Would you buy an electric car if it was priced right? Yes would be the answer for many young Malaysians looking at sensible motoring with the environment in view. Proton recently presented an electric version of its popular Iriz hatchback at a ‘green’ environmental conference. This Iris EV is also destined for the export market with European buyers in view as Proton starts pushing for more exports.
This Iriz EV features a 39.6 kWh battery pack (featuring LG Chem cells) and this Proton Iriz EV can go up to 300km (186 miles) in a normal drive cycle. Also, the 116 kW/360 Nm electric motor enables decent acceleration of 0-100 km/h in 9 seconds and a top speed of 150 km/h which will allow easy long distance highway runs.
Charging the Iriz EV comes from 6.6 kW on-board and 50 kW DC. It’s expected that production of Iriz EV could materialize by the end of 2016 towards early 2017 and should be priced within the range of many young urban/city workers.
