Green wheel turns pedal bike into electric hog

When Gizmag paid a visit to the Paris Green Air Show in June, there was one craft on display that seemed to steal the show. The Green Cri aerobatic electric airplane hadn't even left terra firma, yet was surrounded by eager onlookers for much of the time it was there. Now the four-engined prototype has returned to Le Bourget airfield for its maiden flight in the sunny skies above Paris. Read More

Daimler has announced that its smart fortwo electric drive will cross the Atlantic later this year. The tiny two seater, which has a rear mounted 30 kW electric motor producing 120 Nm of torque, a range of 100 km to 135 km and can be parked pretty much anywhere, is slated to reach cities in USA and Canada in Q3. Read More

Like Peugeot, which has unveiled its EX1 concept electric vehicle as part of the company’s 200th anniversary celebrations, Jaguar is celebrating its 75 years with an equally, if not even more, stunning concept electric supercar. Unveiled today at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, the C-X75 boasts some impressive performance stats that prove this is no mere show pony. Powered by four 145kW electric motors – one on each wheel – producing 780bhp and a total torque output of 1600Nm (1180lb ft), the C-X75 can accelerate from 0-100km/h (62mph) in just 3.4 seconds, and from 80-145km/h (50-90mph) in 2.3 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 330km/h (205mph). Read More

Giving us yet another reason to get behind electric, the Japan Electric Vehicle Club recently exceeded its own Guinness record for longest distance driven without recharging, achieving a staggering 1,003.184 km (or about 623 miles). Read More

THINK electric vehicles are heading south. Following on from plans to introduce its electric vehicle range in the U.S., the Scandinavian electric vehicle maker has now announced a deal with energy provider CPFL Energia to conduct a feasibility study on its THINK City EVs in the Brazilian market. Read More

UK students have driven an electric car around Greater London twice on a single charge. Using a specially modified electric Radical SRZERO supercar, the Racing Green Endurance (RGE) team from Imperial College completed two laps of on the M25 motorway in the wee hours of Friday morning, covering a total distance of 250 miles (400km). The feat is a lead up to an attempt later this year at becoming the first EV to conquer the longest road on Earth - the Pan American Highway. Read More

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Video: First TTXGP Electric Motorcycle Race at Infineon

Shawn Higbee, right, dueled with Michael Barnes for first place.

The first electric motorcycle race in the American TTXGP series was held at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., on Sunday. Shawn Higbee, a competitor in the AMA Superbike series, won the 11-lap event aboard a bike built in a collaboration between Zero Motorcycles and Agni Motors, the electric motor manufacturer responsible for the winning machine in last year’s electric race on the Isle of Man.

Zerotracer motorcycle throws down gauntlet to electric cars

The Zero Race will see contestants dash around the globe in 80 days in zero emission, electric powered vehicles... and one of the most distinctive entries is the Zerotracer. Designed by a group of engineers from Winterthur, Switzerland, the Zerotracer is an electric motorcycle that encloses its two occupants in a Kevlar shell and is capable of a top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph) and a range of 350 km (217 miles) on a single charge. Read More

Renault gives sneak peak of sporty DeZir electric concept car

Renault’s Z.E. range of electric vehicles turned a few heads at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show but the company’s new electric concept car, the DeZir, is more likely give passersby a case of whiplash. The DeZir is a two-seater coupé that Renault says stands out as an illustration of the company’s commitment to more emotional styling. With its sports car looks and ability to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) in five seconds, or 0 to 50 km/h in just two seconds, it’s hard to disagree. Read More

Treadway Mobility concept puts personal electric transport at your feet

Journeys from home to the nearest bus stop, train station or news stand may well prove too far for walking, but not really far enough to justify the expense of getting in the car. For those in-between journeys, you need a lightweight personal transport solution. Maybe something like the Treadway Mobility which has been entered into this year's James Dyson Awards competition. Designed to strap over existing footwear or to step into, the wearable motorized shoes could just be geeky enough for tech fans and cool enough for thrill-seeking teenagers. But not just yet. Read More

Daimler’s smart brand has managed to reduce the size of its already micro-sized vehicles even further by subtracting a couple of wheels and unveiling a concept scooter. The chassis of the all-electric smart escooter is modeled on the tridion safety cell of the smart fortwo, with its steel and aluminum frame clad in fully interchangeable plastic body panels. The scooter has a top speed of 45 km/h (28 mph) with power provided by a 48-volt lithium-ion battery pack with a capacity of 80 Ah that gives the vehicle a range of up to 100 km (62 miles). Read More

Sanyo and Suzuki have announced a collaborative project resulting in the development of an electric drive system for an prototype scooter named e-Let's. About the same weight as the petrol scooter it was based on, the prototype has a claimed range of 18.6 miles and its battery pack can be charged using a household outlet. The scooter is currently undergoing on-road trials leading to possible commercialization. Read More

The yogo, by fledgling British company econogo, is the UK's first and only full production electric scooter that has removable lithium batteries. What’s so good about that? Well, instead of having to run an extension lead from a mains electricity socket inside the house or garage, the yogo’s removable battery allows owners to recharge their scooter’s battery inside their home - or office, which greatly increases the flexibility of a scooter that only has a range of 22 miles per battery charge. Carry another charged battery with you and double the distance you can travel before having to recharge (it only takes an hour). With a top speed of 38mph, the Yogo’s 1.5kW motor is billed as the equivalent of 100cc motorbike.

