space" which is conceptually distinct from other cars.
"Today's cars are evolving in their design far slower than the changes in the lives and sensibilities of the people who use them," said CDR. "Yet, if embraced, these changes could unlock the potential for truly new types of cars designed for life in the mid-21st century."
Some governments have already banned or restricted short-haul flights (in Austria, France and the Netherlands).
Greenpeace has said that if Europe could replace almost all of the top 250 short-haul flights with rail or other zero-emission forms of travel this would save some 23.4 million tons of CO2 emissions per year. This is as much as the annual CO2 emissions of Croatia.
