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Compressed Air Powered City Car
Stingray
Elite Ranger
in Zocalo v2.0
[URL="http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/"]http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/[/URL]
[URL="http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659/"]http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659/[/URL] (more info, direct link)
Hmm, this global warming scare tactic is starting to work.
All we need now is to find a way to keep cows from farting. :D
And as the author of the article so eloquently asked, why do green cars have to look so fugly? It's as if those who dare to come up with innovative designs scuttle their own efforts to avoid becoming a competition to the traditional automakers. There is no other explanation, unless you really need to hire a Versace designer to come up with a somewhat stylish car, which I doubt is really necessary if I go by the current batch of new cars that have come out this year.
Either way, there's not a single green car that I find mildly pleasing to the eye. Only a few HINO's tickle my interest but they are only wolves in sheepskin as far as I'm concerned and no true alternative. (Hybrids-In-Name-Only) The Lexus hybrid SUV being one of them, it's a very nice car, but it's not green by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm not in for a new car for the next coming years, so this is going to be interesting to see how the automobile industry is going to react to the new challenges ahead. I'll be paying 2.5 times the usual tax rate for my car this year and my car is not even that big of a CO2-factory... All those people driving those sexy sport sedans will have to pay quite a bit more.
I'm still not sure how paying more taxes is going to combat global warming since my local government doesn't seem to take responsibility for finding a solution to said problem. As usual the politicians are dragging their feet to take the necessary steps to get anything done in fear of alienating their base.
[URL="http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659/"]http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659/[/URL] (more info, direct link)
Hmm, this global warming scare tactic is starting to work.
All we need now is to find a way to keep cows from farting. :D
And as the author of the article so eloquently asked, why do green cars have to look so fugly? It's as if those who dare to come up with innovative designs scuttle their own efforts to avoid becoming a competition to the traditional automakers. There is no other explanation, unless you really need to hire a Versace designer to come up with a somewhat stylish car, which I doubt is really necessary if I go by the current batch of new cars that have come out this year.
Either way, there's not a single green car that I find mildly pleasing to the eye. Only a few HINO's tickle my interest but they are only wolves in sheepskin as far as I'm concerned and no true alternative. (Hybrids-In-Name-Only) The Lexus hybrid SUV being one of them, it's a very nice car, but it's not green by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm not in for a new car for the next coming years, so this is going to be interesting to see how the automobile industry is going to react to the new challenges ahead. I'll be paying 2.5 times the usual tax rate for my car this year and my car is not even that big of a CO2-factory... All those people driving those sexy sport sedans will have to pay quite a bit more.
I'm still not sure how paying more taxes is going to combat global warming since my local government doesn't seem to take responsibility for finding a solution to said problem. As usual the politicians are dragging their feet to take the necessary steps to get anything done in fear of alienating their base.
Comments
[URL="http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659/"]http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659/[/URL] (more info, direct link)
And as the author of the article so eloquently asked, why do green cars have to look so fugly? It's as if those who dare to come up with innovative designs scuttle their own efforts to avoid becoming a competition to the traditional automakers. [/QUOTE]
I don't understand this either. I think its for the same reason all cars that try to be a vision of the future fail. Designers design as if some whirlwind shift in auto design is going to happen from one day to the other. Cars designed to look like cars from the future have been around since as long as there have been cars. They all have one thing in common. They never end up looking like anything from the future. A car of the future will very much look like a car from today. Design them to look like the bland styiling you are likely to find in your average compact. Thats what people want. Stuff that doesn't scream out. If you want something that screams out you either buy a Ferrari or pimp out your car with random awful looking accessories. No offense to anyone who goes that route ;)
Now, the lifespan is going to be the real question. Their current technique is using a large array of low-cost lithium cells that shouldn't be too expensive to replace down the road, but it is likely a problem that will be encountered. I think our best bet will come in the form of capacitor-driven systems. There was a concept recently which used a form of capacitor to store a charge, one which was "dumped" into the car fairly rapidly (something that would make an electric car even more appealing...) and had no substantial loss of capacity over the years.
[IMG]http://members.inode.at/clemens.gritsch/bttf.jpg[/IMG]