Flashback Friday: The Peugeot 205 EV That Almost Was

When you think of an old electric vehicle, an awful, sluggish, and extremely heavy device comes to mind. One which can only travel 40 miles per charge, and is inefficient due to the use of at least a few hundred pounds of heavy lead-acid batteries that weight the vehicle down. But French automaker Peugeot was able to deliver almost 90 miles of range in a car that weighed less than 2,000 pounds, and they did it over 20 years ago.

Despite coming from a time of poor electric vehicle technology (the 1990s), the Peugeot 205 was able to achieve a range of up to 125 miles (200 KM) at a speed of 25 MPH, or 88 miles (140 km) at a much more realistic speed of 44 MPH (70 KM/h), which is still slower than usual. Never the less, these ranges are comparable to modern EVs, albeit lacking the sophisticated computer  Its efficiency was assisted by regenerative braking. For an old lead-acid battery-powered car, it isn’t bad at all.

While it was equipped with twelve 6 volt batteries which probably weighed 661 pounds (300 KG), one of the main reasons why this vehicle achieved the range it did  was because even with the batteries, it only weighed 1,874 pounds (850 KG. Peugeot built a number of demonstration vehicles, and production never took place, which is kind of sad. Imagine what kind of EVs might be available today if automakers had really and truly committed to them decades ago?

That isn’t to say innovation is dead at Peugeot. Recently, Peugeot constructed another alternatively fueled car, that is powered in part by compressed air. But think how much further we might be along?

Source: TechVehi