Lit Motors C-1
The two-wheeled car goes electric with a 200-mile range and $24K price
San Francisco outfit Lit Motors is aiming to boot the enclosed bike into mass acceptability. The story goes that founder Danny Kim was nearly crushed by a Defender that was clearly angered by his attempts to make it run on bio-diesel. Seven years later, as a kind of protest against what he perceived as massive waste in the transport sector, Kim set up Lit with the stated aim of creating a new class in personal transportation.
Lit's first product, the C-1, is an all-electric machine with 20kW in-hub motors in each wheel promising 100+mph performance. Range has been quoted as up to 200 miles, with a four-six hour charge time. Control moment gyroscopes (or CMGs) consisting of a spinning rotor and motorised gimbals that tilt the rotor's angular momentum to provide 1300lb ft of balancing gyroscopic torque, enough (so the company says) to keep the machine upright when stationary, or even if it's been T-boned by a bigger vehicle. Real car features like a steel unibody chassis, airbags and premium audio add credibility to the C-1. The price: a projected $24,000 (£14,500) in the US.
So, when can you have one? Ah well, there's the rub. Officially, the Lit company line of first deliveries by late 2014 still stands, and (largely) refundable deposits against an unspecified number of the first 1000-vehicle first production run have been placed in escrow accounts with that in mind, but the company's failure to release a working prototype has generated some skeptical forum scuttlebutt about its ability to deliver on its deadline. The one thing in Lit's favour is that bikes don't have to go through the same costly and expensive safety certification programmes that cars do in the US.
We hope Kim makes it happen because, although gyro controlled two-wheeled cars are far from new - Wolseley's monstrous Gyrocar was built exactly 100 years ago - one that's both good-looking and vaguely affordable would be rather new. Not to mention a handy way of beating city traffic without getting wet.
Back on topic it looks like an interesting concept. It could make an excellent city commuter vehicle, decent range, zero local emissions and a much smaller and narrower footprint than even the smallest car.
If your commute takes place on some country roads or clear a-roads then fine, use a car.
However if 20% of the cars in a city centre, or congested stretch of motorway during rush-hour suddenly became something the size of a motorbike but that could be driven in the same clothes as when driving a car, and without having to put laptops in rucksacks or worry about getting wet - both the road conditions and the air quality in the surrounding area would be improved. Plus it'd be quieter.
It would also mean companies could spend less on costly employee car-parks (looks out of the window at the new 5-level car park being built next to the existing 2 level one) - because you'd get 3 or 4 into each car space.
It makes sense on a whole host of levels..surely.
Just imagine whooshing about in one though. You'd feel like a fighter pilot especially with added machine guns.
If your commute takes place on some country roads or clear a-roads then fine, use a car.
However if 20% of the cars in a city centre, or congested stretch of motorway during rush-hour suddenly became something the size of a motorbike but that could be driven in the same clothes as when driving a car, and without having to put laptops in rucksacks or worry about getting wet - both the road conditions and the air quality in the surrounding area would be improved. Plus it'd be quieter.
It would also mean companies could spend less on costly employee car-parks (looks out of the window at the new 5-level car park being built next to the existing 2 level one) - because you'd get 3 or 4 into each car space.
It makes sense on a whole host of levels..surely.
I'd have one of these in a flash if it was as safe as a car and as dry as a car, and was affordable. It would speed up my journey and I'd also have a hope of being able to park it when I got to work too.
Only thing is, it would have "gyro anxiety" - if the batteries are getting very low, you could imagine pulling up to some lights and the whole thing beginning to slowly wobble and fall on its side as the gyros stopped.....
Only thing is, it would have "gyro anxiety" - if the batteries are getting very low, you could imagine pulling up to some lights and the whole thing beginning to slowly wobble and fall on its side as the gyros stopped.....
I can imagine it now....
Youre sat at the lights and the one in front starts to sway a bit..... You know that the gyro is packing in and you sit their with baited breath waiting for the moment it topples on its side like a striken cow.....
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