Will this electric pod solve China’s traffic woes?

General Motors debuted another rendering of the second generation EN-V at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show, announcing at the same time that China will be its first testing grounds for these electric pods.

The EN-V, which stands for Electric Networked Vehicle, is a two-seater electric vehicle that will be capable of communicating with other vehicles and can be driven autonomously or manually. GM designed this concept for congested megacities of the future, and hopes it will help ease parking, traffic, and pollution in dense urban environments. For that reason, it makes sense that Beijing or another city in China will host the pilot program rather than Detroit, as one GM exec previously suggested.

With the exception of an embedded solar panel on the roof, the new drawing doesn’t reveal anything new about the next-gen pod. GM announced that the EN-V 2.0 concept adds in-vehicle climate control, personal storage space, and will be capable of driving in all weather and city road conditions.

It’s not clear when GM’s China-based test program will begin. The automotive manufacturer began construction on the new EN-V last October, and said its GPS systems must become more accurate before it can be tested in a real world environment.

Car Tech: An automotive blog from CNET