The U.S. Department of Energy has completed baseline performance testing of four 2005 Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEVs) models from Global Electric Motorcars, LLC (GEM), a
DaimlerChrysler company.
The testing included: range, acceleration, top speed, braking, handling, gradeability, and charging efficiency. Results varied from 37 miles to 44 miles per charge with payloads from 526 pounds to 886 pounds. Each vehicle required less than seven hours to fully charge from a standard household outlet. Each GEM vehicle went a distance of between 5.4 miles and 5.9 miles per kilowatt-hour (kWh), resulting in fuel costs of less than two cents per mile, assuming a cost of 10 cents per kWh.
