Men Free Blog

We can’t help but find Green Vehicles’ Triac three-wheeled highway-capable electric car anything but stupidly adorable, and it looks it’s is even better than we hoped. Our friends over at Autoblog Green scored some more info on the buggy, and found that the top speed it actually 80mph, and that range is just about 100 miles on a full charge, down from 120 miles as originally estimated. The Triac will also roll with a five-speed transmission, and charge from either a 120V or 240V power source. On top of all that, Green Vehicles is apparently working on a truck called the Buckshot based on the same motor, but with a three-speed transmission that will enable it to be a “true work truck.” Sure, sure — but when can we have a Triac? Seriously, we want to hug it.

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Last we saw the Uno electric unicycle it was looking very much like the prototype it was, but as you can see above, it seems that the teenage engineers behind it have been doing anything but slacking in the ensuing months. As Motorcycle Mojo reports, the third incarnation of the vehicle recently made its debut at the 2008 National Motorcycle Show in Toronto, with it sporting some custom-made wheels, a stylin’ new body, and a few changes under the hood as well. That latter bit apparently even included a trip to a robotics and gyro expert in California, who helped to fine tune the two gyros the Uno uses for turning and forward and backward motion (something you probably want to get right). There’s still no word as to when or if the vehicle might actually enter production, however, but you can at least now get a great look at it courtesy of the generous batch of pics Motorcycle Mojo has provided at the link below.

[Via Digg, thanks Daniel]

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The head of the World Wildlife Fund has come out publicly in favor of the electrification of the world’s transportation system. James Leape, director general of WWF International, has declared that cars need to get smaller, lighter and far more efficient. Leape also said that cars should be migrating to electric drive because it is more efficient than internal combustion engines. As an organization that supports preserving animal species, the WWF has a vested interest in helping to mitigate phenomena like climate change, deforestation and other environmental problems.

All the car-makers are working on a variety of electric drive vehicles using multiple technological approaches. There are of course multiple issues with all of these including cost, durability, range, etc. There is also, of course, the issue of producing electricity to power plug-in vehicles. Somewhere there’s a chorus repeating the mantra that we need to work aggressively to develop sustainable methods of generating electricity.

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When we drove the jellybean on wheels (the Mitsubishi i MiEV) at the New York Auto Show last month, we were pretty swept away. This is one nice EV. Maybe we weren’t quite as enthralled as the kids in this commercial for the all-electric car, but we’re still in favor of the i MiEV making it to showrooms soon.

While my Japanese has gotten seriously rusty ever since I moved away from Japan in 2001, you don’t even need my level of understanding to get something out of these videos. As our tipster Yanquetino wrote:

They are worth seeing, IMHO. The second one is especially informative. Despite the Japanese, you can still catch words like “braking,” “CO2,” “engine,” “motor,” “battery,” etc. (I guess these are all imported from English). More importantly, they provide the specification numbers in Arabic numerals and symbols (14 hours full charge with 110V, 7 hours with 220, 30 minutes to 80% at charging stations, 160 km range, etc., etc.).

I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually port these movies over to English, but for now… they are understandable! Evidently Mitsubishi is committed to bringing the iMiEV to market in Japan. Let’s hope that they’ll bring them here soon afterwards!

(If you’re in favor of the i MiEV in the U.S., don’t forget to sign this petition.)

When I watched the commercial, I understood the part where the voiceover says “It’s like a cell phone” when the woman plugs the car in. I think it also says “Running on zero” at the end, which means running on zero CO2 emissions. In this clip, a more technical description of what the i MiEV is all about, a vision of what driving an electric car could be like is laid out. I describe this clip after the jump.
Gallery: Mitsubishi i MiEV - LIVE
First off, the opening shot is pretty genius. Powering our EVs from wind is a dream I’m sure I share with a lot of readers. That sort of renewable electricity generation is just hinted at in the video, the bulk of which is dedicated to describing the way the i MiEV works. It has rear wheel drive and the video starts with an example of how much more efficient an electric motor is compared to a gasoline engine (55.5 percent of the energy in the fuel/batteries is used to move the vehicle in the electric version vs. 16.3 percent in the gas version). Plus, the EV uses regenerative braking. The i MiEV has LEV50 lithium-ion batteries, and - when carbon from electricity generation is figured in - the i MiEV emits 50 grams of CO2 per km for the EV compared to a little over 70 for a hybrid and 140+ for a 660cc gasoline engine. The i MiEV has a 160 km range with li-ion batteries that are coming in 2009. Mitsubishi’s plans seem to indicate setting up quick charging stations at convenience stores, train stations, Mitsubishi dealerships, shopping centers, and gas stations. If anyone with better Japanese skills wants to correct my translations, please feel free to do so. One thing that we can all understand is that cool logo. Thanks to Yanquetino for the tip!
[Source: Mitsubishi]