GoinGreen Reva G-Wiz AC drive Full Review
Posted: 27 December 2007 by Adam Vaughan
If the Toyota Prius is the Leonardo DiCaprio movie of the green car world, the G-Wiz is the Quentin Tarantino flick. While Toyota's heavily marketed, glamorous petrol-electric hybrid has soaked up the green limelight, the fully electric G-Wiz has all the makings of a cult classic. For Londoners, the distinct Noddy-like cars have become a regular sight and capital dwellers clearly like them with over 900 being sold in the city so far.
The first thing to get your head around with the G-Wiz is that there's no combustion engine. It's a battery on wheels -- essentially a massive Nokia that you charge up at any normal UK plug socket and then bumble around town in until you near the car's 48 mile range. While that may not sound like much, it's a significant eight miles farther than the original DC version of the G-Wiz managed. Still, it remains a city runabout rather than a vehicle for driving from one city to another.
There are sound cash incentives for owning an electric car, in addition to the planet-saving ones -- which we'll come to in a minute. For starters, it's Congestion Charge exempt, enjoys free parking throughout Westminster, doesn't pay road tax and falls in a cheap insurance band. It's cheap to run, too, with fuel economy working out at the equivalent to 600mpg in money terms: nearly ten times that of the extremely efficient Prius.
Environmentally it's a hit, since it produces absolutely no tailpipe emissions. After all, it doesn't have an exhaust pipe: which means no carbon dioxide, and none of the particulate local pollution that diesel cars can emit. Of course, you need to power the car with renewable energy or you're just moving those tailpipe emissions to the sort of coal power plants that make up 32 per cent of the UK electricity mix.
Realistically, you'll need a driveway or a car park with a plug to own a G-Wiz. Running a wire over the pavement with a mat isn't an option -- your local council will take a dim view, and you'll be opening yourself up for grief from litigious visiting Americans. Plugged in, we found the car takes about six hours to charge fully, making it an overnight job. Out and about, your best chances of topping up are in central London, with a couple of spots even offering what is, effectively, free fuel. Check this map here.
And what about the driving experience? It's safe to say the G-Wiz will be like no other car you've driven. The good stuff is that it's virtually silent, tiny and thus easy to park, comes with an okay DAB radio and is nippy enough on acceleration. The bad: the interior is cramped and tiny, the fittings feel incredibly cheap, there's no power steering -- you'll be working the wheel like it's 1985 -- the boot space is miniscule, the notion of getting passengers in the back is farcical, the speed and acceleration is poor compared to a petrol Smart, and you have to manually slide open the windows. Then there's the styling, which is as Marmite as it comes -- you'll love it or despise it.
More worryingly, though, there are the EuroNCAP crash tests performed by the Department for Transport and Top Gear. Jeremy Clarkson's crew smashed the G-Wiz at 40mph, which the testers reported as doing damage with "the potential to cause serious or life-threatening injuries". Goingreen defends the G-Wiz on the grounds that it hasn't had a major accident in 20 million miles worth of driving. It also points out that the G-Wiz's average speed in London is 10mph, not 40. We'd add that what Top Gear doesn't mention is many cars don't take the EuroNCAP test, as it's not mandatory.
On the ethical front, the car's made in India by Bangalore-based Reva Electric Car Company, which solely produces electric cars. UK distributor Goingreen was unable to provide us with details about working conditions at Reva so there's a question mark there, but Goingreen's efforts in the UK are sincere: all it does is sell and promote electric vehicles.
For all its flaws -- and again, this could be said of Tarantino's Kill Bill volumes -- we still like the G-Wiz. It's fun and, for Londoners at least, offers a genuine green alternative to cycling and enduring the horrors of public transport.
Quality
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