Inflatable Electric Cars: Surround Your Body in Bliss
Here’s an interesting idea: instead of putting the airbag in the car, put the car in the airbag.
Sure it sounds silly, but XP vehicles, a start-up in California, is doing just that with their upcoming electric car, the Whisper™. Apparently, XP has taken the same sort of airbag technology developed to safely land recent NASA missions on Mars and used it to create an inflatable polymer car frame in which they pack all the essentials for it to actually be considered an automobile.
Not only does XP vehicles state that the Whisper™ will have a range of 2,500 miles using their “hot-swap XPack Multi-Core™ battery/fuel cell powerplant,” they are aiming for a price point of under $5,000. The cars will be sold direct online, initially only offered in Asian markets, and you will be able to configure them with a variety of different colors, decals, stereo systems, iPod mounts, and alarms - none of which will cover up for the fact that you’re driving a balloon.
The car can be shipped to customers in two cardboard boxes and “can be assembled by two people of average education level” in “less than two hours.” What they don’t tell you is that people with Ph.D.’s will be completely unable to figure the damn things out.
As far as safety goes, without an actual product it will be hard to verify the claims, but XP states that the car “will float in an emergency such as a flood or tsunami” and that you could “drive it off a cliff without serious injury.”
Imagine the possibilities for all sorts of discerning demographic groups:
- Enterprising young bank robbers: Rob the bank, drive away in a Whisper™, then deflate it and pack it up before the authorities can stop laughing.
- Tire slashing hoodlums: Now you’re not restricted to only slashing tires.
- Clowns for hire: Drive to your gig in a Whisper™ and turn it into a balloon animal in front of a crowd of adoring 4 year olds.
But really, if the car can go 2,500 miles without having to charge it up and it costs less than $5,000, who cares what it looks like or what havoc it might wreak on your social life? It gets you from point A to point B on one charge, even if those points are Portland, OR, and Mackinac Island. We’ll see if the Whisper™ ever makes it to reality, but if it does I might actually consider buying one.
Gas 2.0 Posts Related to Electric Vehicles:
- An Electric Car You Can Buy Today: The $20K TRIAC EV
- Nissan to Sell Electric Cars in US by 2010
- Are Plug-Ins and Electric Cars A Health Hazard?
- Affordable Electric Cars Coming to US in 2009
Image credits: XP Vehicles
I like this idea, even if it smells like vapor ware. But why make the design look like a Ferrari? That is silly.
But wrap hard plastic around the air tubes, and use it to make the body of an electric car, that would be great.
Or even better, make the new Air car out of Air
So now blowing up cars will be legal?
Chris,
It does sound like vapor-ware to me too. But the possibility is very intriguing. Only time will tell.
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[...] me up for one of these now. I can afford it by going without family health insurance for 10 months. Up up and away in my [...]
Uhh, and one gust of wind will tip the car over and cause the occupants to grind their faces into the concrete as the wind drags them 50+ feet down the road.
Good luck on selling that visual!
What’s amazing about this isn’t the air-bag body concept, but rather. . . 2,500 miles on one charge??!!!
If you inflate it with helium, will it become a flying car?
It is a typo, they say it goes 250 miles per charge, not 2500
Paul,
It’s not a typo. The home page of the XP website states that it will go 2500 miles using the hot-swappable batteries. On the products page of the XP website it states that the car will have up to a 300 mile range. I’m guessing what this means is that each battery pack holds enough charge for a 300 mile range, but that the hot-swappable battery/fuel-cell will take it 2500 miles without having to recharge.