| Is it a Car? Bike? Nope, It's a Twike! |
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| Written by Joshua Liberles | |||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 12 December 2007 | |||||||||||||||
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The Twike is a hybrid, but not in the conventional sense – it blends human and electric power for an emissions-free transportation solution. Originally conceived in Switzerland as a purely human-powered TWIN BIKE, a German company has taken over and added electric batteries and regenerative braking to the current iteration. The Twike’s definitely not your typical “car”: The interior is basically a side-by-side recumbent tandem. Both driver and passenger have an optional “pedal drive interface.” The pedals operate independently, so the driver and passenger can pedal as they please. According to Twike, “the fitted 5-gear box allows comfortable pedaling at speeds between 15 and 45 mph. The pedal drive is connected directly to the drive train by a freewheel to provide maximum efficiency.”
The vehicle’s range is 20 to 90 miles per charge, depending on terrain. The claimed max speed is 53 mph, with an acceleration from 0 to 40 in 9 seconds. The driver steers, brakes and accelerates with a joystick and buttons, leaving plenty of room to pedal. Best of all, the Twike’s electric motor gets about 565 miles per gallon!
Both the efficiency and range can be extended by as much as 50% by hard-pedaling participation. The driver and passenger can each contribute as much as 250 watts towards propulsion. I would imagine that the human-powered range would actually be infinity per charge if you can operate just by pedal power, as long as the car’s systems (braking, etc.) don’t shut down with low batteries. At $27,500 these babies aren't cheap. But they've already sold out for 2007, and there's a waiting list for 2008 models. From Twike: It all starts in the human heart. All power sources have some associated environmental impact (including food), but electric motors, even when powered with “dirty” sources like coal, are still much cleaner systems than fossil fuel-powered engines. They also enable the consumer to choose greener, sustainable power sources. Combine that with the vehicle’s engine efficiency and the ability to pedal assist - Seems like the ideal around-town car. And, if you happen to live in London or certain parts of California, you can park and get recharged for free!
Via our friends at EcoGeek
Comments (7)
Ben
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Regardless of the green cred, I feel that this vehicle still has some of the drawbacks of a car, due to it's carlike nature. |
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Yeah, this vehicle definitely toes the line between car and -ectomy. The pedal power aspoect and the scale of the vehicle make it a good car alternative in my book though. |
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I like it, but..How can an electric motor get 565 miles per gallon ? does it use gasoline in some way ? I say buy one w/o the motor and put in your own. |
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565 mpg's is an estimate of consumption based on the engine's efficiency. It doesn't use gasoline. |
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better mileage than cars, less pollution to manufacture, only drawback is that people will live longer and therefore pollute more  |
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Not sure if this comment was made in jest or not, sasquatch2... but npr had a story on that very topic: Ride a Bike, Ruin the Environment: http://www.npr.org/templates/s...Id=5595169. One of these days, I'll have to blog about it. |
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its super cool but so fuckin expensive grrrr |
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