New ‘American Dream’ car!

WOW 3.5KW at 13.3ft/lbs! Hills are going to kill it. My home built mini (heavy as hell - 75ah 24V leadacid) bike is 1.8KW at about 20ft/lbs and it has trouble with 30deg. hills and I'm about 100lbs myself. I was sort of expecting it to be at least 6KW and 30ft/lbs.

I also dont think that could be called a door, its more like a gate. It had better be a 1" solid steal bar that locks into another steal bar.

Even a ryder reach fork lift looks handsomer then that
funny we have been driving them for double shifts, while charging them on single shifts for years
with 3 ton loads on the forks to boot
( and thats with the batteries we have had for decades )

but we don't have a car that's comparable?

If the recharge of the batteries could be done on board, with and engine like this.....
www.youtube.com...
I could imagine this engine could be up to a 95% efficient, since the reduction/elimination of friction is obtained.

Perhaps powered by hydrogen, which could be produced by the engine itself or use of biofuels like ethanol.
And this is not really new tech, just refined.

Originally posted by outwired
reply to post by JohnnySasaki

 

The safest cars in the world aren't 'gas-guzzling' SUVs, they're european sedans. SAAB, Volvo, Mercedes, and Audi. SAAB uses twice the amount of steel to re-enforce their pillars and roofs, meaning you can flip the car and your roof won't collapse or cave in. Swedish cars have to pass the Elk / Moose test; a front on collision with an Elk and avoidance of an Elk to ensure the car won't flip when turning at highway speeds. Volvo builds in a steel bumper used to break the legs of the Elk and flip it over the roof. Swedish and even German manufacturers have much higher safety standards than those in the US. Although Mercedes is a bit questionable as of late, I just remember them licensing a ton of Volvo safety tech in the 80's. Gas guzzling SUVs aren't safer, in some cases they're a train wreck when it comes to safety. Just because something is big doesn't make it safe...

When did I say anything about american? And when did I say anything about SUV?

Also, saying something being bigger isn't at least a little fundamentally safer in comparison is stupid. All you have to do is exaggerate it to see I'm correct.

Originally posted by paradox
When will they make one of these cars that doesn't look so gay?

try these.





I like the future!

reply to post by Danbones


I think the biggest difference is that in a car we want more than one seat.

Where I live we have (as far as I know) one recharging station for electric cars, and it remained unused for some two years, but last week I saw it twice being used by a Nissan Leaf.

That great heater should make it a big seller in northern Minnesota.

reply to post by D.Wolf


Those look cool. I haven't seen them before.

Especially the e-tron. That just looks bad ass.

That car has no roof and a big hole in the door. Wouldn't people get cold riding around in that? Or are we to think that it isn't ever going to snow again? Maybe they know with global warming we won't need doors or a roof.

Originally posted by choos
reply to post by loveguy

 

why does the blue colour look so photoshopped?

also heard the tesla has problems regarding being a brick if you let the battery drain too much.

I think they are all photo shops of the Yellow one, unless they managed to park 4 cars with their wheels in exactly the same position compared to the writing on the curb.

The "car" is Chinese and called the Kandi coco and if you live in Oklahoma you could get it for $865!
link
Although I think I would rather save up and get the Top Gear Hemmerhead Eagle Thrust

reply to post by paradox


Europe is gearing up towards e-cars. Those where just a few examples. I think every brand in Europe is on the verge of having an E-line and nope...Europeans don't want those tin-cans either. I think I could come up with a few more European E-cars.

The U.S. have a nice thing going with the Tesla and the Fisker Karma (hybrid) though. (More modest but a nice car is de Coda.)



I think the ugly electric wonder cans wont be with us very long when this kinda cars become available.

Originally posted by ArMaP
reply to post by Danbones

 

I think the biggest difference is that in a car we want more than one seat.

Where I live we have (as far as I know) one recharging station for electric cars, and it remained unused for some two years, but last week I saw it twice being used by a Nissan Leaf.

good one Armap
maybe we could swap the load on the forks for a couple of beverly hillbilly rockin chairs
and ride Granny round on top the safety cage

The little car has it's charm, but I'm sure no matter how hard I tried, I could never be content with a max speed of 32 mph.

I still find it incredibly hard to understand why the roofs of electric cars are not covered with solar panels , at least that way when they are parked all day out side places of work they can charge batteries to some extent. Is it that the power companies have ordered the manufacturers not to do this so they still get their cut from the owners when they are charging them up?

This thing is a joke. I live next to one that drives the smart car. A while back, it was in a wreck. Not too bad, just had a nice imprent of where the heads of the driver and passenger hit the window. Front damage as well. How hard a hit, unknown. I wouldn't be caught dead in one. Well, then probably would be if it were hit by a full size car.
The cons against this kind of thing being viable.

1. Not paying gas tax
2. Get to pay double liscence fee.
3. Get a GPS to compute your road tax, auto tracking added at no extra charge.

In the '70s, there was an add for a mercedes that would get 200 mpg on desel fuel. Killed that damn quick. Figure out a way to get better mileage and they will figure out a way to stop it. Take a tour of all the new car show rooms and extract the city/highway mileage figures and put into a graph that will average them. Last time I did, I came up with 28.7mpg highway, and with all the new tech we have. Garbage......

I'll take the China version any day, costs less and far easier to work on I bet.

DOH!

Originally posted by venomuk
I still find it incredibly hard to understand why the roofs of electric cars are not covered with solar panels , at least that way when they are parked all day out side places of work they can charge batteries to some extent. Is it that the power companies have ordered the manufacturers not to do this so they still get their cut from the owners when they are charging them up?

Here's some info about that question.

A solar powered Ferrari

This might be a good alternative untill then.
Solar car port

I looked into buying an electric car, but the thing is, they take forever to charge and if you plan on taking road trips, forget about it! Most public places don't have a charging port. Plus, these cars are expensive to service. You'd probably save more money getting something like a Prius, Civic, or Insight.

reply to post by HangTheTraitors


Disagreed. Non ugly electric car example, here.

Second Line.

This is yet another perfect example why people have to continue paying ~$4.00 a gallon in fuels. No competition.

Why not bring back the 3 cylinder cars that got great gas mileage compared to the hybrid$ of today, or these electric cars that could easily leave you stranded. Heck if you would have kept your Honda CRX HF model you could have easily sold it today for double what you paid for it new. So there is a demand for those older efficient and proven vehicles, but yet they want to push the masses to buy new inefficiently proven technology at 20 time$ the amount of the more efficient older proven technology.

I got a feeling that lots of big investors poured some serious money into these green and hybrid energy efficient industries and they can't afford for people to not buy into their marketing propaganda.

32 mph max speed?
No thanks, I'll stick with my BMW.