Related Sections: Future Tech Vehicles
CityEl, the 200mph electric car zips along a monorail
Braggadocio about electric car designs runs rampant, but the CityEl’s claim of 200mph beats all. This working prototype was built for a mere $2500, and spends most of its life as an ultralight 3-wheeled electric runabout. But if its inventors Jay Andress and Andy Webster can raise $10 million, they’re going to create a one-mile test monorail that hooks up to those wheels on the car’s roof.
While riding the electric rails, the car can accelerate to 200mph, and charge its batteries as it goes. All the while, the driver can relax and leave the driving to the computers and rails. Then, once the monorail section of the trip gets the car close to its destination, it can drive the rest of the way under its own freshly charged electric power.
The biggest catch is building the $500 billion worth of rails to accommodate a country full of such vehicles riding along the corridors of Interstate highways. But its developers say the system could pay for itself in energy savings in a year.
MonoMobile, via Autobloggreen
By Bkfldviking at 9:05 PM ON 07/14/08
This I like. Someone has finally overcome the main limitation of the electric vehicle, range. Now comes the need for infrastructure and a commitment to build. Within a decade we could cut the foriegn oil umbilical cord. No it won't hurt the Middle East, they will just sell more to China, but they can no longer hold us hostage.
By GreenOfaKind at 11:27 PM ON 07/14/08
Mixed emotions about this one - It's great that it offers the flexibility of a solo-transporter but to think that we'd need to set up ANOTHER infrastructure for that convenience seems excessive. We're already alone in the giant cars, why encourage it when we should perhaps re-analyze our own thinking versus throwing more money at it?
By Bad Bird at 2:50 PM ON 03/31/09
Good concept. You would have to use platooning to achieve high throughput on the main line; leaving gaps sufficient to allow merging and accelerating to the next platoon and breaking the platoons to provide room for exiting. If fast switching could be provided off-line loading would be good, but that would require having a higher station spacing than the typical light rail or monorail type of system.
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Bad Bird:
Good concept. You would have to use platooning to achieve high throughput on the main line; leaving gaps sufficien...More »