dream car 123: electric car gets pyramid power
filed under: future tech | strange and wonderful
September 14th, 2008 post a comment (5) stumble it! digg it! by: technabob
While this pyramid-shaped car might look pretty goofy, it’s actually an energy-efficient electric vehicle which laughs in the face of today’s gas guzzlers. And with gasoline costing upwards of $4 bucks a gallon these days, anything that runs on alternative energy seems like a welcome change.
Created by Sugar Grove, Illinois inventor Greg Zanis, the Dream Car 123 tools down the street at up to 40 mph. A single 3.5 hour charge provides about 240 miles of driving for only about $5 in electricity cost. Take that gasoline!
The vehicle is powered by 80 lead-acid batteries which drive four independent motors, allowing the car to make a complete 360-degree turn on a dime.
Zanis claims future generations of his car will use lithium batteries to achieve 2 to 4 times the distance per charge, and is targeting vehicle up to speeds as high as 200 mph and more.
The Dream Car’s unique pyramid shape was designed to leverage head winds to produce downward force to hold the car to the road. The single passenger compartment is surrounded by durable bullet-proof glass on all four sides, providing 360-degree visibility and protecting its occupant. A special honeycomb layer inside of the cars shell provides additional safety for the driver at all times.
The battery-operated car even features a dramatic neon lighting system, which makes it really stand out as it tools around in the dark. You certainly won’t miss this car driving down the road.
It currently costs Zanis about $8,000 in materials to create one of his Dream Cars. He has plans to ramp up and start mass-producing these in the next few years, with a retail price around $24,000 (which could drop as low as $16,000 after government alternative fuel incentives). For more information on his vehicles, be sure to visit the Dream Car 123 website.
September 14th, 2008 post a comment (5) stumble it! digg it! by: technabob
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5 comments post a comment
1. Magnus | September 14th, 2008 at 10:11 am
$4 per gallon is nothing. I paid just over $9 yesterday (converted from SEK to USD).
2. technabob | September 14th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Yikes. That’s crazy.
3. David | September 15th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
It looks so cool.
How much to build it?
Any license issue?
4. Jeremy | October 17th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Hey we need to get real and not put money in the big oil company’s pocket, if we do manage to come up with a clean safe alternative fuel the big oil will cash in, let me tell you why, oil will allways be pumped and we will rely on oil to make vehicles, computers, housing, solar panels anything steel or plastic, the price per bbl will skyrocket and guess what? everything you do will cost 200% more than it did, and our government and foreign countries will cash in on this.
5. car auction | November 17th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
This is a nice concept about cars, but i think they should change their design. It looks lame to see yourself driving in a pyramid shape car.
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dream car 123: electric car gets pyramid power