This Proton Preve REEV is on display this weekend at the Alami Proton carnival happening at the Proton headquarters in Shah Alam. It's a range extender electric vehicle, which basically means it moves with pure electric power, but also has an engine that is used to power a generator that recharges the batteries.
This is not the first REEV that we've seen from Proton. There was an Exora REEV, but that was developed with Frazer-Nash and used a rotary engine as the range extender. This one is a continuation of the range extender powertrain in the Proton EMAS Concept, which uses a Lotus "Omnivore" three-cylinder 1.2 litre engine as the range extender.
In the EMAS, the three-cylinder engine did 51 horsepower at 3,500 rpm and 107 Nm of torque at 2,500 rpm. It only runs at 2 RPM points - 1,500 rpm and 3,500 rpm, as its sole purpose is to recharge the batteries.
The batteries can power the car up to 50 km on a full charge, so if your travel is under 50 km, you won't burn any fossil fuels and can run on electric power alone.
This engine has been updated for the Preve REEV - it now has a supercharger, which allows it to produce more power. According to the Proton engineers manning the booth, this allows the Preve REEV to maintain highways speeds even when the batteries have been exhausted, as the more powerful engine can now produce enough power in real time to keep the car going at high speeds.
It's a prototype to test the REEV system, so the engine bay packaging hasn't really been done properly. As a result, the engine is mounted high, and the engine hood had to be modified with a bump to clear the engine. The 15.7 kWh lithium ion batteries are mounted under the floor, and the fuel tank has been moved a little to the rear to make way for this.
You can charge the batteries via a plug-in socket on the passenger side front fender, so the range extender only kicks in if your journey exceeds the battery's capacity. The electric motor can do 80 kW (107 horsepower) and 170 Nm of torque.
The Preve REEV weighs 1,724 kg, but has an ECE R101 fuel consumption rating of 0.82 litres per 100 km. It only outputs 19.4 g/km of CO2 emissions on average, but if you can keep it on electric mode, it's basically zero emissions. The 100 km/h sprint is done in 14.7 seconds.
Visit the Alami Proton over the weekend to view the car in person.
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