Greetings,
I've been watching for super-high efficiency cars, and they are starting to emerge. This first one is called Aptera, and you'll need to forget any preconceptions you may have about cars:
(Click on this image to get to the Wikipedia entry)
Let me cut to the chase: this two person car gets a claimed 233MPG !!!
(click on this image to get the the Aptera web site)
It will be available next October(ish) in two versions: an all-electric with a 120 mile range, and a version where they shrink the battery pack a little, and add a gasoline powered generator (12kV) to recharge the batteries on the fly. It seats two, weighs ~850lbs, has a drag coefficient of 0.11 which is outstanding. They claim it is very crashworthy (borrowing F1 techniques) and it has a 45" frontal crush zone. It has available side airbags, GPS/computer, three camera/screen rear view system, and a solar PV climate control system, that can run even when the car is off. Oh, and it does 0-69mph in about 10 seconds, which is pretty typical for most cars.
The loaded all-electric version is ~27K, and the loaded hybrid version is ~30K.
Pretty amazing.
Here's a different car -- much more conventional (or is it?).
Loremo's site
Hmmm...this is different...
A bunch more:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loremo/tags/car/
The Loremo seats four, weighs ~1,320lbs (600kg) and it will come in two versions initially: a 157mpg version that has a 20HP turbo diesel, and a 85mpg version with a 50HP turbo diesel. They plan on either an all-electric and/or a hybrid, as well. The target price is under 15,000euro and by 2010 at the latest. [Edited for correct weight, and added sales info.]
I'll come back an put up more...
I've been watching for super-high efficiency cars, and they are starting to emerge. This first one is called Aptera, and you'll need to forget any preconceptions you may have about cars:
(Click on this image to get to the Wikipedia entry)
Let me cut to the chase: this two person car gets a claimed 233MPG !!!
(click on this image to get the the Aptera web site)
It will be available next October(ish) in two versions: an all-electric with a 120 mile range, and a version where they shrink the battery pack a little, and add a gasoline powered generator (12kV) to recharge the batteries on the fly. It seats two, weighs ~850lbs, has a drag coefficient of 0.11 which is outstanding. They claim it is very crashworthy (borrowing F1 techniques) and it has a 45" frontal crush zone. It has available side airbags, GPS/computer, three camera/screen rear view system, and a solar PV climate control system, that can run even when the car is off. Oh, and it does 0-69mph in about 10 seconds, which is pretty typical for most cars.
The loaded all-electric version is ~27K, and the loaded hybrid version is ~30K.
Pretty amazing.
Here's a different car -- much more conventional (or is it?).
Loremo's site
Hmmm...this is different...
A bunch more:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loremo/tags/car/
The Loremo seats four, weighs ~1,320lbs (600kg) and it will come in two versions initially: a 157mpg version that has a 20HP turbo diesel, and a 85mpg version with a 50HP turbo diesel. They plan on either an all-electric and/or a hybrid, as well. The target price is under 15,000euro and by 2010 at the latest. [Edited for correct weight, and added sales info.]
I'll come back an put up more...
Last edited by Neil Blanchard on Wed Oct 31, 2007 11:54 am, edited 3 times in total.