These sound like fun little cars, soon to be shipping to the US from Brazil. Even the top gasoline powered sports cars will be left in the dust. Shame there isn’t anything comperable made in America:

OBVIO! has a strategic partnership with California automobile distributor ZAP, which has agreed to be the exclusive North American distributor and has pre-purchased 50,000 OBVIO! units. The initial versions of the 828 and 012 car designs will be flex-fueled, and will go into production in 2007.

[…]

The preliminary specifications for the OBVIO! electric cars include a range of 200 to 240 miles, with acceleration from 0 to 60 mph of less than 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 120 mph. A 39 kWh lithium-ion battery system will power the 120 kW (160 hp), 220 Nm (162 lb-ft) electric motor.

A full normal recharge will take five hours, with a fast charge taking two hours. A 30-minute quick charge will provide a 20 to 50 mile range.

And if you’re really a performance nut, then the new Lotus-built electric car, said to be three times more efficient than fuel cell technology, is the one for you.

Tesla Motors unveiled its much-anticipated all-electric two-seater roadster. The lithium-ion battery powered sportscar features a 248hp (185 kW) electric motor that accelerates the car from 0 to 60 in four seconds. Built by Lotus for Tesla, the Roadster has a range of about 250 miles and a top speed of 130 mph.

[…]

When we calculate the well-to-wheel energy efficiency of [the best fuel-cell demonstration] Honda experimental car, we get 0.57 km/MJ x 61% = 0.35 km/MJ, not even as good as the ordinary diesel Volkswagen Jetta, let alone the gasoline-powered Honda Civic VX or the Honda Insight hybrid car

Wow, fuel-cells might never happen if diesel and electric are already superior technology and available today. What were the American car companies thinking by pushing so hard for fuel-cell when it’s clearly too far away to be practical? GM and Ford are facing the dust-bin of history for their incredible short-sighted management. Will they be forced to beg the government for a bail-out package? Since they’ve exported so many jobs, who would the government really be helping? And what will happen to all the American performance-oriented gasoline cars just being brought to market; perhaps the same thing that happened to race, sport and draught horses?

Interesting to compare the situation with South Africa where the use of incentives and penalties might be used to help consumers make a better decision about the false-hope of inefficient petroleum engines:

The government might have to consider imposing penalties to curb the rapid growth in sales of 4x4s and off-road vehicles, which have risen despite the soaring fuel price, according to Nhlanhla Gumede, the chief director of hydrocarbons in the department of minerals and energy.

“The idea of a penalty on people buying guzzlers came up two years ago, but we did not take it further because we wanted a system that would run itself without government, but it is something we would have to consider in future,” he said.

I liked the imagery of this story in the Economist:

In one small way, the new suburbs have already failed. By putting houses close together and insisting on good public transport, planners hoped to wean people off cars. That hasn’t happened. Parking spaces may be restricted, the roads deliberately narrow, but people insist on driving. In Ravenswood, even before all the houses are sold, cars are beginning to sprout on the fringes of roads, like weeds.

So much for planning. Clearly loopholes exist in the development regulations and if anyone will find loopholes it will be automobile drivers desperate for free parking places. Wonder why these people are unwilling or unable to give up the automobile? Is it pride or status? That would suggest a suitable replacement can not be public transportation, since there is nothing to be “owned” and “paraded”. I wrote a long message about the false economy of parking the other day, and how it makes people deluded into buying large vehicles and causing road congestion. I was trying to explain the weird nature of people who drive big cars and yet complain about the lack of parking they think they are owed. Perhaps I should dig it out of my email and post it on the blog.

Ooooh, I want one of these in my neighborhood. Check out the awesome stats on the engine:

• Particulate Matter (PM) reduced by 90 percent over the cleanest diesel buses now in Metro’s fleet
• Carbon Monoxide (CO) reduced by 90 percent over the cleanest diesel buses now in Metro’s fleet
• Hydrocarbons (HC) reduced by 90 percent
• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) reduced by 40-60 percent
• Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) reduced by 50 percent

When Washington state mandates biodiesel (B5?), there is likely to be even more emission reductions. Ok, the next question for me is why the “big heavy box” design is still around. What if they took old airplane fueselages that are doing nothing but gathering dust and repurpose them for public transportation? They are light, strong and probably far more efficient. If they rode high-enough you wouldn’t even need bumpers on the fueselage, just the chassis. I’ll see if I can doodle something into an example.