TRIAC plug in 3-wheeler set for sale this summer-looks good!

[EMF]

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/05/20/transportation-tuesday-the-80mph-triac-goes-on-sale/

The TRIAC is essentially a large, covered trike. The 20kw electric motor can achieve a very reasonable 80mph, and will take you on travels up to 100 miles on any given charge. It takes about 6 hours for its lithium-ion battery to recharge fully and, as with most electric vehicles, it comes with a regenerative braking system. The package for all of this three-wheeled fun runs about $20,000 dollars.

20 grand and even though it's a three wheelmobile, I like it! Highway worthy, a true plugin and 100 mile range make it very suitable for most peoples commutes. 6 hour recharge time and also a 25% range extending "boost pack" is in the works. http://www.greenvehicles.com/ View attachment 1

 

[recumbent]

The back-end looks a bit weak, but otherwise, nice.

What is with the three wheeled craze, never have i seen so many new three wheeled cars hit the market before.
We have two new ones in my town of 30,000.

 

[Toshi]

A new spectrum is developing:

e-bike ($350 to $4k, let's say) -> e-motorcycle ($1.5k to $10k) -> BugE ($4k to $10k) -> TRIAC ($20k on up) -> Aptera ($30k on up) -> Chevy Volt ($40k on up), and then all the boutique electric sports cars such as Tesla up in the stratosphere.

 

[lawsonuw]

What is with the three wheeled craze, never have i seen so many new three wheeled cars hit the market before.

As far as I've seen three wheels means it's a motorcycle, so the required safety equipment and safety testing is FAR less. For a small company that's just starting up, making this stuff optional gives them a greater chance to get the car to market and sell a few.

Marty

 

[disadvantage]

EMF, I very much appreciate your posting of alternatives to ebikes and such.

There are advantages to biking around, but the lack of weather protection and cargo space gets old real fast.

I visited the greenvehicles.com web site, and found PDF specs on the Triac:
http://www.greenvehicles.com/pdfs/triac.pdf

Green Vehicles also has a couple of four-wheel NEVs, the Moose and the MicroWatt.
http://www.greenvehicles.com/pdfs/moose.pdf
http://www.greenvehicles.com/pdfs/microwatt.pdf
These use 6.5kW air-cooled brushless AC motors, and 96V AGM batteries. Dunno the amp-hours.

Finally, there's a 3-wheeled pickup truck called the BuckShot, with a 100 mile range and a 45 mph top speed:
http://www.greenvehicles.com/pdfs/buckshot.pdf
Both the Triac and the BuckShot use 20kW water-cooled brushless AC motors, and 144V 160Ah lithium-ion batteries.

All Green Vehicles use brushless AC motors. The Zenn uses a 3.7kW DC brushed motor, the Advanced DC XP-2116:
http://www.evalbum.com/1147
http://www.evalbum.com/advdc
I'd prefer to have the efficiency of the brushless motor in my EV.

 

[flip_normal]

Well the Triac certainly doesn't break from LEV tradition and looks like it managed to clip a couple of branches on it's way out of the ugly tree.
What happened to the back end?? I don't know why it needs a grill or the third headlight. :?

Meet Trev.

View attachment trev_03.jpg
It's not on sale but the University of South Australia at least seem to have got the styling right.
Would be nicer (more sociable) if it had side-by-side seating instead of the tandem layout that they went for.
Well worth the probably small drop in efficiency IMHO.

 

[TylerDurden]

Would be nicer (more sociable) if it had side-by-side seating instead of the tandem layout that they went for.
Well worth the probably small drop in efficiency IMHO.

+1