2009 Blade Runner concept

Mass transit is a belief that holds significant undertake in the U.S. as it is very under-used. Train trek has become more general now that the rate of gas has rocketed upwards, but rails only go in certain directions and there isn't forever a firm forward to your select destination. The highway routine in this country, on the other hand, is titanic and connects every foremost city in the country with one another (well, excluding Honolulu).

So, what if you could trust the passenger-haulage abilities of the focus with the abundant routes of the bus? That's exactly what a British crowd called Silvertip Design has envisioned with its Blade Runner idea. The machinery carries two sets of wheels, one appropriate for highway forceful and the other set up for rails. By with railways when potential, transfer wouldn't be a poser, and when the transmit desires to take a different course, highways gets to the good set of tracks. Like fresh trains, a diesel engine would strength a generator, providing emotional vigor to the wheels.

2009 Lola EV new car

During the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo, superstar joked to me that the Lola EV, a flashy exciting kit car, was the "penniless man's Tesla." Paul Pearson, the man behind the forecast, said, "That's a complement," but there's actually no comparison between the two other than that they're two-seat sports cars that run on batteries. The Lola EV has a 70-75 mph top hustle and Pearson called it a very Southern California form of car. There are no breech doors, for example, and there's no roof (so, it may look like a convertible, but it's not).

Steve Graber of Graber Cars in Phoenix, Arizona intended the Lola EV and Pearson useful his EV erudition to the shoot. Two living ago, at the Alt Car Expo, Pearson was displaying his road racer (and you can see the gossip of receiving in meet with Zap that he describes in our words in the old notes thread). For the new Lola, Pearson can present the car to an engineer as everything from a body with a set of strategy to an almost over car, starting at $45,000. The big caveat: the Lola-EV's rate does not involve the batteries. Since Electric Custom Cars are not an approved automaker, they can't convey the fulfilled vehicle to buyers. One cool part of the outline is that the shape calles for the batteries to sit where the doors would be, a residency that Pearson told us improved security.

2009 Electric vehicle of the year

Officially launched at the British International Motor Show in July by NICE Car Company, MyCar was named thrilling vehicle of the year by GreenFleet this onwards Thursday in Twickenham, England. Sporting space for two occupants and born of an Italian pen, the tiny car from Hong Kong captured judges hearts by combining a classy and feasible intention with low operation expenses. In the land where it will be sold, the all-exciting MyCar gets to omit congestion charges and road tax and, depending on where you juice up the batteries, can loss as little as 2 pence a mile to start. Hopefully the prize will inspire an obedient queue of budding owners to form in preparation for the cars arrival to the NICE sales stun sometime next month. Cost of admission into the 40 mph / 40 mile sort vehicle is a mere £8,995 ($16,220). The options slant is fairly interesting and we expect masses of takers for 15 creep wheels, leather, bluetooth and notebook crop.

As with every contest there were winners and trash runners-up. Two notable notables were the Th!Nk City and the truck from Modec. The Th!Nk City is all-exciting and designed to be recycled while Modec is said to be making the first rationale-built electric light commercial vehicle. Although the Th!Nk City has yet to go on retailing in Britain (soon, we faith) according to GreenFleet there are over 110 copies of the Modec vehicle already on the streets displacing more than 990 tonnes of CO2 per year.

2011 Volkswagen twin-drive PHEV Golf 2011

Volkswagen is running a twenty sturdy suffering fleet of Twin-Drive Golfs in and around Berlin Germany and the fallout of this work are apt to hit the retail promote around 2011. The present tested models are with diesel engines but the production versions are likely to knob to petrol when their 30-mile thrilling variety has been exhausted. With emergence EURO VI emissions values that manage the U.S. Tier 2 Bin 5 standards, diesel fusion would minimally be too steep to be commercially viable.

The drivetrain plan of the Twin-Drive is different from the advance being used by recent matching hybrids or absolute vary EVs like the Volt. While the Volt ER-EV is a sequence hybrid setup where only the exciting motor is mechanically coupled to the wheels, the Golf is a matching practice but without a transmission. The track bargained gear ratio is comparable to a typical high gear and the torque of the thrilling motor is used to supply the equivalent of the torque multiplication that is normally achieved with the lesser gears. The absence of a conventional gearbox compensates for some of the added emphasis of the string and motor. A 12 kWh Sanyo lithium ion series pack provides 30 miles of powerful reach and energy storage from the regenerative braking.

TrioBike pedal-powered SUV for three

Not everything at the AltCar Expo was an alternative car. Some, like the Prometheus emotional motorcycle and the TrioBike (above) were car alternatives. In verity, the TrioBike is very a next-generation SUV. I mean, that designation just means sports advantage vehicle, right? It doesn't have to identify oversized gas-guzzling grocery getter. And what's more sports value than pedaling your kids around?

In any argument, the TrioBike is a three-wheeled rotation with a large scoop in front that seats two small children or a bunch of fodder. A bonus sweep sits under the compartment and can attach to the rear end to form a average-looking bicycle. The front end then becomes a justly flag buggy that looks like it comes from the near potential.

Regina Keith is the U.S. sales representative for TrioBike. She and she partner Robert were the first in America to order a Danish TrioBike, but there are now two in the U.S. (another is apparently in Chicago). When the Keiths found out just how awkward it was to order one, they firm it was a good venture strategy to try to make it easier for other Americans to buy a TrioBike and worked with the Danish visitors to set up distribution in the States. Interest at the Santa Monica show was high, and Robert even said that a representative from the Price is Right blocked by their cubicle and optional making the TrioBike a prize on the show. If you don't want to interval for that possibility, Robert said that retail sales will create in the near prospect and the estimate will be around $4,500 (the Keiths salaried around $6,000 for theirs).