Denmark Presents: The QBEAK EV

August 8th, 2012 by Charis Michelsen

Tiny little electric vehicles make a lot of sense for people living in urban environments – and (tell the truth, now) how many of you live in a city? Even with a relatively short range, small electric vehicles thrive in their natural habitat of slow speeds, many stoplights, and lots of traffic.

Of course, then you have something like the QBEAK out of Denmark. The QBEAK is a tiny, boxy electric car from Danish electric vehicle manufacturer ECOmove, developed according to the motto “Small Urban EV.” It’s not an original motto, but it’s certainly a relevant one.

You and Your Environment Both Matter

ECOmove is working under the assumption that the driver matters, the driver’s comfort matters, and the impact the car has on the environment matters. The QBEAK is therefore equipped with two zero emission electric motors, 35.4kW each for a total of 70.8kW of potential power.

Those electric motors give the little car a top speed of 75mph (don’t give me that look, you know perfectly well the speed limit in the city is well below 50) and a range of 186 miles. Part of what helps give the QBEAK that impressive range is its weight – it weighs less than a thousand pounds. 937lbs, to be more precise.

One would expect, given the weight and the repeated use of the word “little” that the QBEAK is, in fact, rather small. One would be mostly right – it’s only 118” long. It is, however, a boxy 69” wide, and 65” tall (that makes it somewhat bigger than a Smart Fortwo, if you’re curious, but not by much), which means that yes, traffic will see you coming.

Check out the video:

ECOmove is currently taking reservations and plans to start delivery in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Source: Green Car View
Image Credit: Green Car View

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Tags: danish, Denmark, ECOmove, Electricity, Europe, QBEAK, zero emission, zero emission vehicle, zev

About the Author

Charis Michelsen spent 7 years living in Germany and Japan, studying both languages extensively, doing translation and education with companies like Bosch, Nissan, Fuji Heavy, and others. Charis has a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and currently lives in Chicago, Illinois. She also believes that Janeway was the best Star Trek Captain.

Outsman

You can have electric cars at a price much more affordable on this website: http://www.energie-ecologie-economie.com/Produits.html
mmvr

quoting: “The price depends on the configuration, but EcoMove is expecting to be able to offer QBEAKs from DKK 150,000 / Euro 20,000 (incl. battery) and upwards.”http://www.nordicgreen.net/startups/article/danish-startup-ecomove-presents-qbeak-new-light-and-flexible-electric-vehic
http://ronaldbrak.blogspot.com.au/ Ronald Brak

if it gets 6 kilometres to a kilowatt-hour and batteries cost $500 a kilowatt-hour then it will cost $25,000 for the batteries. Add the car on top of that and it’s over $30,000. But it might get more than 6 kilometres per kilowatt-hour.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Batteries no longer cost that much.
Nealicus

Also wondering about the price.
rkt9

Top speed is plenty, and the range is great. This the best I’ve seen of the many recently given press. What’s the price going to be?