Archive for the 'Transportation' Category
Cree’s SAM electric vehicle
The Creative Engineering Company (Cree) in Switzerland is back with a reconstituted SMART car called SAM. This two passenger car has a range of over 50km, can cruise at 85kph, and gets a full charge within 6 hours (70% in 2 hours.) The vehicle has a target price of $9,125. There are 80 of these vehicles plying the roads of Switzerland right now. It’s an unique vehicle with a two seat, front/back configuration – kind of like a fighter plane. Long road trips are out of the question, but that usual bopping around town activity can easily be covered with the SAM. Comments are off for this post
Corn Hog
Buy a $10 Ticket to buy this E85 Chopper
The Iowa Farm Bureau and Orange County Choppers have teamed up to build this great looking bike to increase ethanol awareness. It’s a great message, you don’t have to be a tech-weenie to be able to have a cool vehicle that also has a little lighter footprint on the planet. This plus what Tesla is doing on the electric vehicle front should help to start change the perceptions that your only choice is to drive a dorky looking, efficient car.
The drawing is tomorrow, September 7, so there’s still time to buy that ticket (if you can get to Iowa.) An aside: MeV owns an E85 vehicle, we can attest that the fuel works great. As a California company, it is disappointing as there are only 4 gas stations with E85 in the whole state. 2 comments
On the road soon: Tesla
Tesla Coupe
From CNN:
1 commentLOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Tesla Motors’ all-electric Roadster sports car will start rolling out to nearly 600 buyers lined up for the $100,000 vehicle by October or November, after a slight delay, the company’s chief said on Tuesday.
“We will definitely ship in that time frame,” CEO and co-founder Martin Eberhard told Reuters at a meeting of the Motor Press Guild, noting that the company had originally expected to begin deliveries during the summer.
… [on moving down market and why Tesla will whip GM]
“If I sell 10,000 White Stars (Tesla’s $65k family car,) it will be a screaming success for me,” he said. “But 10,000 Chevys sold would be a disaster.”
You’ll never drive a hydrogen powered car
Mercedes Hydrogen Concept Car
Via Renewable Energy Access:
I’m going to make a prediction today: you will never drive a hydrogen fueled car. Although hydrogen does indeed have some benefits in certain applications, it’s my task today to separate the reality of useful fuel cells from the hydrogen hype. That may seem like a bold statement to you now, but by the end of this article, you’ll understand why.
Mr. Nelder may well be correct in his assessment. But, we tend to believe, it is the trillions of $ required to make such a change that will ultimately drive the change. Enormous challenges create enormous opportunities.
6 comments
Clean Diesel
Honda has announced plans to release a diesel version of the Accord in the US by 2010. This vehicle is targeted to get nearly 63 miles per gallon (~26 kilometers per liter.) This is better performance than the standard issue Prius and when combined with biodiesel makes an interesting story.
1 commentFeast your eyes on this, car technology and high-mileage nuts. It’s a Honda Accord that runs on diesel.
Honda expects to bring the clean-diesel car to the U.S. by 2010. It gets 62.8 miles a gallon on the highway, but otherwise looks and feels like a regular Accord. At that mileage level, the car is about as “clean” as a new Toyota Prius. But if you run it on biodiesel, a form of diesel made from vegetable oil or animal fat, it would be even cleaner than a Prius (Priuses get 60 in the city).
