Wow, that is one beautiful vehicle! I especially light the outrigger wheel for starting and stopping, but I bet it takes some practice to deploy it reliably without falling over!
It seems to me that a less exotic enclosed bicycle or trike design with electric assist drive could be practical for a lot of people to replace heavier cars or neihborhood electirc vehicles. An enclosed fairing allows higher speed without as much wind resistance penalty, and can help keep rain off and cold out. Most faired designs that I have seen are either high-tech projects like this one, (which are beyond the resources and skills of most people to design or build), or are fragile lightweight homebrew designs made of tape and Coroplast that are aerodynamic but not really sturdy enough to stand up to daily use. Making 'one-off' fiberglass molds for carbon fiber can be difficult and expensive unless you have access to specialized equipment and tooling. Pre built designs are available, but are so expensive that they would not make economic sense for most folks.
I have built a couple of sea kayaks using thin precut plywood panels (mine were kits from a company called Pygmy Boats) that are stitched together and laminated with fiberglass. Can be done with wooden strips laid over a mold and glued together also. The results are great-looking hulls that are lightweight and strong. The shape is up to the designer. It does not take specialized equipment or knowledge to assemble these things; they go together pretty easily. The hulls are very sturdy with the wood grain showing through, and if you scratch or scrape 'em up, no worries, just sand down the surface, apply a little marine varnish and it's good as new!
This construction method might be a way to make an inexpensive but durable and practical faired recumbent bike (recumbent tandem?) or trike that, could be combined with a hub motor or outrigger motor drive. Are computer programs available that can model 3D shapes and translate these to flat panels or cross-sections that can be built up into hollow shapes (I think that is how the designers at Pygmy Boats do it). I wonder why I don't see 'woody' faired bikes like this around much.
Just an idea...
