This a guest post courtesy of been seen, a great site that ‘approaches travel from a creative and visually artistic point of view’. as an indication, if i was a thief and wanted to start a travel blog i’d definitely steal a lot of their posts - that’s how good it is (i’m not condoning theft). check out their site here, have a lovely weekend and remember: i love you all.
the term ‘eco-friendly’ is on everybody’s lips at the moment and thankfully it’s not going to disappear any time soon. let’s take a quick look into the near future and find out what we may be driving 20 years from now, in a time when, hopefully, gas-guzzlers are a thing of the past and our robotic butlers will have to plug our cars into the mains overnight.
the aptera
a car that gets 230 miles per gallon? don’t be daft. that would blow the trusty toyota prius out of the water, and turn the rising cost of gasoline into only a minor concern. right? which is why we should all rush out and preorder an aptera. the vision of steve fambro, who wanted to create a car that was safe, comfortable, and more fuel-efficient than anything ever produced, the aptera (from greek for ‘flight without wings’) draws much of its design from aircraft and aerodynamics. it seats two, has three wheels, and its first operating protype achieved an amazing 230 miles per gallon.
interesting specs: it can reach 85mph; it’ll take 2 to 4 hours to charge; it’ll cost about $2 to charge it overnight; it can accommodate drivers up to 6′5″ in height; there’s room for an infant seat; it’s only available in white; and it’ll cost under $30k. the aptera typ-1 is now available for reservations (only in california for now), and will start production in late 2008.
nmg
so you thought the aptera was a cool alternative to gas guzzlers? check these little guys out. nmg (standing for ‘no more gas’) personal electric vehicles are smaller than smart cars and use no gasoline at all. none. in fact, you can run them for one or two cents a mile.
nmgs are really small - so small that you can fit four of them into one parking space (see picture, below), which means this probably isn’t a car for long road journeys, or for piling the family into. in fact, it only seats one, so that wouldn’t even be a possibility. but it is the car for popping out to buy groceries, picking up a dvd, and - most importantly - driving to work.
charge it for eight hours and you’ll get about 30 miles of driving, which is more than the average driver does in a day. plus, you can drive it in the car pool lane, and park it in a motorcycle space between two cars. with gas hitting record highs every day and its consumption contributing so heavily to global warming, surely the nmg is a no-brainer? and if, as many suggest, the oil companies are suppressing information about electric cars left, right and center - then surely the spread of information by internet is the ideal way of counteracting that (blogging being quite possibly the ultimate freedom of speech)? Just a thought.
puyo
last october at the tokyo motor show, honda unveiled puyo. this little bubble car is another futuristic concept that threatens to blow gas guzzlers out of the water - or at least off our streets.
apparently the word ‘puyo’ is japanese onomatopoeia for the sensation of touching the vehicle’s soft body - though I’m not entirely sure what that means. the car itself was designed to bring together clean, safe and fun functionality in a minimalist, environmentally-friendly way.on the outside it’s a seamless, curvy box that’s supposed to remind you of a favorite pet. it has a soft gel body and is luminescent to reflect the vehicle’s state of being, thereby promoting a more intimate relationship between car and owner (does this mean it turns green when it’s sick?). and you’ve got to love those glowy headlights.
the interior is designed to be people-friendly. driving is controlled by a joystick, the control panels rise up when the vehicle starts, and the roof is transparent. sounds like r2d2 with interior seating and power steering, or hamtaro with an engine.
nissan pivo 2
talk about a cute concept car. the nissan pivo 2 almost makes wall-e look dull - almost… this environmentally-friendly electric urban commuter vehicle has a built-in robotic interface and rotates 360 degrees on its axis. by getting rid of traditional mechanical linkages like shafts and hydraulic cylinders and using drive by wire electrical technology instead, it’s infinitely more flexible than most cars we’re used to.
in addition to looking adorable and fitting into small spaces, it also does what so many electric cars seem incapable of doing - sits three. if this isn’t the car of the future, i’ll be so disappointed.
the magnet car
this car overcomes the force of gravity through the strategic use of an electric engine…and magnets. winner of the unseen technology award at the interior motives design awards 2007, the mag magnetic vehicle concept (designed by matúš procháczka) finds an unusual solution to the problem of, expending fuel to get somewhere. rather than finding a different fuel source, or building a smaller car, procháczka ingeniously reduces the weight of the car by using an electric engine with magnets the same polarity as the roads. the resulting upward force lightens the vehicle’s weight by 50%. another innovative touch is the desing of the seats: two outer layers, pile yarn, and a soft construction foam make it possible to adjust the final hardness and spring characteristics of the seat. this lightweight, adaptable seating not only cuts down on waste during construction and the overall weight of the vehicle while being driven, it also sounds pretty darn comfy.
of course, the biggest caveat to mag’s road dominance is the very crux of it’s construction: in order for the magnetic engine to properly polarize, the roads on which it’s driven also have to be magnetized. magnetic roads not being yet readily available, um, anywhere, the design for right now remains purely theoretical. but the day they are, you’ll see me sitting on my adjustable foam seat cushion, zipping around on my magnet car.
solar rickshaw
most people associate rickshaws with images of third-world poverty, or fleeting tourist novelty: how quaint, to have someone else peddle you around! however, the new solar-powered rickshaw by solarlab is about to change the image of the rickshaw to something decidedly more twenty-first century.
according to solarlab, 75% of the total power needed to drive the vehicle will come from the photovoltaic solar generator on the roof, while the remaining 25% will be provided by the driver’s own pedal power. with the addition of solar power, you don’t have have to be a superhero on steroids to drive yourself around. the modular design of the rickshaw makes it easy to convert to load-bearing vehicles required for inner city logistics, and supply chain requirements. in other words, not only can you cart yourself around, you can also add in a couple of tourists, and all their groceries too.
launching next year, solarlab hopes to reduce CO2 emissions in london by up to 2 tons per rickshaw. from prehistoric transportation, to the transportation of the future: making transportation eco-friendly is closer to the past then we think. then again, there’s always walking.
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