The Future of the Car
Hello. Glad you’re reading this. I’m Harry, car nerd, writer, and sarcastic, skeptical, and cynical member of this magazine. The title expresses my intentions pretty clearly, but be warned that this will probably be half fact and half opinion. The possible future of the car is filled with technology. Lots of it.
A perfect example is the Peugeot Onyx concept, revealed at this year’s Paris motor show. I defy you not to be concentrating on it rather than on these superfluous little words. Actually, I don’t blame you. I kind of am as well. Of course, those looks are for nothing unless there’s a powerful engine under it. Thankfully, the Onyx delivers. By golly it does. It has a 3.7 litre diesel V8 with 600 horsepower. Thing is, Peugeot didn’t think that the engine from a Le Mans car would have enough poke, so the car can get 80 extra horses from an electric motor that is charged by turning excess heat from the brakes into electricity. That gives it SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY horsepower. Give yourself a few seconds for that to sink in.
However, the important bit is what the Onyx is made of. That might look like matt black paint with some copper-coloured paint on the sides. You’d think it’s just steel or aluminium. You’d be wrong. That is carbon fibre and big sheets of unpainted copper. Copper. Yes, that copper. The car even inadvertently changes colour later in its life, Peugeot says. A rather fetching green.
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By Harry Merrett