Showcase

 
The Showcase pages are where we highlight innovation in design. We'll be adding to this list regularly.
 

 
Three wheeled vehicles
The three-wheeled vehicles sector has seen some of the most innovative design work in the automotive industry in recent years. You can see the two tilting front wheels approach with the Norwegian Brudeli Leanster 654L, which can go to quite extreme angles, and the Italian scooter-based Piaggio MP3 / Gilera Fuoco 500. The German-built  Carver One tilts the whole vehicle body, although unfortunately production has been halted. The Canadian Can-Am Spyder uses rider lean and sophisticated sensors. You can see videos of it here.
 

The more conventionally laid-out  Campagna V13R and T-Rex use motorcycle engines and lightweight chassis for performance, as do the British Grinnall Scorpion III and Blackjack Zero.  A low-cost alternative to the Tata Nano might be the Brazilian Triciclo Pompeo, which can run on ethanol, and also has a 'bike engine.
 

Electric Vehicles
There have been lots of different approaches to the electric car, and you can get a quick tour of them at this Time site. One of the longest lasting has been Commuter Cars' Tango design, slim and compact but with very high performance for its size. One of the newest entries is Coda Automotive's Coda EV, built in China by Hafei, but still priced at over $40k. The Warren Buffet - sponsored Chinese BYD e6 has ambitions to be the biggest selling production vehicle of its type, with the Mitsubishi iMIEV as a serious rival and Venturi offering an original alternative with the Eclectic. Others go for the high performance potential of the electric motor, with the Tesla Roadster the best known but not the fastest. The British Lightning GT and French Venturi Fetish are allegedly faster, but fastest of all, at 208mph, is the US Shelby Ultimate Aero EV. Tesla also plans to manufacture a saloon/sedan called the Model S in California from 2011; it has a rival in the hybrid Fisker Karma, to be assembled in Finland. One of the most aerodynamic designs is the Aptera 2e, from Carlsbad in CA, which looks like a light aircraft.

Chevrolet's Volt, if it survives GM's bankruptcy, may also be available in 2011. Its problem, like most electric cars, is not just range but battery cost - at about $10k for a replacement one, it might not be the easiest car to sell on to someone else! Reviews of the lease-only MiniE have been mixed, but you can find one from someone who likes its quirkiness here. People have been more impressed with the Ford Focus EV, but it's also not available 'til 2011. Should be quite a year then! You can read more about the problems these cars have to overcome on the Electric Cars page on the lower menu bar. It has lots of links to recent research and articles.

One of the biggest growth areas in manufacturing this decade is likely to be in electric scooters and motorcycles, like the Zero X from Zero Motorcycles in California, and the X Rider motorcycle from  Xtreme Green Products, who are also developing a wider range of vehicles based on electric motors at their base in Nevada. The 150mph Mission One, also from California and available for to buy for $69k, raced against other battery powered 'bikes at this year's Isle of Man TTXGP Race, which you can read about here. The Mission Motors website has lots of useful links, including this one to an article in the LA Times about the real nature of pollution from conventionally engined  scooters, motorcycles and quads. Brammo, from Oregon, market the Enertia 'bike, and also raced at the Isle of Man. The race was won by Team Agni's Rob Barber, who averaged over 87mph. The Vectrix VX-1 electric scooter, assembled in Wroclaw, Poland, is interesting but the Rhode-Island-based company is being affected by the recession like most other businesses.

The most innovative design we've come across so far is the extraordinary Canadian Uno, designed and built by one of the world's youngest engineers, Ben Gulak, 19.

Alternative Vehicles
People in many poorer countries need to both transport water and purify it, so a design team in Palo Alto CA came up with the Aquaduct bike, a prototype that can do both at the same time. For economy, few motorcycles can match the 96mpg of the Hayes 650 diesel, but it's only available to the military at the moment. The compressed-air powered Airpod three-wheeled car has been developed by French engineer Guy Negre, but this report on it has a long list of comments from people who doubt its practicality and real potential, although the technology has still been licensed to Tata.


New Technology
Technology needn't always be massively complicated to fulfil a need. In fact, the 'Kyoto Box' solar powered cooker, is designed to be as simple as possible.