The company Sunn has created an easy to build and use solar powered car, perfect for small country roads and drives around campgrounds. While the “car” appears more like a cart than anything else, it certainly works and is pretty cheap considering all those solar photovoltaic cells. All in all, the cost of the kit comes to about $6,500 (batteries not included… seriously).

The little car can travel up to 25mph with a range of 3 miles on the solar panels alone and up to 30 miles with a set of batteries. 25 mph is not very fast nor is 3 miles very far, most people can bike faster than 25 mph and travel distances much further than 3 miles so, what’s the point? Well, with most solar-powered cars, the batteries are the trick here. Traveling up to 30 miles is pretty good, even if you’re going rather slow, it makes for a nice scenic ride along some country roads and could be used by eco-conscious rangers to cart around a national park.

Of course there are other solar cars out there, but many of these have been created to decrease drag and weight as much as possible in order to reach speeds of 42 miles/hour. These too still use a battery, but for everyday use, they are not nearly as comfortable looking as this little car.

While there currently isn’t any way yet to run cars completely from solar photovoltaic cells, technology is slowly progressing forward and more and more companies are focusing on hybrid cars and creating solar charging stations for the onboard batteries. Will there ever be solar powered cars that do not require batteries? Probably not likely in the near future.

This retro beach cruiser style bike sports a super efficient polished 125cc four-stroke motor capable of of taking riders a cool 150 miles, in style, with one tank of gas. This 176lb work of art also features fuel injection, a four speed transmission, belt drive, and LED lights.

Although beautiful, the general simplicity of the design and four-stroke engine means the Y125 will be cheap to both run and maintain. That practicality accompanied by the undeniable style makes it easy to see a future where mass adoption of this green two wheeler could be a real possibility.

Unfortunately, this is all still a conceptual dream but, I can’t imagine anything but positive feedback driving something Y125-like into a not too distant Christmasey future.

[via motorcycle.com]

My vehicle is quite old, and I will not be spending a few grand to turn my dashboard into something dazzling, or ingenious, and I will certainly not be spending a couple of hundred dollars on a cheap GPS when I have a smart phone.

The Mountek MT5000 is my solution and my savior.

Normally the car ride becomes a bit tricky, as the GPS often needs to be zoomed in or out to make sure of a riveting turn–which means that I have to pick up my iPhone that is already hanging by a wire to provide me with tunes, hold it up nearer to my face, and dangerously peer into the touchscreen’s depths–but the Mountek MT5000 has taken the risk out of finding just where to go.

Mountek calls their unique device’s technology nGROOVE, and I can attest to grooving with my iPhone plugged into my beat up Camaro and blaring the Beatles, while the Google Maps GPS kept me on the right road.

For just nineteen dollars and change, the Mountek unit fits snugly into either the CD slot, or in between the components of the car stereo (which is what I did, so as to protect the CD surface).

With little or no effort, the mount is pushed into place, and it stays there strongly, despite the bumpy ride that my muscle car put it through. If there is any play, or any question at all, the back of the MT5000 has a twist knob that will gently spread the flat surface to hold up the unit better.

Mountek has made the simplistic simpler, as a button releases the padded phone holding sides and then the user just squeezes them shut up against the mobile to hold it securely.

The only exception that one might take to Mountek’s innovative invention, is that the iPhone 3GS and earlier body does not fit in the mount tightly with its soft case on, because of its rounded back. Personally, the good far outweighs this minor inconvenience, and the padded holder will keep the iPhone far from harm while it is sitting pretty in front of the dash.

Within a second the MT5000 can be pulled freely, without any damage or effort, and the portable mount can then be stowed away until the awesome dashboard-converted-to-smart-car is desired again.

“You feel like you’re being lifted up by a magic carpet.” Do you need any further convincing than the magic carpet quote and the pics above?

The M400 is a a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle or VTOL for short.  That means that it can liftoff and land vertically like a helicopter but once it’s airborne it can fly like an airplane.  It seats 4 passengers and has a top speed of 330 mph.  It has a maximum range of 750 miles and actually gets about 20 miles per gallon.

That’s better than my Yukon and if you’re flying you won’t waste gas idling at red lights, waiting in rush hour or missing an exit.  You can fly directly to your destination using the shortest path, a straight line.  I don’t see flying cars replacing our vehicles for normal commutes to work or the grocery store, but how awesome would it be to fly your family to Disneyland yourself next year and not have to rent a car when you get there?

