"Peugeot Verde", designed by Michael Witus Schierup from Denmark, is one of the 29 finalists at the 5th Peugeot Design Contest. Michael's Peugeot Verde is a green concept car designed to fit its changing environment by changing its size. It can become as compact as 3.7m when driving in an urban environment and extend to 5m when driving the highways, thus lowering its center of gravity to provide greater stability in high speeds. When parking, the car compacts itself even further so that it doesn't take up much space in today's crowded environment, allowing it to easily fit into small parking spaces.
Peugeot Verde is powered by four electric motors, one located in each wheel. The car's regenerative braking helps to preserve the energy otherwise wasted. In addition, a small rear-mounted diesel engine is meant to generate power and help with acceleration when driving in high speeds. In order for the heavy components in the car to be distributed evenly, the Verde's batteries are located between the front wheels, underneath the nose mounted trunk.
The Verde's wheels are able to turn 45 degrees in each direction, thus greatly increasing the car's maneuverability and enabling it to travel diagonally into parallel parking spaces. Additionally, much like a motorbike, the wheels tilt during turns in order to provide a better grip. An LCD screen is located in each wheel, functioning as blinkers. When turning, the wheel in the direction of the turn flashes orange.
The car's elongated egg shape provides the body with extra strength. The external bumper wings located in each side contain outside airbags for additional safety. In case of a side impact, the airbags will inflate between the bumper wing and the car, thus dissipating some of the impact force.
TFOT also covered the Peugeot Magnet concept, which is another participant in Peugeot's design contest. In addition, TFOT covered other concept cars such as TH!NK Ox - a five-seater fully electric car, Milner Motors' 4-door, 4-seat, 4-wheel, plug-in hybrid ElectriCar, a new concept car called "sQuba", which is the world's first 'green' diving car, as well as Honda's "PUYO" gel-like car, and the world’s first "water powered" car.
More information on Peugeot Verde can be found here.
