Classic car designs are just that, classic. Throw in some green tech under the hood though and you’ve got perhaps the perfect melding of old school look and feel alongside next generation carbon reduction and fuel savings engineering.
One of the latest places this seems to be happening is in Belgium, where the company Green Propulsion has resurrected an old Belgian car brand and made it ready for a 21st century introduction.
The Imperia GP, according to CarScoop, heralds the return of a moniker that produced vehicles between 1904 and 1958. The car being made ready for production today, while retaining the old look and feel of a generation of Imperia vehicles, is more akin in technology to something you’d find under the hood of a Toyota Prius, albeit a lot faster and more expensive.
PowerHybrid technology is what’s described as being at the heart of the new Imperia’s drivetrain. A 1.6 liter, 4-cylinder in-line turbo gas engine is mated with a permanent magnet, 110 kW electric motor and lithium polymer, 31 Ah capacity battery to provide this hybrid with a maximum range of 37 miles on battery power only as well as a top speed limited to 134 miles “to avoid complete battery depletion.” 0 to 60 time is said to be six seconds in electric mode, and four seconds in hybrid operation.
As part of the car’s function, the driver is said to be able to select between electric or hybrid operation, deciding “whether he/she intends to run the batteries down completely (in order to recharge them on the mains, having reached the destination), or wants to keep a reserve to be used when entering urban traffic.” A full charge of the battery can be obtained in under five hours.
Design wise, Green Propulsion considered three elements when putting together the Imperia GP, including environmental concerns, sports driving enjoyment and attention to classic looks. This plug-in hybrid seems to achieve this, all while keeping its C02 emissions, according to European standards, to below 50 g/km. Fuel consumption rates at 1.9 l/100km, or around 124 US MPG.
The interior design, for the most part, is left austere for the purposes of capturing the old classic look. There are a variety of tech packs available though it looks like, including a screen likely hosting the infotainment and navigation systems. As for price and volume numbers, it is reported the Imperia GP, for those wanting one this year, will be needing to fork over north of $160,000. Initial production numbers call for between 50 and 100 vehicles to be built.
