A Human Powered Hybrid Car

HUMANCAR INC. creates a car that doesnot require gas,generates its own electricity,and may charge power back to the grid. The vehicle seats four and generates power through a system of hand cranks. Yes, hand cranks.The next big thing in hybrid vehicles does not come from the likes of Toyota or General Motors. Instead, it comes from Charles Samuel Greenwood. Greenwood has been working on a human-powered vehicle concept for decades, and all of his hard work is coming together in the form of the HumanCar Imagine_ PS.
Don't think that a hand-cranked vehicle would be marketable only as a neighborhood vehicle with a limited top speed. However, the HumanCar has surprising potential--a top speed of 30 mph going uphill and 60 mph on a flat surface. All of this can be achieved via human power and nothing else.
As an exercise-enabled vehicle, it is possible for one, two, three or four people to operate the bi-directional human-power interface. Alternatively, a single operator may operate the vehicle in electric power mode only – or any combination of human and electric power may be employed.

This zero-emissions vehicle is not only better for the environment; it improves the driver's health thanks to the workout you get while driving it. The human health aspect was part of Greenwood's decision to build and ultimately refine this concept.

"It was 1968. Traffic was at a complete standstill, again, on a busy boulevard in what is now known as the Silicon Valley," Greenwood wrote. "Sitting within their cars were many commuters who were overweight and out of shape, breathing unhealthy exhaust fumes. As a young engineer working at my first job at a research and development laboratory for a major corporation, it seemed intuitively that there must be a better way to move people around than this."

And with that, the concept for the HumanCar Imagine PS was born. The vehicle is street legal as a low-mass vehicle and is vehicle-to-grid (V2G) compatible. Greenwood plans to bring the vehicle to market next year but is already taking reservations on his website. A $50 fully refundable, no-questions-asked reservation fee will put you on the list for a $15,500 HumanCar Imagine PS.

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$15,000 Green HumanCar set for Earth Day launch

Finally, we have release date for the hotly anticipated HumanCar’s human-powered hybrid concept Imagine LMV. The green car dubbed Imagine will be unveiled on Earth Day in April which makes it a great PR move. The $15,000 super-human hybrid is expected to feature an exoskeletal safety cage chassis, dual electric motors and variable human power inputs among other standard equipment.

The Low Mass Vehicle has a top-speed of 30-mph making it doubly beneficial for the environment since a) it lets out no smoke, and b) with that kind of speed what are the odds anybody being killed in an accident! And because the car is allegedly ‘human-powered’ you can also expect to get a rigorous workout while driving it to work.

Salient features of the Imagine LMV exotic super-human hybrid electric vehicle include Plug-in iPod ‘blast-zone’ stereo standard, voice operated T2S2T Internet functionality, RFID locator, and an integrated H-chat to VOX Communications system. I expect at least Governor Schwarzenegger to buy it if no one else does!

© Source: seriouswheels
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