Two-Wheel and Tuk Tuk Tuesday (2/3 Powered by the Sun!)

[Before we get started, I owe all of this one to Steve Hanley over at GAS2 - he led me to all three of these stories. Thanks for sharing all the cool stuff, Steve! Readers, if you like electric vehicles you should be reading GAS2.]

I'll start with the sexy one first - keep in mind that sexy can be mind-blowingly expensive.

Airbus, a company known for making some big, honking airplanes, is now making an electric motorcycle - the Light Cycle. It's one of those machines that skirts the line between bicycle and motorcycle. Since it has no pedals, we'll go with motorcycle. It is all kinds of simply gorgeous. The frame is 3D printed using an aluminum-ish material. It only weighs 77 lbs. Wow! Top speed is around 50 miles per hour, and the range is around 35 miles. None too shabby.

A work of art!

The price? Let's just say that you could buy a new one of all these for the same money:

That's a lot of moolah!

Moving on (but still not having to pedal): A -solar-powered e-bike.

Considerably less sexy and 40lbs lighter, this next contender hails from Netherlandia - a place of many bikes. Really, other than having two wheels and electric power and being European, they have little in common. But this one pulls at my heart strings because I dream of self-solar-powered transportation, and the Maxun One is just that - a vehicle that cleanly fuels itself up and has the ability to travel in a bike lane. If I had one, I'd have to add legs and a clear tablecloth. This thing is the ultimate self-powered picnic table! Cheers to Albert van Dalen - keep up the great work!

Check out Albert and the Maxun in Action here

 

Staying in Europe but getting closer to my vintage scooter roots is the story of a German/French electric vehicle rally - man, I'd like to go to that! But this isn't really about the rally, it's about Naveen Rabelli and his solar-powered tuk tuk  named Tejas.

 

Read the GAS2 article and check out the video here

 

The machine started life as a diesel Piaggio Ape. ("Ape" is Italian for "Bee"; Piaggio's more famous product, the Vespa, got its name for resembling a wasp.) Having converted my own Piaggio product to electric and living in a place called "Tejas", I felt a little affinity with Naveen until I read that he will travel to Germany (from India!!!!!) in his tuk tuk so that he can participate in the rally! Triple cheers and a round of "For he's a Jolly Good Fellow" to Naveen and his solar-powered adventuring. Living the dream never sounded so grueling!

 

There you have it  - 3 electrics and 2 solars plus a big clean Euro-rally. My typing here is (Almost) done!

 

May you dream of self-solar-powered transportation, and may your dream come true! ;-)