We first covered XOR’s folding electric scooters about a year ago but, aside from their top speed, weight and the fact they fold up, there wasn’t a lot of info on them available. Now we’ve had a chance to see the folding scooter in action at Intermot 2010 and nail down a few more details about the vehicle from XOR Motors that is dubbed the “XO2 Urban Transformer.” Read More

Remember when the Segway was launched in 2001? The company proclaimed that it was going to revolutionize personal transportation, but... well, although Segways are still around, they’re hardly a common sight. What could soon be a common sight, however, are electric bicycles. While a variety of styles were on display at this year’s Eurobike show, commuting ebikes were by far the most common. An electric drive makes sense on a commuter – you still get some exercise and don’t have to register it as a scooter, yet you also don’t arrive at your destination all hot and sweaty. As with all electric vehicles, however, range is always an issue. That is now being addressed, however, with ebikes that can travel up to 160 kilometers (99.4 miles) on one charge. If your commute is longer than that, you really might want to consider, you know... driving. Read More

The concept of “last few mile mobility” is one which we'll all grow accustomed to over the next decade as the world's cities become more congested and non-polluting micro mobility concepts begin to supplement other forms of transport. In the last year alone we've seen Toyota's Winglet, Honda's U3-X, Nissan's electric skis, and now Volkswagen has shown a micro mobility concept which it has dubbed the "Bik.e" – a folding electric bike with one of the most ingenious folding mechanisms we've seen. With a range of 20 kilometres (12.5 miles), the Bik.e has 20 inch wheels and folds to a footprint identical to that of a car spare tyre, enabling it to be stowed away easily. Whatsmore, the bik.e will definitely see production, and possibly even before the end of the year. VW's choice of form factor is as fascinating as its choice of a recognisable name is inspired. The Bik.e could turn out to be as important to VW as the iPod has been to Apple. Read More

Lexus has announced details of the innovative Hybrid Bicycle Concept we first spied tucked away at last year's Tokyo Motor Show. Headed for a UK debut at the Great British Bike Ride this weekend, the full-carbon fiber frame hybrid (electric+human) concept includes a 240W electric motor at the front hub, eight-speed transmission, a 25.9V Lithium-ion battery and regenerative braking. Head on through for more images plus our video overview. Read More

A new electric motor designed for use with electric bicycles, scooters and other lightweight vehicles has been launched by Swedish company, Höganäs. The motor takes advantage of "metal powder technology", resulting in high performance but with reduced size, with a range of up to 75km between charges. The motor has been shown during the World Expo in the heart in Shanghai, China, one of the world’s stronghold for electric bicycle manufacture and deployment due to its cost efficiency, flexible and environmentally-friendly means of transportation.

Electric bicycle designers are continually coming up with new ways to fold the humble bicycle to make it easier to carry when not being ridden. The latest to catch our eye is the VeloMini, a light-weight folding electric bike featuring a 180 watt brushless hub motor that will transport a person from eight to ten miles at speeds of up to 12 mph (19 km/h). When it’s not being used it folds down to a compact form 18-inches tall that fits into a carrying case roughly the same size as a guitar case. Read More

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Green wheel turns pedal bike into electric hog

MIT trades bike tires for power generation, storage and propulsion system

The next time you change a bike tire, think about upgrading your power as well. Scientists at MIT

are testing a new power generation, storage and propulsion system known as the GreenWheel that will turn any pedal bicycle into an electric hog.

"Just take the wheel off, put a GreenWheel equipped wheel on in its place, plug it in and it should work just fine," said Ryan Chin, one of the GreenWheel designers. "The whole thing has been designed so all the parts except the throttle are enclosed in the wheel."

From the outside, the GreenWheel has the radius of a small dinner plate and is about 2 inches thick. Inside the aluminum frame sits the three major GreenWheel components: an electric generator, batteries and an electric motor.

For now, installing GreenWheel on your own does require a moderate level of technical knowledge or a trip to a bike shop. The GreenWheel can be installed on any bike frame or wheel size, but the original spokes have to be replaced with shorter spokes. Michael Chia-Liang Lin, a master's student at MIT developing the GreenWheel, called his parents in Taiwan, who own a bike shop, to figure out how to respoke the wheel.

Under its current configuration, a bike powered solely by a single GreenWheel (front, rear or both wheel can be equipped with a GreenWheel) has an estimated range of 25 miles. Pedaling the bike doubles the range under electric power, provided the rider isn't traveling at the nearly top speed of 30 miles an hour. The bike can be charged by pedaling or by plugging it into the electric grid.

