CARazed

The drivers of this solar and wind powered high-tech car will cross 30 countries as it travels around the globe. The journey should begin in the Spring of 2010. Learn more about the ICARE Project.

Several electric ATV manufactures have begun to pop-up, but this is still a small and growing market segment. Barefoot Motors in Ashland, Oregon is preparing to build a powerful full-size electric ATV. Electric ATVs are not just for play but can provide a very useful set of off-road wheels to homesteaders and farmers alike. They are quiet, have low emissions, and could theoretically be recharged by solar panels.

Barefoot Motors

The Green Speed air-powered motorcycle started as a student project and may now show up as an entry at Bonneville to set the speed record of an air powered bike. It was designed to be a high speed bike, not a useful road bike and is capable of speeds over 100 MPG. But never the less it’s exciting to see more exploration into compressed air powered vehicles. I first spotted this on Core77.

Air Powered Motorcycle

Th!nk, the Norwegian electric car company, is coming to America and will setup shop in Elkhart, Indiana. This is great news for Th!nk and American car buyers because it will add another viable small electric car to our market in the coming years. Learn more about Th!nk.

Th!nk is coming to America

It’s always makes me laugh to read the arguments some people make about the sudden surge in automakers moving to produce electric cars. Here’s a good example of it in the Wall Street Journal that points out that electric cars may not be all that green.

If there’s one thing large corporations are good at doing it’s making money and positioning themselves for the future… to make more money. After all what is a corporation but an aggregation of a bunch of really smart business people all working for one primary goal… to make more and more money.

So just for a second consider what a major automaker would do if they believed the fuel source that powers their product might be running low or likely to increase dramatically in price. Would they build vehicles that use more of it? No heck no… they would adjust their product line to be better positioned to use the fuels they expect to be available.

Sadly, America’s massive switch over to coal fired electric power plants is also a good sign that someone else is thinking that our stability depends on the availability of energy and that it’s not going to be petroleum.

So are strategic corporate moves and government policies good indicators of things to come? I’m thinking my next new car is going to be electric and my bike is going to be getting a work-out.

Photo credit Wikipedia.

Finally a hybrid worth buying. The 2011 Toyota Prius will be a plug-in hybrid which will get you around town at normal speeds on electric power. When the batteries run low the gasoline motor will kick-in taking you where ever you need to go. It’s expected to get over 100 mpg.

So don’t waste your money on a new hybrid.  If you need an efficient car today don’t get saddled with payments; buy a simple used high efficiency car and wait for cars like this upcoming Prius.

I’m mean please… Honda… WTF are you people thinking!? I’ve been a happy Honda owner and driver since 1988 and this has got to be the worst looking concept to come out from Honda in years. Its powertrain is yet to be decided but will be an internal-combustion engine, hybrid-electric or battery-electric. So in other words this concept is a styling concept only. Also please note that blasters and storm trooper helmets will be sold separately.

Photo credit Jalopnik.

This is a little single-seat electric car/truck designed by Adam Schacter called the CarGo. The idea is that it would be used as an intercity utility and delivery vehicle. I love the novel innovation. Photo credit to Adam Schacter. I first saw this on Gas 2.0.

I’d love to see a prototype built from common spare parts instead of the all-new construction shown in the photos. I bet Adam could generate a little revenue stream immediately for himself by drawing up the plans for do-it-yourselfers to build their own simplified version from off-the-shelf parts. I’d by a set of plans just for curiosity sake.

I’m also pointing out (of you missed it between the lines) that there is a common problem among designers of dreaming up fanciful ideas that require mainstream manufacturing… which is of course not sustainable in the long term. It makes more sense to me to empower each other with the information we need to find our own solutions to the troubles of the world instead of waiting around for governments and billionaires to solve them for us… which by the way… is like choosing a benevolent master instead of freedom. Continue Reading »

This is an incredible little electric unicycle with stabilization assist designed and built by Aleksander Polutnik’s  Read more at Enicycle and at Core77.

It’s exciting and a little spooky to see so many big automakers announce near production ready electric vehicles. The latest announcement of the Nissan LEAF and it’s sudden arrival on the playing field seems like real evidence that we will be seeing a lot more electric cars on the road in 2010/2011 than previously expected. That should also coincide with the strongest part of the economic recovery which will help to fuel their quick adoption.

But it seems ironic that at virtually the same moment the government is throwing billions at clunkers. I suspect many people that jump on this recovery money carrot will also sadly choose to lock themselves into another 60 months of car payments. Forget for a moment that we might be sitting on a Peak Oil Plateau; committing to five years of car payments when super efficient cars are now just a couple years away just seems like questionable financial planning.

If you do have a clunker and want to to take a bite of the carrot try to get the most efficiency for the least amount of money. Also consider downsizing your ride to an efficient inexpensive used car.  If you think we’re sitting on a Peak Oil Plateau avoid putting any more money into petroleum powered cars not matter how sweet the carrot looks.