Inspired by Origami, that’s what we thought the first time we set our eyes on this awesome electric scooter designed by Giovanni Bellini and Allan Sejer Madsen. Christened the Evanél, this electric scooter aims to be different from the usual gas-powered scooters, and by the looks of it, it seems different enough to hail from another planet! The form factor is designed with the idea of having a scooter consisting only of surfaces. This continuous shape of the Evanél makes it light in weight too. At first look, we couldn’t figure out the positioning of the handle and where exactly to lay our backsides on. More of a sculpture on wheels powered by electricity, the Evanél is indeed a work of art.
The world’s first passenger airplane, powered by biofuels, is ready to take-off and hit the skies soon. German airliner, Lufthansa, will launch the first of its kind biofuel powered passenger airplane in 2011. After years of experimentation and development, the aviation industry is finally turning to biofuels to power up passenger flights. An Airbus A321 will do the round from Hambur to Frankfurt everyday, powered by biofuel. The fuel will be produced by blending in 50% vegetable oil. Finnish oil firm, Neste Oil will supply the fuel for this one. The fuel emits 40% to 80% lesser greenhouse gases than the usual fuel used.
The city of Warsaw is all set to have metropolitans around the world go green with envy, as it unveils its fantastic mass transit system, that’s green and energy efficient, besides packing in a load of cutting-edge technology and passenger comfort. The new Inspiro subway cars designed by BMW and Siemens will begin the rounds around Warsaw, carrying passengers in style. Complete with extra-wide entrances, for accommodating better passenger flow, large electronic displays for system maps and lighting that’s placed at soothing intervals, these spacious subway cars have handles shaped like tree branches, a subtle reminder of its efforts to remain green. Also, these carriages are 97.5% recyclable, and won’t end up rotting in scrap yards once they’ve surpassed their years of existence.
Unlike its counterparts, busy stamping carbon footprints while tugging away ships, here’s a little tug boat that’s hybrid, the first of its kind in the world, delivering some pretty awesome performance levels. Carolyn Dorothy, Foss Maritime’s tugboat plying the waters of Southern California’s San Pedro Bay is as green as a tug can get, emitting an awesome 73% less soot than a normal tugboat of its size. That’s not all. Carolyn also emits 51% fewer nitrogen oxides and 27% less carbon dioxide as compared to the others. Using four diesel engines and 126 batteries, the Carolyn Dorothy tug couldn’t be tested for its full plug-in capabilities during the test-runs due to insufficient shore power, charging up for just three hours.
Electric cars keep the air and their act clean, though can be a bit heavy on your pockets. And not too many people prefer riding electric bikes and scooters and being exposed to the elements. So, here’s a great way to travel green, without burning an enormous hole in your pocket, the BugE. This contraption works on electricity, has three wheels, will protect you from the elements, and costs less than six thousand dollars. Oh, and you’ll have to build it yourself too! Invented by Mark Murphy, of Creswell, Oregon, the BugE works great on city streets and keeps up with all the seasons, while the commuter sits snug inside. Weighing around 350 lbs (159 kg), this one uses a 17 bhp DC series motor powered by four M34 lead acid batteries with an eight hour charging time.
Charging up your electric car will be a bit easier, if you live in Europe that is, thanks to a new initiative taken up by Renault, together with Nissan and VINCI Park. The French carmaker, Renault, recently tied up with Japanese giant Nissan and signed an agreement with VINCI Park, to have charging points placed at parking lots. The VINCI Park Network Is known best for its parking infrastructure and the automakers are busy checking ways best to install these charging points. With partnerships and initiatives taken up like these, driving electric cars around seem a lot more feasible by the day.
Peugeot has been around for a whole 200 years now and to celebrate their 2nd century anniversary, the automaker used all its car and bike making brains, putting together a machine that looks as evil as it roars. An electric supercar built to take your breath away, this mean looking set of wheels comes with four wheel mounted electric motors with a sum total of 340 horsepower. Christened the EX1, the car won’t hit store shelves though, and will remain a concept. The company has stated that the prototypes built have shown some pretty awesome performance levels too! Complete with a large front air intake, side scoops, low-profile wind screen, this electric will leave the others behind in the dust.
Soon, the Big Apple will have something bigger than just a fruit. New York City will play home to the country’s largest bike sharing program, offering citizens a greener route to commute. The New York City Department of Transportation is busy sending out proposals for the same. The program will include a 24-hour network, 10,000 GPS and wireless-equipped bikes and the best part, 600 solar-powered bike stations. For five years, the program will be paid for by private firms, simply because the city has no funds for it. Traveling short distances on the bike lanes created will be a much greener affair, instead of city dwellers pulling out their cars to cover those few kilometers. Next summer, a two month feasibility test with 30 bikes will begin.
Why plug-in when you can simply drive over! Yeah, you got us right. We’re talking about chargers that can juice up your electric car without any of those cords. A bunch of entrepreneurs in New Zealand have come up with what they’ve chosen to call power pads. The pads wirelessly charge up electric vehicles parked above and while on the go. For now, the technology stays in garages, driveways and parking lots. In future though, the power pads could be integrated in roads too, to have your car charge up as you drive along! They’ve also been dreaming up e-ways, basically dedicated lanes that’ll integrate power pads and by means of continuous induction charging or dynamic in-motion charging, can power up EVs.
With a quickly growing population and equally quick to grow economy, the Asia Pacific region has been experiencing a rapid growth in the automobile sector, with more people choosing to drive their own cars these days. That’s not all; the auto industry is wisely taking a turn for a greener horizon, with an outflow of EVs. According to estimates, the Asia Pacific region will play home to an astounding 1.4 million electric cars purring around by the year 2015, and with the rate at which technology is developing, we don’t need Nostradamus to predict that! To power these up, 2.6 million charging points are predicted to sprout up.
