Zoomi Life

You’ve seen bicycles. You’ve seen solar-powered cars. You’ve seen engineering students unable to make an electric car stay upright. Now you can see a solar-powered bicycle car that looks like it might fall to pieces if you kick the tires before a test drive.

Behold! The ZEM from San Jose’s Dr. Tai-Ran Hsu, an engineering professor, and several of his students.

Of course, it’s ready for mass production..  At least, this professor thinks so.  Sorry, prof, it still needs some work. Unless you’re going to sell it to China, India, and Mexico.  Oh, you are?  Well, there you go then.

The car has solar panels for recharging the batteries, though the amount of energy gained this way is dubious.  It also has a 110v plug-in.  If all else fails, you can pedal it.  The car goes 35mph and has a maximum range of 60 miles (with the wind behind it, the sun shining high, and Lance Armstrong at the pedals).

I’m chalking this one up as another one of those “good idea on paper, but once you’ve sobered up…”

Source: EcoFriend