Tagged With "electric"

Very cool! As I contemplate getting my own bike back on the road, hills are one of the issues (aside from traffic) and I've even thought about one of these...great way to get around a city that's bicycle-friendly... I found a picture...they're like regular bikes, it seems, not like a Vespa, so probably easier to park, too.

I saw these electric bikes all over Tokyo and they are growing on me. Also, I've noticed foldable bikes everywhere I'm going. I'm wondering if we will big numbers of people packing those for travel in the near future.

Given the weight and size restrictions on luggage, I think it’s more likely that we’ll see these for rent in a lot more places, rather than people taking their own along. Folding sounds nice…you can just take it to your room at night. Electric folding would be even better!

A great piece! Amazing to me how some of the best products of their day were not built commercially . Even when they were, sometimes they were not successful. Cars like the GE-100 are great examples of that. A true find and thanks for teaching us more!

Love it! Exactly the type of finding that makes a trip memorable. Something proponents of electric cars seem to forget or choose to ignore -- where does the electricity come from? Currently mostly from coal and oil fired plants, so the practical side of having them for most doesn't currently make that much sense (might as well burn the oil product in the car engine, right). But I am hopeful that was energy technology improves, as it surely will, we'll develop better ways of charging these...

The argument, and I'm not informed enough to judge it, is that the amount of fossil fuel needed to generate electricity for a plug-in is far less than that required to run a gasoline engine. The same sort of argument that points out that a gallon of fuel moves far more freight on a diesel train than a diesel truck. On the other hand, that's about plug-in cars. For hybrids, it's a different story because the batteries charge while the car is running on gas. So less gas is used than using gas...

As I understand it, with hybrids the batteries charge when the car brakes are applied (transferring the energy of moving to the battery), so they're especially well adapted to city driving in places with lots of stop signs and traffic lights. Less useful for driving on open road because you don't brake often. So living in Brooklyn, I think the hybrid would be a reasonable choice for you. I don't think battery technology is anywhere near "ripe" yet, but as with the Mercury and Gemini...

Much further to go, of course, but even in a highway driving situation (and a city/highway mix), hybrids are generally cheaper to run than their gas-only counterparts. That's Camry vs Camry hybrid, for example, not Corolla vs Prius.

A little further research confirms what I thought: at least in the Toyota and Ford hybrids, the gasoline engine powers a generator/charger while in use. That's in addition to the power captured from braking.

I have some friends with a Prius, and their greatest fuel efficiency comes when driving in the city, not on the highway. Paradoxical, but it shows how good the braking is at building up a charge. Good to know there is a backup generator. While the hybrids save on fuel, they also cost thousands of dollars more than their non hybrid counterparts. For an average consumer, it takes many years to recapture that extra cost for the hybrid on fuel savings, if they ever will. And there's the issue of...

Madrid is the first major city in Europe to offer a  public bike system that only uses electric bicycles and 50,000 people have already signed up since June, 2014. The electric bikes give the added push up needed for hills...

DrFumblefinger is befuddled by the street wiring he encountered while walking the streets in the older regions of Delhi.

Norway's coastal cruise line, Hurtigruten, is building two new ships that use hybrid engines similar to those in cars, and can be adapted to newer technology.

Two small but fascinating museums in Schenectady, New York offer a day's worth of information and education. One's for science, the other for history.

A pilot project in eastern France is turning wastes from cheese-making into marketable products, and into electric power.

Long forgotten except in Schenectady's science museum, the little GE electric car that could, long before Prius and Tesla. Here's its story.

A Montreal taxi company is running an app-based airport taxi service using Tesla electric cars as cabs.

I would bet that a great deal of that power is unmetered too ! Rogue connections to street lamps are everywhere, and a modest tip to the power company engineer cuts your business overheads ! Monsoon rains produce endless outages and sparking cables !

Riding electric bicycles has become a popular pastime, and a convenient way to get around. Folding e-bikes provide a convenient way of transporting them (sponsored content).