‘Flintstones’ Car First to Combine Pedals, Solar, & Battery
Students at San Jose State University have created a new type of hybrid—or perhaps tribrid?—that makes use of human pedal-power, solar panels, and a strong battery. They’ve dubbed the car the ZEM, or Zero EMissions Vehicle, and say it could be mass-produced for a mere $4,000.
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The vehicle gets moving with pedal power for the first 30 seconds until reaching 5 mph, when the battery kicks in to bring it to its top speed of 35 mph within another 30 seconds. The car, which requires two people to pedal, carries silicon batteries which can be charged by the four solar panels—three on the roof and one on the hood—or by AC outlet.
The car’s four batteries can run up to 40 miles, but don’t start getting in line yet. The target market will be large cities in Mexico, China, and India, where traffic would make pedal-power alone sufficient to get around most days. The team also hopes the United States Postal Service will replace their gas-powered neighborhood vehicles with their ZEM.
San Jose State won a $15,000 grant for the project in 2007 from the National I2P (Idea-to-Product) Competition for EPICS and Social Entrepreneurship at Princeton University in 2007. At that point, the prototype vehicle looked more like a go-cart.
Check out this local newscast about the project for more information.
Photo courtesy of San Jose State University’s engineering department.
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December 13th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
pointless, its a messed up bicycle all in the name of ‘zero emissions’
if university people can’t do better than this, its time to close them down
December 13th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
They want the USPS to replace their neighborhood vehicles with this.. but yet it requires two people to pedal to get going.
Sorry, but I don’t believe the USPS is going to hire double the people (or combine two routes) just to have lower emissions. Their business model is built around carriers working independently.
December 13th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
What do you get when a prius crashes into a hotdog stand?…
December 13th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
yabba dabba ….don’t
December 14th, 2008 at 7:50 am
the quality of university education has really taken a beating.
December 14th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
You can’t require two people to pedal. Scale down the size a little bit.
December 14th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
hahaha..
you will love this picture
http://pekanbarukita.blogspot.com/2008/07/jurus-hemat-bbm-budak-melayu-version.html
hahahaha
December 14th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
What happened to just sticking with a bicycle or even a scooter? Back to basics, guys….come on… LOL
December 14th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Wow, I would say you are on to something there.
jess
http://www.privacy.de.tc
December 14th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
All that’s missing:
San Jose Students: It’s a living
December 14th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Cool idea for inercity travels.
However, for the american post office I think it would be much cheaper to use a pack-animal/small cart to carry/pull that neighborhood delivery mail. Much more healthy and green aswell.
December 15th, 2008 at 10:39 am
the quality of university education has really taken a beating…
December 17th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
the quality of university education has really taken a beating…
December 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
yabba dabba ….don’t….
December 17th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Dear Sir or Madam,
Please send me your best offer for one Human solar Hybrid Powered Vehicle car of 2 or 4 seats and of the highest power and speed, right or left handed to be delivered in France at the bellow address,
with delay of delivery, warranty, and all technical specifications attached,
as well as one essential lifetime spare parts sets for maintenance.
Specify conditions of payment and bank details.
Does your EV model charges batteries from “braking and down the slope / kinetic” energies?
Looking forward for your reply.
Kind regards.
André Fayolle,
LYON (LARAJASSE)
France
December 17th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
http://archive.cardesignnews.com/features/2004/050429hongik-show/index.php
See this is what a good student would create in the world of EV’s.
December 20th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
What do you get when a prius crashes into a hotdog stand?…..
September 4th, 2009 at 4:31 am
I hope that its powered cause i wouldnt be pushing that thing to move that be too hard unless im working out