A GreenWheel equipped bike is a smooth ride, as Discovery News found out during a recent afternoon test ride around MIT's campus. Turning the handle mounted throttle, like any motorcycle, just a few small degrees produces a noticeable increase in power and a light electric hum. The handle-mounted throttle is connected wirelessly to the electric motor in the wheel.

The GreenWheel is also durable. The team estimates its range at 40,000 miles, or about eight years work of travel at an estimated 20 miles per business day.

"You'll have to replace the bike before you replace the batteries," Lin told Discovery News.

By this spring the GreenWheel team hopes to pass out more than a dozen different GreenWheel configurations to both hard-core bike messenger types and novice riders.

Once the optimal configuration of power, speed and cost is determined the team hopes to begin large scale production.

Copenhagen and South Africa, in preparation for the 2010 World Cup, have already expressed interest in adding GreenWheel-equipped bikes to their public transportation systems. The rough idea right now is to follow a popular bike share program in Paris. Subsidized by advertising revenue and an annual subscription, the first 30 minutes are free, and any time after that incurs a small fee.

The Paris program has been widely viewed as a success, one which Copenhagen hopes to build on. By getting people out of cars and onto bikes or public transportation, city planners and GreenWheel designers hope to reduce the use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions.

Besides cutting carbon emissions, the GreenWheel is also made from environmentally friendly processes by companies like A123 Systems, which manufactures the lithium ion batteries used in the GreenWheel.

Other systems exist to convert pedal bikes to electric scooters, but they typically have heavier and more environmentally destructive lead based batteries. While an exact cost hasn't been nailed down yet, Chin expects a privately purchased GreenWheel to cost several hundred dollars.

Other electric bike converters cost up to $1,200 and require running wires to and from motor to battery to handlebar throttle. Since batteries, generator and motor are all one part connected to the throttle by Bluetooth technology, installation is also easier than existing conversion kits.

The GreenWheel is an offshoot of another MIT project the team members are part of, known as SmartCities. SmartCities hopes to expand the range and ease of public and private transportation. The GreenWheel is the latest addition to SmartCities line of vehicles, which also includes an electric scooter and a stackable electric car.

It has to be said: most bikes are only beautiful to cycling experts who know exactly what they’re looking at. For the rest of us, bikes look like utilitarian machines designed to get us from one place to another. The “Full Circle” urban bike design from Sanghyun Jeong and Jun-Tae Park is a little different: it’s beautiful, lightweight, foldable and simple to take with you just about anywhere.

The chain-less bike looks a bit like an alien creature with two big eyes. Its large 20″ wheels are meant to make navigating through big cities easier, while the absence of a chain makes it lighter and cleaner than traditional bikes. Its ease of folding – and the way it can be simply rolled along behind one’s body when walking – make it the perfect urban bike to take along when part of your commute involves a train or bus.

The Full Circle is one of the shortlisted entries in Designboom’s Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010, chosen from more than 3000 entries. Its unusual shape and unfamiliar functionality may draw some critics, but this isn’t meant to be a mountain bike – it is a machine designed to roll easily through city streets and be carried into an office building. And for that purpose, this strange-looking grown-up version of a Big Wheel might be just what urban dwellers need.

Earlier this month, we told you how Dutch EV charging company Epyon was promoting its new fast charging station. It can reportedly charge a Nissan LEAF up to 80 percent within 30 minutes, and certain other EV’s within even half that time. Now, Epyon is announcing the opening of its first commercial fast-charging station in Europe. Read More

First of all, let’s just say it: this is the most bizarre-looking bicycle saddle of all time. Feel free to disagree, but c’mon, just look at the thing - it’s like the bike is sporting a leaf rake, or perhaps even a rib cage. Like most funny-looking bike seats, however, the Manta promises to rectify one of the most common of cyclists’ complaints... the all-too-familiar “numb bum.” Read More

Canada's Kiwi Choice has announced the release of a strangely familiar-looking portable solar charger for mobile devices. The three-panel photovoltaic fan design first used by Solio has found its way to Kiwi's U-Powered charger. Featuring a powerful battery, LED flashlight and magnetic feet, the product also comes with multiple device connector tips for maximum compatibility. Read More

The largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the Middle East is to be built in Madinat Zayed, approximately 120 km (75 miles) southwest of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). When it becomes operational in 2012, the plant, dubbed Shams 1, will feature some 6,300,000 square-feet of solar parabolic collectors, cover 741 acres of desert and will produce enough electricity to power 62,000 households. Read More

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Officially announced at AirVenture 2010, Sikorsky's Project Firefly sets out to demonstrate the feasibility and showcase the benefits of electrically powered helicopters. The technology demonstrator is based on an S-300C light helicopter with a 190-horsepower electric motor replacing the standard piston-engine and lithium ion battery packs added to either side of the cabin. The result is a significantly more efficient system that – although it's expected to fall short of typical helicopter performance when the first flight takes place later this year – is just the tip of the iceberg for the new era of electric rotorcraft.

The Future is Here - Go Green!

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Green wheel turns pedal bike into electric hog

MIT trades bike tires for power generation, storage and propulsion system

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