A few more cool facts about the skycar.  It can travel at 30,000 feet, that’s twice as high as a helicopter.  It can be adapted for water takeoff and landings which means you can drop in on your favorite fishing spot now without the 2 mile hike in.  Yes, you do need a pilots license but they are working on automating the entire process so a computer does all the work and you just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Most importantly is the price.  The M400 is currently projected to cost around $500,000 with plans of only producing about 500 a year.  Moller estimates that as production ramps up the cost will come down to somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000.  That’s not pocket change but that’s also not out of reach for the average person.

There are still so many things that need to fall into place for something like this to become a reality for the average person but the fact that this man has spent 30 years of his life developing a flying car is pretty awesome and I think we all owe him a big thank you.

As of 2009, Suzuki has created a working prototype running off of electricity. The bike features thin-section tires are for low rolling resistance, an innovative flip-up action seat, allowing the hydrogen tank to be refilled, and a full digital dash atop the bars including a tachometer and speedometer.

The most recent fuel cells produce about 1.8kw of energy, enough to actually recharge the lithium battery packs to keep up with demand during use. Max speed is around 50-60mph and the bike can travel around 215 miles per tank of hydrogen.

While there is no set release date, Suzuki and Intelligent Designs have made an agreement with British Olympic organizers for the 2012 games in London. The two companies also hope to get the tank approved for use on a motorcycle along with other tests to increase approval and boost eventual sales in Europe and Japan. The price tag is set to be around 8,000 euros or 11,000USD.

The OLEV is an answer to the problem of recharging electric vehicles. While the technology is currently in testing phase at the Seoul amusement park, widespread application is not far off. The city government of Seoul and KAIST signed a Memorandum of Understating (MOU) on the development of the online electric vehicle. With increasing concern about the environment, both organizations agreed to introduce eco-friendly vehicles to the city’s public transportation system, beginning with a bus route in Seoul [Source: KAIST].The OLEV system receives it’s power from non-contact magnetic transmissions from recharging strips in the road.

The vehicles receive “micro-charges” each time they pass over these strips. These micro-charges are extremely efficient, only only 20% of the total bus route would need to contain recharging strips, and only at places like bus stops, parking lots, and intersections [Source: KAIST]. This allows for smaller battery size and better range. Not only that, the no contact power transmission reduces hazards associated with electric vehicles, such as electric shock.

While the OLEV will help to reduce emissions from the public transportation vehicles, the energy they are receiving is still from fossil fuels. Korea is the fifth largest importer of oil in the world with oil supplying 50% of its energy demands and coal supplying 24% [Source: US Energy Information Administration]. Using electric vehicles might help in the short term, but without a real source of renewable energy to power the energy grid, these small changes will not make much of an impact since the vehicles will still be running off of oil.

Although there are still many improvements necessary in South Korea, the OLEV offers a newer and easier method of charging electrical cars. The batteries in the vehicle are five times smaller than for conventional electric vehicles [Source: Engadget]. As the technology improves, it seems likely that this could become accessible to civilian transportation as well.

Volvo says that its nifty web-connected rear-entertainment system includes Windows XP, Wi-Fi access and a 500GB hard drive. That means you can surf the web, download applications and even just enjoy video — all from a digital touchscreen in the backseat.

We’re guessing this might lead to less backseat driving and fewer pitstops. Or, you just might become the favorite in your carpool crew.

However, the fun doesn’t stop once you hit the driveway. The RSEi-500 allows users to connect the car to a home computer, allowing video, audio and other content to be transferred pretty easily. That way, you can stock up for the next day’s drive.

Volvo was just at the Chicago Auto Show, showing off the RSEi-500 inside a 2010 Volvo XC70. The RSEi-500 is scheduled to launch in various Volvo models this June.

[Photo via Motortrend]

The Voyager comes ready to record, no installation needed, just plug it into your car power adapter or pack in 3 AAA batteries, and hit the one-touch record button. The removable 2 gig SD card makes it easy to upload to your computer, or use the TV output jack on the unit to connect directly to your video device. Available for $79.95 from BrickHouseSecurity.com, it’s a great gift for the road weary traveler or up-and-coming star on your list.

[via Red Ferret]

With a complete high-efficiency and extremely loud (152 db) train horn kit there is no doubt you will get everyone’s attention. Now…I’m not saying you should be driving around in traffic sending people into cardiac arrest but, with one of these sets you will definitely have the ability to make that happen.

Check out the people running for cover in this soon to be classic web vid after the jump.