Rinspeed amphibious zero emission concept car

Gizmag has taken a new look at the Rinspeed sQuba amphibious zero emission concept car that turned up at last year's Geneva Motor Show.

The sQuba is designed to go 75mph on land and about 2mph in the water, it is powered by a single 54 kW motor plus a four additional engines for underwater:2 x 800W units drive the twin stern propellers and up front, 2 x 3.6kW Seabob jet drives for steering.

The open top combined with going underwater is a bit strange though: do you wear a wetsuit all day in case you need to go underwater or do you just get your clothes wet and keep some spare clothes in the truck?

(more at gizmag)

Tesla electric car showroom opening

Next week the Tesla Roadster electric car will move from development to market with the opening of their first showroom in Los Angeles.

The Tesla is no souped-up gold cart, it is a $109,000 electric powered sports car that does 0-60mph in under 4 seconds, has a top speed of 125mph, and a range of 225mph. Once the battery runs out of oomph you just plug it in and it recharges in 3.5hrs.

This takes a lot of battery power: the lithium-ion batteries account for 1,000lb of the Tesla's 2,700lb weight and they have an expected lifespan of 100,000 miles.

Don;t expect to walk into the showroom and buy one though - there is a current wait of 15 months to get one, but if you see one driving down the street take a look at the driver - Arnold Schwartenegger, George Clooney, and Kelsey Grammer have all ordered one.

Sony fuel cell prototype

Everyone is showing off their fuel cells today.

This is a prototype from Sony, a 2" x 1.2" methanol hybrid fuel cell that can put out up to 3W and can power a video phone long enough to watch 14hrs of movies while only using 10ml of methanol fuel.

Enough with the prototypes, give us a working product!

Fuel cell powered GPS prototype

MTI MicroFuel Cells has shown a prototype GPS that is powered by their mobion methanol fuel cell.

The fuel cell powers the GPS for 60 hours of continuous use and be can be refuelled. The GPS also includes a USB port to recharge other gadgets too.

No news on pricing or availability, but I can't wait for all out gadgets to me fuel cell powered.

Devotec Solar Charger

New from Devotec is this inexpensive ($40) solar charger with an 1800mAh battery.

It takes 12 hours of good sunshine to charge the battery or you can charge it by AC or USB in 4 hours, and it comes with charging tips for Nokia old, Nokia new/N series, Sony Ericsson, Motorola/Blackberry/mini USB and Samsung phones as well as a DC 5V tip for PSPs and many digital cameras, an Ipod tip, and one for female USB.

(devotec, via engadget)

Solar panel roof for your Prius

Now this is a smart idea for those people who feel that their hybrid car lifestyle just isn't good enough for the environment.

The SEV solar module for 2004-2006 Toyota Prius cars generates 215 watts of power which the makers claim provides up to an extra 20 miles of gas-free travel a day and a 29% better fuel economy overall.

They claim it will pay for itself in 2 to 3 years, but only if you take liberties with a Federal energy tax credit by buying it at the same time as a residential solar system and conveniently include the price in with your residential system.

(via redferret)

Falx solar assisted VTOL aircraft

Falx Air Vehicles are preparing a prototype of a single or twin-seat hybrid-electric VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft that uses a combination of a 100hp engine and solar panels to achieve fuel economy of about 2.5 gallons per hour of flying.

They hope to have the prototype up by this summer but I expect they have a long way to go to achieve anything more than a simple mock-up.

(more at gizmag)

Next generation Toyota Prius hybrid rumors

The Truth About Cars has posted some rumors about the next generation Toyota Prius that is likely to debut at the 2009 Detriot Motor Show.

The next-gen hybrid is likely to be 3 to 4 inches longer, boast 50 more horses under the hood, and get better fuel economy than the current prius.

(autoobserver via thetruthaboutcars)

Solar powered fan

The power goes out, it is 100 degrees outside, your weird neighbor is already outside on the porch in his underwear while his wife tries to cool him with a newspaper, how do you stay cool?

With your solar powered fan of course!

The $70 portable solar fan from Maplin not only operates a 4W fan for 6 to 8 hours on full power it doubles as a lantern, alarm clock, and phone/mp3 charger.

(maplin via ubergizmo)

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Hand-Crank USB Power Charger

These days more and more gadgets are using a USB connection for charging, which makes emergency recharging extremely convenient.

The hand crank USB power charger from National Geographic allows you to recharge your phone or other USB charged gadgets anywhere there isn't power, and if power is available you can plug it in with it's AC adapter so you don't need to carry multiple chargers.

It is small (2.5" x 4" x 1.5"), light (6oz) and includes adapters for most Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, and LG phones.

(buy for $40 at national geographic)

E+ electric bike

We used to think that electric bikes were just for lazy people who wanted to pretend they were exercising, but with the cost of gas these days an electric bike is starting to look like an economical alternative for short trips*.

The E+ ebike from Electric Motion Systems will get you to the grocery store and back easily at 20mph (30mph allowed off road) with a range of 20 miles of you are lazy or up to 40 miles if you actually do a little work and pedal occasionally.

* although for it to be economical at a cost of $3,495 you would need to ride over 30,000 miles to save money over the cost of buying gas at $3.50/gal for a car that gets 30mpg.

(electric motion systems via autobloggreen)

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Mira H4V: plugless plug-in hybrid

A consulktancy firm in the UK, MIRA, has created a hybrid car system that can be retrofitted to existing cars at a cost of about $4,000.

The H4V takes the form of three large battery packs that sit in the trunk of your car and can be unplugged and moved elsewhere to be recharged if needed.

On their test car (a Skoda Fabia) the H4V system increaded fuel economy by 61 percent and reduced emissions by 39%.

We see only two flaws with this system:

1: Skodas aren't sexy.
2. How many people will be comfortable moving heavy battery packs with the words "DANGER LARGE DC VOLTAGE" on them?

(via autobloggreen)

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SOlo Solar Table

This interesting looking outdoor table from Intelligent Forms is actually a large outdoor solar charging station for gadgets.

It is waterproof and (assuming good sunlight) soaks up enough power in a year to charge a cellphone 6800 times or an average laptop 168 times.

It has an LCD screen, bluetooth, USB, auto and regular AC style charging ports, is about 43" x 30" x 18", is custom made to order, and costs about $14k!

(via boingboing)

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Think Electric Car coming to the US

Norwegian Automaker Think Global has announced plans to sell their Think electric car in the US.

The Think can go 110 miles without needing to recharge it's batteries, has a top speed of 65mph, and is 95 percent recyclable.

Think has lined up two venture capital firms and plans to build the cars in Southern California, they hope to sell 30-50k cars a year at $25k a pop.

Not a bad car for people who stick to the city and suburbs, but don't think of going on the interstate unless you want to end up as roadkill plastered to the front of a 50,000lb truck.

Slingshot Water Regenerator

Dean Kamen the inventor of the segway just went on the Colbert Report with the latest iteration of his "Slingshot" water regenerator.

This fascinating invention makes 1000 liters of fresh clean water per day from just about anything, and is powered by a stirling engine generator running off cow dung (that produces 1kw of excess energy: enough to light a small village).

There are so many people around the world that lack access to fresh water, wouldn't it be great if just a little of the billions in overseas aid went to something like this instead of filling the pockets of tinpot dictators.

The defense department should also look into this, instead of burning barrels of "waste" at forward operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan they should use the waste to power one of these to give our servicemembers more power and water.

(photo and video after the jump)

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