The future of fill-er-up! ECOtality Blink

Ever hear of frog Design? No? Well, have you ever seen the Apple ][c or original Mac? The Wega TV (owned by Sony)? The Yamaha frog 750 motorcycle concept? Are you familiar with Logitech, NeXT, the Sun SPARCstation, the Acer Aspire, Lufthansa, Dell, Microsoft, MTV, Yahoo (*deep breath in*)?  Ah man, there are just to many to mention right here. 

Well, frog Design is back on the case with their new design for the ECOtality Blink charging station.  ECOtality was searching for a solution that was simple, friendly and intuitive and I think they've hit the nail on the head.  With the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf hitting the roads very soon the infrastructure needs to be in place to promote the progressing flood of electric vehicles.

The two biggest factors in the expansion of electric vehicles are increasingly affordable vehicles and consumers shaking their "range anxiety" and they go hand in hand.  The more comfortable consumers are with their performance, the more likely they are to buy electric vehicles.  The more vehicles they buy, the lower their price gets and the faster their technology grows... increasing their range, lowering their prices, etc, etc.  For more information, check out frog Design's blog DesignMind.

Dislike your hike? You'll like the YikeBike!

Sorry for the Seuss inspired headline... I'm at home with the kids today. If you've gotten this far, then you're about to find out about one of the most unique and practical, portable electric transport designs to date.  Take a genius, like Grant Ryan, driven by a desire to outdo the Segway; give him five years of R&D resources and you end up with one of Time Magazine's Best 50 Inventions of 2009; basically an electric mini-farthing that is the smallest, and lightest (<22 lbs) electric folding bicycle available in the world.

Built with some of our favorite exotics and cutting edge technologies (carbon fiber composites, low-cost nontoxic nano lithium iron phosphate batteries, Hi-vis LED headlights and indicators, electronic anti-lock braking) the YikeBike has a top speed of 15.5 MPH (average bicycling speeds) and range of 6.2 miles per 40 minute charge.  Translation?  You will own the downtown city streets on this baby.  My home-to-downtown commute would be pushing the limits of the YikeBike, but now I could park in the cheap spots, whip this baby out of the trunk or off of my luggage rack and race to the office... Better yet!  Ride it to the bus stop, fold it up (20 seconds) climb aboard and just ride to the office from the downtown stop (last mile commuter usage).  Oh, if you don't have 40 minutes for a full charge, you can get an 80% charge (5 miles) in just 20 minutes (while you're grabbin' a quick lunch somewhere).

If you've got $136.00 you can put down a reservation and be one of the proud, early adopters of one of these marvels of engineering (after you've paid the remaining $4,300).  If you're one of the first 100 to pre-order, your production model should be ready for deliver from New Zealand by this Summer.  Parts are arriving as we speak and remember, early adopters make it possible for game-changers like the YikeBike to reach mass production and who knows what sort of effect that will have on congestion and pollution in America or the world!  Not to mention all the geek-points you'll get around the office.

You can follow the YikeBike's progress on Twitter and via the YikeBike blog.

The BMW C1 is back... TO THE FUTURE!

We've been getting LOTS of excited emails on this HOT scoop from green.AutoBlog's Jeremy Korzeniewski.  He's got a full line of pretty images and some details on the possible return of the BMW C1 in the form of the C1-E concept.  My first response is "PLEASE be more than just a concept!"  followed shortly by a "PLEASE come to the USA!".

I'm pretty sure BMW is going to hold this card until we see some battery tech improvements coupled with a couple of years of skyrocketing gas prices.  The C1 was a GREAT, proven feat of engineering from a safety standpoint.  There were only few minor flaws with the old design; slightly poky performance, a tad bit top-heavy & wind prone and a hefty sticker price.  The only MAJOR flaw from BMW was hoping that UK safety departments would bend the rules to allow C1 commuters to ride without a helmet... that never passed, so charging people the extra loot and not offering a solution for helmet hair proved fatal to the C1, living only two years before vanishing from showroom floors.

Thanks to Grant and Fred for being the first two to serve up that fresh scoop!

I'd love to experience the return of the dream (as seen below)

I may end up having to settle for THIS instead.

An old icon meets a new movement - The Honda EV-Cub

To go with our deep-fried Snickers donut and triple shot of organic wheatgrass this morning our friend Akisan gives us this to munch on... the Honda announcement of their plans for the 41st Annual Tokyo Motor show (Oct 24 - Nov 4).  There's the normal amount of car and motorcycle stuff, but buried in that list of sportbikes, cruisers and cars is a special little treat... the EV-Cub concept.  See it there in the image?  Right there in the middle next to the Honda omnidirectional segway styled unicycle the UX-3?  All clean and white and red?  We're probably still two or three battery technology generations away from them actually producing the EV-Cub, but it's nice to imagine. 

The EV-Cub concept is part of Honda's HELLO! (Honda Electric mobility Loop) Zone at TMS 2009, which features many of Honda's latest green technological developments including zero CO2 vehicles powered by solar and hydrogen generated electricity.

Another electric scooter concept on display was the EVE-neo (below), which looks like it's ready for the road.  Details on this baby are scarce at this time, but we're certain to have more specs and photos in the coming weeks.


Honda says to also expect the PCX 125 to show up as well as "other" items.  We'll keep you posted! Arigato once again to Aki for the scoop!

The electric car floodgates have been opened!

Wow!  Today Obama is announcing $2.4 billion in electric car funding to help the U.S. become a leader in plug-in vehicles.  You can read Jim Tankersley's whole story here, but in summary, $1.5 billion alone will go toward producing advanced batteries and an additional $500 million would fund drive train R&D for electric cars.  The remaining $400 million would purchase and support thousands of electric vehicles to serve as demo models.

They estimate this set of grants will blossom into tens of thousands of new manufacturing jobs right here in the good ol' US of A.

Now, I hope they give these grants to light weight, hungry, up-in-comers like Aptera and Tesla and not just blow it to cover bonuses for the CEOs at the old bailout shops (I'm talking to you GM and Chrysler... you've already gotten your $100+ billion in bailout money, so I'm already expecting something special from you.  How about a car that runs on carbon from the atmosphere and spits out ice-cold bottled water from the exhaust pipe?  Chop-chop!)

Berlusconi arrives at G8 in a green machine

(No, not THIS green machine, but the one you see in the video.)

What happens when Ducati starts making electric vehicles (the Eco Buggy)? They get Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to arrive at the G8 summit in one, that's what. Check out Hayley Platt's report (seen above).

It's no 2 ton, bullet-proof Bugatti limo, but it get's the job done, eh?

Vectrix tightening the belt a bit

Today, Michael Boyle, CEO and President of the Vectrix Corporation sent out a memo to their current dealer base informing them of "recent changes to our field staff and internal corporate support organization".  It appears that, like most other vehicle manufacturers, Vectrix is implementing a cut back strategy to protect itself in the current economic environment.  With Vectrix marketing a more expensive scooter in these times of $2 a gallon gas, I imagine Vectrix has felt the post 2008 gas spike like no other scooter manufacturer even with the increased green awareness the country is feeling.

Despite the cutback announcement, Vectrix went on to reassure current dealers that they will continue to receive the same high level of support from the company during these lean times, and that dealers should continue to keep they're eyes out for the new VX2

Vectrix is still actively seeking new dealers around the country.  We're hoping they can hang in there at least until after the current oil glut runs dry and demand begins to pick back up.