The CES 2011 has so many things to offer the gadget geek, but one of the perks that will literally let you in for a ride is General Motor’s latest and coolest offering: their own version of the Electric Networked Vehicle, succinctly abbreviated as a GM EN-V. But succinct naming does not mean short benefits, for the freshness of the vehicle’s idea is as succulent as a fruit just picked from the tree. In this case, the whole concept is freshly picked from the needs of the future vehicle user. Congestion, for one, is almost eliminated because of the friendly size of this neat and mean riding machine. And great things do come in small packages:
Designing roads are quite hard to come up with and implement without making drastic changes in the landscape. They are often the more inflexible factors that affect traffic or vehicle circulation. As such, the vehicles of the future are compelled to adjust. There are increasing traffic problems worldwide, and we cannot really excavate and expand our roads as easily. The GM EN-V, at the very least, helps contribute to the solution by having a more compact size and equally mean features that you will find in the vehicle bigwigs. It can even be programmed to drive automatically! Go figure what else you can do with your fingers and toes while you let the mobile car cruise with its GPS-savvy interface.
Two seats plus two wheels yields a total riding experience that depicts mobility and utmost friendliness to the environment. Since many EN-V vehicles can take up a single traditional vehicle’s space, it will not emit as much pollutants. Also, the fact that it is electronically powered makes a little more faster in its acceleration, which means that people can go to farther places in less time.
Here’s a peak inside the GM EN-V
Even parking issues have finally found its solution in GM EN-V, since it can stably rotate on its own, The maneuvers are more flexible and easy to do since you will not have to worry too much about the different parts, given its ultra-compact size. And probably, towing companies might have some downsizing to do since the whole package is just 900 lbs and much more easy to carry in case it breaks down or malfunctions somewhere down the road. However, at a mere 30 mile range, it might just be limited to urban locations and not really something you can take when you are on adventurous and rough terrain.
Here are more pictures of the other versions of the GM EN-V
The EN-V program itself did not originate from GM in the CES 2011. It was first seen in Shanghai Expo 2010 and got a lot of rave reviews. But it did not really show us a compartmentalized or reduced version in the same way that GM has for CES 2011. The connections between vehicle to infrastructure and vehicle to another vehicle will definitely help reduce pressing congestion problems or possible accidents from unnecessary collisions. Although this was originally initiated by On Star, the novelty and cool design of GM EN-V has definitely launched it into one of the gizmo must haves of the coming decade.
The sad fact of it is that we have to wait for more years (10, give or take) for this to be fully implemented. But at least, the concept already tangible and “test driveable” for some lucky folks who managed to snag the handles and truly give it a shot in the showroom.
