Cool Eco Friendly Cars

Eco friendly cars are all the rage at the moment but this trned is only going to get bighger and bigger. Here are some cool concept cars that we could be driving in a decade from now, when hopefully gas-guzzlers are a thing of the past and our robotic butlers will have to plug our cars into the mains overnight.

The Aptera
A car that gets 230 miles per gallon? Cool! The vision of steve fambro, who wanted to create a car that was safe, comfortable, and more fuel-efficient than anything ever produced, the aptera (from greek for ‘flight without wings’) draws much of its design from aircraft and aerodynamics. it seats two, has three wheels, and its first operating protype achieved an amazing 230 miles per gallon.

Car Specification

• Top Speed of 85mph
• 2 to 4 hours to charge - it’ll cost about $2 to charge it overnight
• You must be 6 ft 5 or under in height so this car aint no good for most basketball players!
• Room for a childs seat
• Only available in white
• Cost: under $30k.
• the aptera typ-1 is now available for reservations (only in california for now), and will start production in late 2008.

NMG
NMG stands for no more gas! These cool electric cars are smaller than smart cars and use no gasoline at all. They are really small - you can fit four of them into one parking space
It only seats one but a cool car for driving to work..unless you car share!

Charge it for eight hours and you’ll get about 30 miles of driving, which is more than the average driver does in a day, plus you can drive it in the car pool lane, and park it in a motorcycle space between two cars. With gas hitting record highs every day and its consumption contributing so heavily to global warming, surely the nmg is a no-brainer?

Oil companies are supposidly holding back information about electric cars for obvious reasons...so spread this around...electric cars are cool!


HONDA PUYO
This little bubble car is another futuristic concept that threatens to blow gas guzzlers out of the water - or at least off our streets.


The word ‘puyo’ is japanese onomatopoeia for the sensation of touching the vehicle’s soft body.
The car itself was designed to bring together clean, safe and fun functionality in a minimalist, environmentally-friendly way.

On the outside it’s a seamless, curvy box that’s supposed to remind you of a favorite pet.
It has a soft gel body and is luminescent to reflect the vehicle’s state of being, thereby promoting a more intimate relationship between car and owner

The interior is designed to be people-friendly. driving is controlled by a joystick, the control panels rise up when the vehicle starts, and the roof is transparent.


NISSAN PIVO 2
Talk about a cute cool concept car. This eco friendly electric urban car has a built-in robotic interface and rotates 360 degrees on its axis.

By getting rid of traditional mechanical linkages like shafts and hydraulic cylinders and using drive by wire electrical technology instead, it’s infinitely more flexible than most cars we’re
used to.

What's cool about this car is unlike most eco cars, it fits 3 people! I can see this car going places!


THE MAGNET CAR
This car overcomes the force of gravity through the strategic use of an electric engine…and magnets. Winner of the unseen technology award at the interior motives design awards 2007, the mag magnetic vehicle concept (designed by matúš procháczka) finds an unusual
solution to the problem of, expending fuel to get somewhere.

Rather than finding a different fuel source, or building a smaller car, procháczka ingeniously reduces the weight of the car by using an electric engine with magnets the same polarity as the roads. the resulting upward force lightens the vehicle’s weight by 50%. another innovative touch is the desing of the seats: two outer layers, pile yarn, and a soft construction foam make it possible to adjust the final hardness and spring characteristics of the seat. this lightweight, adaptable seating not only cuts down on waste during construction and the overall weight of the vehicle while being driven, it also sounds pretty darn comfy.

Here comes the obvious disadvantage - in order for the magnetic engine to properly polarize, the roads on which it’s driven also have to be magnetized, which of course there aren't any...yet!


SOLAR RICKSHAW
The new solar powered rickshaw by solarlab makes rickshaw's cool, bringing them into the 21st century.

75% of the total power needed to drive the vehicle will come from the photovoltaic solar generator on the roof, while the remaining 25% will be provided by the driver’s own pedal power.

With the addition of solar power, you don’t have have to be a superhero on steroids to drive yourself around. The modular design of the rickshaw makes it easy to convert to load-bearing
vehicles required for inner city logistics, and supply chain requirements. in other words, not only can you cart yourself around, you can also add in a couple of tourists, and all their
groceries too.

Launching next year, solarlab hopes to reduce CO2 emissions in london by up to 2 tons per rickshaw.

From prehistoric transportation, to the transportation of the future: making transportation eco-friendly is closer to the past then we think. then again, there’s always walking.
This is a guest post courtesy of been seen, a great site that ‘approaches travel from a creative and visually artistic point of view’.