- SEAT E-ALTEA FIRST SPANISH ELECTRIC CAR
- MADRID CITY HALL TO TEST DRIVE VEHICLES FOR FIVE MONTHS
- MADRID HOSTS EUROPEAN MOBILITY WEEK 2012 THIS WEEK
Madrid, 19.09.2012 .– This morning SEAT delivered two all-electric cars to Madrid City Hall. The vehicles are two Altea XL Electric Ecomotive models – totally electric and zero CO2 emissions.
Ramón Paredes, SEAT Vice-President for Governmental and Institutional Relations for SEAT and the Volkswagen Group in Spain, made delivery of the vehicles to Madrid mayoress Ana Botella this morning, against the incomparable backdrop of the Photovoltaic Pyramid in Madrid’s Juan Carlos I Park.
Madrid City Hall will be adding the cars to its fleet so as to test drive them for five months, during which time SEAT will gather information and assess performance before standard production of the vehicles. SEAT is currently developing two different technologies: the Leon TwinDrive, the company’s plug-in hybrid, and the e-Altea, the first Spanish all-electric car. This approach places the company in an optimal position to respond to market demand.
Ramón Paredes said “At SEAT we feel very proud to be collaborating once more with the city of Madrid in projects whose over-arching aim is to improve citizens’ quality of life while increasing the competitiveness of the Spanish economy”. He highlighted the fact that “Thanks to its Technical Centre for R&D, SEAT is the only brand with the capacity to design, develop and manufacture an electric vehicle in Spain”.
Ana Botella thanked SEAT for the use of both vehicles and communicated her satisfaction that the city “serves as a testing ground for a company so important for Madrid and for Spain”. The mayoress of the capital remarked that “since its founding, SEAT has been key to the modernization of transport in our country and I hope that, now, electric vehicles will also occupy an important place on the roads”.
Within the framework of its e-Mobility strategy, over the past few weeks SEAT has loaned electric vehicles to the Spanish utilities company Endesa; the Catalan Energy Institute (ICAEN), the Institute for Energy Saving and Diversification (IDAE), as well as Barcelona City Hall, amongst other institutions. SEAT is immersed in the first phase of the introduction of the electric vehicle for fleets, and envisages loaning further vehicles over For City Hall fleet the forthcoming months to different public governmental bodies, institutions, and private companies interested in eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable fleets.
The e-Altea XL y Leon TwinDrive, SEAT’s first electric cars
The Altea XL Electric Ecomotive and the Leon TwinDrive Ecomotive are equipped with different but complementary technologies. The e-Altea XL allows for experimentation in a wide variety of uses, and for that reason is SEAT’s first all-electric vehicle. It has a range of 135 km., a power output of 115 hp (85 kW), a torque of 270 Nm and a top speed of 135 kph. One of its novelties is the app for smartphone, enabling the programming and control of recharging operations, as well as climate control in the passenger compartment, with photovoltaic cells on the roof reducing the energy need for air conditioning.
The Leon TwinDrive combines the advantages of emissions-free driving with the range expected of an internal combustion vehicle. The TwinDrive permits all-electric or hybrid driving, without the customer having to change life-style or driving habits. It has a range of 53 km. in electric mode, with a top speed of 120 kph. In hybrid mode (electric and internal combustion), fuel consumption is just 1.7 litres, with emissions just below 39 g/km, and a top speed of 170 kph.
SEAT’s commitment to sustainable motoring and the environment extends to those SEAT brand vehicles already on the market. SEAT has a long track record in the manufacture of low-emission vehicles – by way of example, 70% of SEAT vehicles marketed in Spain have emissions below 130 g/km of CO2.
Furthering electromotoring in Spain
SEAT is, together with Barcelona City Hall, both founding partner and member of the LIVE platform (Logistics for the Implementation for the Electric Vehicle). This project began in 2012, and also includes other key sector companies such as Endesa and Siemens, so as to promote the electric vehicle in the city of Barcelona. The Barcelona municipal services company B:SM has also signed up to this platform.
Additionally, SEAT is a member of other projects aiming to further electrical motoring in Spain – one example is CENIT VERDE, a public/private initiative headed by SEAT, which includes other companies from different sectors, as well as universities and research centres, and has the backing of the Spanish government. This project entails a holistic investigation into the basis for the successful introduction of the electric vehicle in Spain.
Text and photograph by: SEAT.
