The Spanish electric scooter manufacturer Silence has started production of its first four-wheeled electric vehicle. The two-seater Silence S04, which will be presented in autumn 2021, is now being manufactured in a new plant of the parent company Acciona in Barcelona.
According to the company, the 60,000-square-metre production facility will also produce batteries in the future, which in the current first phase are still being delivered from a factory in the nearby town of Sant Boi de Llobregat.
The company does not provide any information on the planned output of the factory. The S04 is a light vehicle for city traffic similar to a Renault Twizy that was first shown a good one and a half years ago. With its appearance and closed doors, however, Silence is aiming at a more conventional car design. To improve space utilisation, the two seats are not arranged side by side or behind each other, but offset.
Silence will initially release the S04 as an L7e variant with 14 kW of power, which can reach speeds of up to 85 km/h and offers a homologated range of 149 kilometres. This version costs 10,180 euros including the two removable 5.6 kWh battery packs. Alternatively, according to the manufacturer, “almost 40 per cent of the purchase cost can be saved” by buying the S04 without batteries and subscribing to a battery exchange service instead. In this case, customers can use the Silence app to locate the nearest battery station where empty batteries are exchanged for charged ones.
Some of the performance figures for the 2.28-metre-long, 1.27-metre-wide and 1.57-metre-high City BEV were announced back in 2021. At that time, a top speed of 90 km/h was still mentioned. Among other things, it is now added that the small boot has a capacity of 247 litres capacity, and that charging takes seven to nine hours at a household socket and 30 minutes at an AC charging station. By the way, the batteries are equipped with wheels and a handle for swapping, given their weight of 41 kilograms each, so that they can be moved in the manner of a wheeled suitcase. As previously announced, an L6e version of the S04 with 6 kW of power and a top speed of 45 km/h is to follow later.
acciona.com, silence.eco
Keyword: Silence kicks off production of the compact SO4