One vehicle you won't see in any Canadian
International Auto Show publicity - or even in Wheels' special Auto Show section
- is the Nemo.
This "electric urban truck" was invited to appear at the show the night before the press day, when a show floor space unexpectedly opened up. I don't know how the heck they got it here from Montreal in last night's snow storm, but here it is, on the 700 level of the South Building, just outside the Media Room.
Nemo was engineered and is being built in Ste-Therese, north of Montreal, right across the street from the shopping mall that used to be the site of the GM Camaro factory. Production begins later this year.
Given the range drawbacks of electric vehicles
- the main problem of which has always been getting a long enough extension
cord - Nemo has been designed for what the company calls "proximity work
and transportation". A.k.a., theme parks, private factories, other non-public
road applications. Plug it in overnight, and it's ready to go the next morning.
The single platform can be configured a million different ways - the one at the show has a small dump truck body, but it can be set up as a people mover, a flat bed, probably anything you could think of.
For example, Nemo company president Ken Johnson says ambulance operators tell him that about ten percent of all calls could be handled with something this small. Indeed, in something like a sports stadium or a gated community, a Nemo ambulance could get to places a full-size ambulance just couldn't reach.
A Nemo mini-fire truck? Why not?
The unit at the auto show is even painted orange - just like the cartoon fish.
www.nev-nemo.com
for more information.
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