Electric
The Green Samba – the first viable electric Personal Water Craft
You're looking at the first exclusive images of what we expect to become the Personal Water Craft V 3.0 – it's the Green Samba. It has the same straight line 65 mph performance of the fastest 260 bhp sit-down PWCs, combined with handling and agility far beyond those of a stand-up PWC. The biggest benefit though, is that the Green Samba uses twin direct drive electric propulsion pods (unit pictured bottom left), so it doesn't directly deliver any hydrocarbons, CO2 or NO2 into delicate marine environments. Equally as important as the lack of noxious gases, the Green Samba is also completely silent, removing one of the greatest causes for complaint against PWCs and no doubt offering respite for those creatures with extremely delicate hearing which live on and under the water. A working prototype of the carbon fiber construction Green Samba will be on the water for testing purposes in Q3, 2010. The pictured action shots (bottom center and bottom right) of the Samba are the most recent development of the internal combustion Carbon Samba we first wrote up this time last year. Read More
If you've ever been annoyed by the impatiently waiting for an office building elevator, this might just be the perfect building for you. Each of the new elevators installed by Mitsubishi Electric in Umeda Hankyu Building’s new office area in Osaka, Japan measures 11.2 x 9.2 feet in area by 8.5 feet high (3.4m wide, 2.8m long and 2.6m high), thus allowing for a whopping 80 person capacity. Read More
British company econogo has launched the yogo, the first electric scooter that uses a fully detachable and portable lithium battery. Traditionally, electric two-wheelers in the UK have used impractical fixed silicon batteries which require the owner to run an extension lead from a mains electricity socket to the vehicle’s integrated battery. yogo owners can remove and charge the two LiFePO4 batteries inside an hour. Two spare batteries offer the option of an instantaneous swap for a further 44 miles of range. The GBP1999 (USD$3000) yogo has a 1500W motor, a top speed of 38 mph giving it the acceleration of a 100cc motorcycle, if not the top speed … and almost negligible running costs. Read More
American manufacturer ZEV has issued a fairly blunt challenge to other electric motorcycle manufacturers such as Vectrix, Zero Motorcycles and Brammo, by claiming to have the fastest and most powerful production electric scooter on the market in its US$7237 ZEV7000. "We tell them to bring their street legal production bike and to bring their betting money. There can be only one "fastest" street legal production electric motor scooter or bike in the world." Read More
Yuji Fujimura has taken the bicycle design manual and thrown it to the wind with his concept Electric Bike Version 2. Ditching the popular and familiar diamond frame design, Fujimura has opted for a flat solid box on wheels where the handlebars, seat and pedals fold away flat to help squeeze the bike into tiny parking spaces. Read More
Another Honda Bombshell: 3R-C single-person electric concept
Honda is set to release yet another revolutionary personal mobility concept at the Geneva Show next week. Following the company’s revolutionary 10 kilogram U3-X monocycle with its even more revolutionary HOT omni-directional driving wheel system show at Tokyo Motor Show last October, Honda has released the first details of its new 3R-C - a minimalist three-wheel urban electric vehicle for one person. Read More
Electric two-wheeler sales set to double motorcycle market
According to a new study entitled “Electric Two-Wheel Vehicles”, cleantech market intelligence company Pike Research is forecasting that more than 466 million electric bicycles and motorcycles will be sold worldwide during the period from 2010 to 2016. Given that the annual global motorcycle market is currently around 80 million units a year, almost all of them based on the internal combustion engine, this anticipated explosion in electric bike demand could double the size of the two wheeled market, not to mention dampen the demand for electric four-wheelers. Read More
Ford unveils long awaited 2011 Transit Connect Electric van
The Ford Motor Company chose the recent Chicago Auto Show to unveil its long awaited Transit Connect Electric van. The all-electric light duty commercial vehicle is the first in Ford’s accelerated electrified vehicle plan that also includes the Focus Electric in 2011, as well as a plug-in hybrid vehicle and next generation hybrid technology due in 2012. Read More
Mercedes shows pre-production electric Vito Van
Mercedes-Benz showed a meeting of European ministers of economic affairs a prototype electric Vito earlier this week. The informal EU Competitiveness Council meeting in San Sebastian was told the experimental vehicle with its Lithium-ion battery and load capacity of 900 kg would enter limited production this year. Read More
Future cars: Auto bodywork composite doubles as a battery
The problem is clear. Hybrid cars and EVs rely on batteries for power, but batteries are bulky and heavy, causing the car to use up more energy. But what if a car's bodywork was made of a strong, lightweight material that could store and discharge electrical energy just as a conventional battery does? In pursuing this goal, researchers at the Imperial College London are developing a key building block for the hybrid car of the future, and the implications go way beyond automobiles - think wafer thin mobile phones and laptops that don't need a separate battery because they draw power from their casing. Read More
