DETROIT — Johnson Controls unveiled its re3 concept, a small plug-in hybrid car with a number of innovative interior design features, at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. The company said the car "exemplifies a smart environment" for the growing small-car segment.
The re3 has a plug-in hybrid battery system that saves space and makes it possible to seat five adults inside the car. The lithium-ion battery is placed between the front seats in the middle of the vehicle. Johnson Controls and Saft jointly opened the world's first lithium-ion battery production plant for hybrid vehicle batteries in France last year.
Renewable materials are used throughout, including substrate material that allows a 30 percent cut in weight and a reduction in the number of interior plastic components.
The seating is in a "conversational" arrangement with stadium-style 60/40 folding seats in back and Johnson Controls' thin-profile Slim Seat technology. The passenger-side front seat slides back into the second row.
In what Johnson Controls calls its "Ecospace" instrument panel technology, the re3 gets no center stack; instead, controls are located on an extended instrument cluster and on the driver-seat wing. The instrument panel is 26 percent lighter than a conventional car's, the company says.
Johnson Controls noted that nearly all of the features on this concept are available for production now and could become part of automakers' next-generation vehicles.
Inside Line says: Making better use of smaller spaces is definitely the wave of the future. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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