Carver seems to be doing remarkably well after getting back to life with an electric machine. Apart from the regular version and the Cargo, customers started demanding a derivative that could be driven on highways. The Dutch company did not let them wait for long and developed the S+ (Speed Plus) version, which can reach a top speed of 80 kph (50 mph).
To allow the Carver S+ to have the exact 100 kilometers (62 miles) of range the base Carver has, the company had to give the trike a larger battery pack. Instead of the 5.4-kWh unit on the entry-level Carver, it has given the S+ 7.1 kWh to deal with. As an intelligent enterprise, Carver seized this new battery pack to create yet another derivative, the R+ (Range Plus). The additional 1.5 kWh of capacity gives the Carver R+ a range of 130 km (81 mi).
The bad news is that the larger battery pack makes the S+ cost €3,499.32 ($3,872.35 at the current exchange rate) more than the base model, leading it to a final price of €14,489.75 ($16,034.36). If you add LED headlights (€348.48, or $385.63) and air conditioning (€1,298.33, or $1,436.73), the price goes to €16,136.56 ($17,856.72). There are some accessories you can add as well.
Whether in the US or in Europe, you can buy a pretty decent combustion car for that kind of money. However, you’d never get something that leans on curves like a motorcycle and still has a closed cabin like a car, which is precisely what a Carver offers. Being only 2.89 meters (113.8 inches) long, 0.88 m (34.7 in) wide, and 1.49 m (58.7 in) tall, it is also very convenient in urban traffic.
The R+ derivative adds €2,499.86 ($2,766.35) to the price of a base Carver. With the items we have already mentioned, you’d have to pay €15,137.10 ($16,750.71) for your leaning machine in any of the four colors it offers: white, orange, blue, and black. Remember that the Carver R+ has the same top speed as the base model: 45 kph (28 mph).
If you don’t live in the Netherlands – where the company is based and has several representatives – you might be wondering when you will be able to buy or at least to see one of those trikes around. According to Carver, they are already present in “Berlin, London, Rome and even Hong Kong and Seoul.”
A simple look at the places where you can book a test drive shows that Carver shops cover way more cities than those. You can order a Carver in Portugal (Lisbon), Latvia (Riga), four cities in Germany apart from Berlin (Hamburg, Schweinfurt, Krefeld, Selfkant), and Belgium (three locations). We would not be surprised if more locations will pop up soon after we publish our article.
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