Opel RAK-e points to future

... but would you buy an Opel RAK-e concept? Opel says big changes are coming to the way we drive in the near future - and it’s not alone.

The Frankfurt motor show revealed an unprecedented three working concepts for personal city traffic - vehicles built within a 1m width and capable of two occupants seated in tandem.

“We expect radical changes in the design of city car,’’ says Opel’s vice president of design, Mark Adams.

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“I’m sure this is a new trend.’’

Adams says the RAK-e represents a whole new classification of car segments.

He says he picked up on the concept after Opel engineering sent him the brief of a working, electric-powered tandem vehicle.

The car satisfies Opel’s seemingly impossible dream of creating a one-Euro car - that is, a car that will ravel 100km/h for the cost of Euro 1.

Opel says it more specifically is a one-plus-one seater; is affordable (though no price is even hinted at); will cost Euro 1 in electricity to travel 100km; have a 10km range; be able to travel on the autobahn (in the slower lane);; and fulfil the needs of both individual youth buyers and inner-city dwellers.

“The more we can expect sustainability in our lives, the more we will turn to electrification of our transport,’’ Adams says.

“If cleaning up cities becomes environmentally and politically important, then these vehicles will come to market,’‘ he says. Quizzed about how close the RAK-e could be to production, he says “soon’’.

“This is the same dilemma as what the electric car went through - everyone wants to have it but few are ready to make one,’‘ he says. “But it has to happen - the personal city car has to come. e may just be the first to dip our toe in the water. If we have to take the risk, we’ll do it.’ We just can’t wait.’’

The RAK-e was brought to the Frankfurt motor show without Opel being aware that Volkswagen and Audi had a similar concept.

It joined the Renault Twizy - an upright, tandem two-seat electric vehicle that comes in two electric power outputs  - the smaller of which is designed for teenagers.

Renault will launch the Twizy in Europe in December, priced at about $8000 - which competes with some of the larger scooters.

The RAK was the name for the first of two rocket-powered Opel racers dating from the late 1920s.