Electric

Clarkson University (New York) was the overall winner in the 2011 Clean Snowmobile Challenge, a collegiate design competition put on by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and hosted by Michigan Technological University. This year’s competition was billed as “the greenest yet,” with a record number of electric snowmobiles participating. The event was held March 7-12 at MTU’s Keweenaw Research Center in Houghton, Michigan. 17 student teams competed in the zero emissions and internal combustion categories.  Read More

Call them tuk tuks, auto rickshaws, mototaxis or any one of several other names, but they’re one of the world’s most ubiquitous vehicles – three-wheeled motorized rickshaws. They’ve been a fixture on roads in Asia, South America, Africa and Italy for decades, and have more recently made their way into the Netherlands, the U.K. and other countries. Given that they typically have quite small engines and are used mostly as runabouts, Dutch company Tuk Tuk Factory (TTF) decided to start making electric tuk tuks a few years ago and has now introduced them to the European market.  Read More

Over the years, there have been numerous attempts to create vehicles that operate on both land and water. It's fair to say that such designs have generally not caught on. Perhaps it's because of the fairly limited effectiveness of some of those offerings, or maybe it's because so many of them have been ugly monsters. Then again, it could be that society just hasn't found a niche for them yet. By the year 2050 though, we may need to give such craft some serious consideration. Juan Pablo Bernal P has come up with a concept design that certainly ticks all the right boxes for looks, and also takes the environment into consideration.  Read More

If there’s an interesting aspect to the rise and rise of electric mobility devices, it’s the number of companies that were once associated with vastly different fields which are now investigating the arena of electric bicycles. At SinoCES in China last month we saw a white goods manufacturer proudly showing a new range of electric scooters alongside its new range of washing machines. At IFA today we spied yet another big name on two electric bicycles – 107 year-old German electronics company Telefunken.  Read More

It would be a huge understatement to say that the 12 vehicles remaining in the Automotive X PRIZE are pretty unusual. One of the things that was particularly fun for those of us recently attending the Finals Stage in Michigan, in fact, was observing all the different forms and configurations that the different teams’ automobiles have taken. One standout (and they’re all standouts really) has been the TW4XP, representing the team of the same name. The vehicle is a sneak-peek of the next generation of Twike, a production electric three-wheeler built and sold by some of the team members back home in Germany. One of the things that makes regular Twikes special is the fact that they have pedals, so you can extend their range by giving the battery a break and pedaling on the easy stuff. While other X PRIZE contenders such as the Aptera may be sexier than the TW4XP, it represents an already-available vehicle that could help you work off those unwanted extra pounds.  Read More

We’ve got cars, motorcycles and bicycles that are electric, so why not hookah air pumps for diving? They make much less noise than their gas and diesel-powered counterparts, they don’t stink up their surroundings with toxic fumes, and they don’t emit carbon. Of course, as is the case with many other e-things, the electricity that powers them has to come from somewhere, and chances are that somewhere isn’t a wind turbine or a solar panel. A new diving system from Brownie’s Marine Group, however, has another ace up its sleeve - a variable-speed compressor that automatically adjusts in accordance to the diver’s demand for air, thus saving power and allowing for longer and/or deeper dives when running off a battery.  Read More

The Bubble Bike is an ingenious low cost transport solution for Northern China where temperatures drop well below zero in winter and the roads are not nearly as suitable for scooters and motorcycles as they are in summer. The recipient of a 2009 Red Star Design Award (China’s equivalent of the red dot awards), the full-electric, three-wheel Bubble Bike sells in China for RMB 5000 (around US$730).  Read More

Gizmag attended this year's Green Aviation Show in Paris to take a look at some of the eco-friendly aircraft currently available, as well those which may be just on the horizon. Although representatives from the airship contingent were out in force at the event, electrically-powered planes and paragliders also put in a strong showing, along with some rather interesting ideas for tomorrow's oil-free aircraft.  Read More

General Motor's Joint-Venture partner in China, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) rolled out a concept alongside GM's EN-V at Expo 2010 which in many ways is more ground-breaking than the EN-V. The idea behind the YeZ Concept is that it will photosynthesize, absorbing carbon dioxide from surrounding air and emitting oxygen back into the atmosphere. Among the many futuristic aspects of the YeZ (Chinese for “leaf” as Nissan already uses the name for a clever green concept that is heading for production) is a roof that incorporates solar panels and wheels that incorporate small wind turbines to harvest energy from the environment. And if you think this is not within reach by 2030, think again – artificial photosynthesis has proven elusive, but there's every indication it will be a commercial reality within two decades.  Read More