Back in May I went to the 2007 MakerFaire in San Mateo and had the opportunity to meet Rick Woodberry of CommuterCars, the creator of the Tango. It's an electric car that is all around a great solution to urban commuting. It's extremely thin but packs a punnch - it goes from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. This is an interesting phenomenon, unfortunately it retails for $108,000 although Rick is working on getting it mass manufactured.
US car culture is facing a huge problem. A big portion of the problem revolves around our dependency of the automobile. Parking in cities, congested highways, gridlock in urban areas and urban sprawl. These are all complicated issues that will not be easily resolved. Yes these problems might start to solve themselves as we depelete our oil reserves and get stranded out in suburbia. Until then we need vehicles that will help transition us into time when cities are planned a bit more strategically and we are using more renewable sources of energy.
Surprisingly a big part of this transition is finding compromises. That means not abandoning what Americans love so much about their cars; things like being free and going fast. The Tango is a great compromise. Not only is it small and electric but it's fast and sexy.
More on this subject to come....
2 comments:
Peel P50 Peel P50!!!!!!!!
except faster, i guess :)
The Peel P50 is ridiculous I remembered now where I first saw it; it was in an episode of the simpsons like 6 years ago and Nelso was laughing at some 7 foot tall dude trying to drive it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYtro7PnBA8
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