Zoomi Life

Lotus recently unveiled the Eco-Elise, an environmentally-friendly concept car made partially from hemp. Several of the body panels on this concept Elise are made from hemp materials, which is much more lightweight than metal. Plus, hemp is a renewable material that absorbs CO2, making it zero-sum. And the hemp used for this car was grown in the same neighborhood as the manufacturing plant, eliminating the need for long transportation of materials.

If this trend catches on, maybe you can mellow out in one of these sporty hemp mobiles one day too.

Alright, alright, before all you hempheads start chastising me about how “hemp is not marijuana” and all that, I’ll come clean: I know the difference. Comon. I couldn’t avoid the Up In Smoke references. It’s too easy! Besides, there aren’t any cars in Half Baked, so I’m limited to Cheech & Chong references here.

Okay, back to the car: it’s basically a Lotus Elise with hemp panels, an integrated rooftop solar array (to power subsystems) and lots of green hype. No word on whether they plan to go with further developments like a hybrid power train or other options.

It’s a good concept on one level, though: it’s possible to make cars that are nearly 100% biodegradable if we’ll just get out of the steel and plastic rut we keep riding in. Although if you’re going with hemp, maybe some warning labels about lighting it on fire and the possibility of giving that cop who pulled you over the munchies.

Kinda grabs you by the poo-poo, don’t it?

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