Renault’s 282mpg Eolab
This 282mpg miracle is how your Clio could look in the year 2020. Fuel stations? Who needs fuel stations?
Paul Horrell gets an exclusive drive in the concept previewing a future hybrid Clio
It looks like a concept car – and at the Paris show that’s what it is. But it’s much more too. The Eolab is Renault’s engineering prototype for an ultra-low-drag, ultra-lightweight hybrid for 2020. It’s got all the room and all the performance of a 120bhp Clio and wouldn’t cost any more than supermini money to own.
It weighs a staggering 250kg less than a Clio, even though it has a battery and plug-in hybrid powertrain. The rated fuel economy is 282mpg. Even if it’s never plugged it, it would go half as far again on each litre of fuel as that regular Clio.
Bad news is, many of the enabling technologies for the lightweight body – carbon fibre and aluminium and new steels – would need all-new production methods, so you can’t buy it yet.
Still, not everything is far-future. Renault says the car embodies about 100 new technologies, and that they’ll be progressively introduced over the next eight years or so. The remarkable powertrain is scheduled for a facelifted version of one of Renault’s current small cars, in 2018.
It has a version of the Twingo’s three-cylinder engine, making 75bhp,
plus a revolutionary, simple, transmission-motor unit (another 54bhp) that fits the space and weight of a normal five-speed gearbox.
Active aerodynamics include a deployable front splitter, ‘ears’ that detach the airflow from the rear bumper, wheels that form a flat disc when no brake cooling is needed, and self-levelling suspension that drops ride height at speed. With all those in their slipperiest settings, the Cd is a startlingly low 0.227, but that’s not all. Eolab also has a minuscule frontal area of just 2m2, so total drag is tiny.
“With everything in its slipperiest settings, the Cd is a startlingly
low 0.227”
This low frontal area squashes the body into a dynamic crouch. To fit the people inside, the front seats are further forward than usual. And to get the bonnet low, the engine is inclined backward, as in the Twingo. The windscreen is thin and fairly upright to save weight. To disguise this, raked false blades sit proud of the A-pillars. These don’t have a structural or aero role, but they show how the designers wanted to make the car look seductive as well as
“The main central tablet shows graphics of how you’re using energy”
perform well. The show concept version has clap-hands doors to make the interior more visible. But the drivable prototype has conventional doors, two on one side but just one on the other to cut weight.
The seats are thin and light yet comfy. The steering column carries phone-sized screens showing speed and car info, plus navigation. The main central tablet shows all sorts of graphics for how you’re using energy. The rear-views have their own permanent screen area, as the car has lipstick cams instead of mirrors. Mirrors, after all, are ugly, heavy and draggy.
Renault insists most of the innovations won’t be too costly. For instance, the body might cost more, but its reduced weight allows a cheap naturally aspirated engine and small battery – just 6.7kWh. Brakes, suspension, steering, cooling and exhaust are all reduced too.
But it doesn’t look like a science project. It looks like a car. A car we rather fancy.