Man Builds Power Tool-Driven Electric Tricycle

[vansau]

Man Builds Power Tool-Driven Electric Tricycle

The latest environmentally-friendly vehicle is an electric tricycle that looks swanky and is powered by two power drills.

Going green is all the rage these days, and hybrid/electric vehicles are a particularly popular. If you happen to be looking for a new, non-polluting way to get around town, you might want to consider the "EX Vehicle." The EX is a tricycle that can actually get up to a reasonable speed and is driven by some common power tools.

Designer Nils Feber built this groovy little creation mostly from bicycle parts. However, it's powered by two 18-volt drills, which provide the EX Vehicle with the power to accelerate up to 18 miles-per-hour. Because these drills don't exactly have a lot of spare juice, Feber decided to make his creation as lean as possible, hence the lack of a metal body covering the EX's chasis.

The EX Vehicle certainly features a unique design, especially since "steering with the spine-shaped joint is very different from holding a steering wheel or handle bar. You have to use your whole body to tilt and bend the vehicle." It certainly looks cool, but I'm hoping that a YouTube video will surface in the near future that will let us see how it handles.

Source: Geek



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[headshotcatcher]

That looks quite uncomfortable (and I don't think it'll ever gain street-cool), so I think bikes will remain the main green vehicle for a while

 

[teisjm]

That looks uncomfortable, and unless the electricity used comes from green power-plants or whatever it's called, it's not green anyways.
Burning oil or other polluting stuff to enerate electricity, and then using the electricity to get around is basicly just throwing in a middleman between you and your engine.

 

[bobmus]

Pretty sure The Gadget Show did this but he gets points for this picture being evocative of Tron

 

[Zyst]

I'm hoping that a YouTube video will surface in the near future that will let us see how it handles.

Someone do this, now.

 

[captain underpants]

It's not only uncomfortable, but looks extremely tiring. You have to support your whole upper torso with your arms, and you'd want to keep them slightly bent to absorb bumps. The prone position is hard enough on the neck, let alone adding the shoulders and back into it.

Also, that spine steering arrangement is overkill, and a waste of weight.

Nice idea, though.

 

[thehermit2]

Some years ago, there was a small push to popularize electric scooters, probably to offer a budget version of the recently released segway scooter. It fizzled, most likely because electric vehicles have extremely short range due to battery life. Two Bosch electric screwdrivers going full blast are probably going to last 20 to 30 minutes at best, assuming they don't overheat since electric screwdrivers are supposed to be run intermittently, not continuously. 30km/h is the highest speed achieved; average speed is probably more like 15km/h, which means a range of around 5-8km. Once the batteries are dead, the vehicle is dead weight. Recharging the batteries requires a proprietary charger which the rider will probably have to take with them, and takes about 3 hours. Carrying extra batteries reduces the effectiveness of the vehicle being light weight. So will this thing catch on? No, not unless someone invents broadcast power.

Also, actual pedal-powered bicycles with electric motors to assist in acceleration and hill climbing have been around for over a hundred years. Modern models already use lighter weight lithium polymer batteries and are able to be ridden like normal bikes when they run out of juice (which was a problem with early models).

 

[antidonkey]

That thing looks like it could be a fun toy. something along the lines of a go-cart. I hope a video shows up soon.

Regardless, I doubt I'll give up my motorcycle for something like this.