Superbus, the 15m-long 250 km/h electric vehicle that is being touted as a high speed, green link between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, would not make the 200km required to service the route, according to its designer.
Having been unveiled at the UITP transport event last week, the Superbus prototype was placed onto a flat bed truck and transported to Abu Dhabi for today’s demonstration at Masdar.
The state of the art vehicle that is even more stunning up close is the brain child of Italian designer Antonia Terzi and she told PMV that at the moment the batteries do not exist that could power the Superbus on the trips between the two cities.
She added, “But we are working on it and they would be ready by the time Superbus came into service.”
For the first time outside The Netherlands, the Superbus was demonstrated in action at Masdar. While it was limited to the relatively slow speed limit of the Abu Dhabi research hub, Terzi said that she was proud that she could at least demonstrate its green credentials as its batteries had been charged by solar energy.
“This is a true first for us,” she said. “And it’s so important. I believe in sustainable transport and it is so exciting to think that this was a truly green demonstration.”
Terzi was once the chief aerodynamicist at BMW-Williams and she said that the vehicle’s unique shape had been designed to give it extra grip at speed.
“In urban areas it has a ground clearance of 40cm so it can be driven over speed bumps on a freeway its speed can be increased to 250km/h, and it is lowered to a ground clearance of 7cm,” she said. “As the centre of gravity is lowered, it can handle even better – on-board radar can detect objects and it can move out of the way at top speed without any risk of roll-over.”
Talking about its futuristic look and design, she added: “Besides I wanted something that looked really cool. I want people to think that ‘I might not have a Ferrari, but at least I can feel what it’s like to be in one’.”
