C_two

[darkoford]

Mate Rimac Croatian cars:

[Toolmaker51]

That ain't no Trabant! Better looking, and apparent performance than any Tesla...I'd hate to know the dealer price.



A wealthy oil tycoon in Texas heard of cars in East Germany so popular, buyers wait for years to take delivery of one.
He immediately sent a check to the Trabi factory.
The directors, sensed a propaganda coup in the making, arranged to send him the very next car off the line.

Two weeks later the oil man was in a bar, speaking with some friends.
“Ah ordered me one o’ them Trabis. Them folks over there in East Germany wait 12 years to get one” he drawled.

“And you know what? Them East Germans turn out to be so efficient! Wah, just last week they sent me over a little plastic model so I can know what to expect!”

[darkoford]

1,7M€

[Frank S]

I guess no matter how sleek they try to design the shape of these cars, and talk all of the bla bla bla about their technologies, they will never be able to turn me into a modern day car guy. Any vehicle that I would have to get in and lay down to drive will never be in my driveway. When it comes to electrics the CT electric trucks made in 1917 were the ugliest things ever made but 99 out of 100 ever produced still exist I know of 1 running ruck in Connecticut that still runs on the original Eddison batteries For comfort and ride the most comfortable CAR ever made in my opinion was my 65 Imperial crown second was my 84 Cadillac Seville Diesel and farther down on the list was my 87 Chrysler 5th avenue,which was the last actual car I ever owned because with new wife in 91 and no more kids to have to cart around I didn't have the need for stupid useless cars that couldn't be used as work vehicles.
Would I buy one of those new fangled glitzy gadget cars if I could afford one? PROBABLY but not to drive it would get sealed in a bubble as an investment in hopes that my great grand kids might reap a tidy return

[darkoford]

This car is interesting because of its approx. 1900 + KS, 0-100km / h = 1.8s, 0-300km / h = less than 12 s, 400+ km max. speed, (as well as F1), 600+ km one charging, ....
Generally, electric cars and everything else do not consider "green," because the world's electricity is still mostly produced on coal. If we calculate energy transfer losses, one Trabant is more ecological than Tesla and Rimac.

[Jon]

Generally, electric cars and everything else do not consider "green," because the world's electricity is still mostly produced on coal.

There are various ways to work the numbers, but it's very hard to get around the coal hard facts. And "natural" gas (primarily methane) as an energy source. There is also the fact that these are brand new vehicles, whose new design and new production necessitates additional energy expenditure that can be conveniently ignored. What I do like about electric is that it allows us the opportunity to separate the combustion of energy sources from the local use of that energy for locomotion. For example, electric vehicles make perfect sense in warehouses, mines, crowded urban centers, etc.

What is most stunning to me is the extraordinary coincidence inherent in the different meanings of the word "green". In English, green is common slang for naive and for money - respectively short for greenhorn and greenback. So while some green technology may not be environmentally beneficial, it's still fairly characterized as "green".

[Toolmaker51]

What is most stunning to me is the extraordinary coincidence inherent in the different meanings of the word "green". In English, green is common slang for naive and for money - respectively short for greenhorn and greenback. So while some green technology may not be environmentally beneficial, it's still fairly characterized as "green".

That is quite an observation. To me 'green' 'LEED' and many of the other programs are little but marketing schemes. Having worked within some of those 'revolutionary' buildings is all the proof I needed.

[PJs]

I watched this a couple of days after Darkoford's posting (Thanks ) but had seen in action earlier on the show "The Grand Tour" where Richard Hammond had a hard time controlling the ponies on an uphill S on a countryside slalom and crashed horrifically. However, he survived pretty much in tact for an old geezer due to the advanced safety features.

Albeit it is definitely not a Land Yacht and certainly not a Trabant, it is the cutting edge of Hyper Cars and electric vehicles in the world today. Personally I was impressed most with the 600km range for a fairly heavy road rocket (4300lbs) and a P/W ratio of .45 for an electric vehicle. Unlike an old MKI/II mini cooper with minimal mods could achieve P/W of almost 1 and get about 25mpg souped up, but unfortunately had the comfort and safety of a soup can. Even though only maybe 5-10% of the world population can afford such a car, let alone get one of the limited productions, I liken it to what Nasa did with the moon shot in the 60's or what Tesla is doing today with his cars/trucks and rockets which is setting a Big Goal and achieving it using Kaizen (change for the better) as best we can. The improvements will continue and trickle down will follow. And it will be for the better, IMNSHO.

"Green" is a tough metric to grasp without quantified and quality definitions. Right now we are still practicing with that and why there are so many of them, with most being fudged with poor Statistics and generally leaving out the all important metric of "number of degrees of freedom" to define the system. Green to me starts with Efficiencies at all points, from "farm to table" so to speak, including human, but encompasses larger issues like turning the Human ship in more discerning, harmonious and long term directions. It can't get there all at once, unless someone can find the switch, so small steps is what we are left with. I agree with Jon about moving away from combustion technologies, but disagree about resource costs because of the limited production of these cars, when compared to what the new CERN Add-On is going to cost in Resources and Duckets or Dragoons.

As an old gear head that has worked on every thing from Austins to Zephers including tractors and farm equipment, built a couple bikes and muscle show cars in my younger decades, I still appreciate having my hair pulled back or pull a few g's once in a while. This one would definitely do that and I wouldn't turn down a chance to drive one or own it either, but I'm not one of the 5% and yet appreciate the qualities of these builds as an engineer and enthusiast. I also know there are a lot of other gear heads here at HMT and the affiliate site.

Thanks again Darkoford for posting this.

PJ

[Toolmaker51]

......I liken it to what Nasa did with the moon shot in the 60's or what Tesla is doing today with his cars/trucks and rockets which is setting a Big Goal and achieving it using Kaizen (change for the better) as best we can. The improvements will continue and trickle down will follow. And it will be for the better, IMNSHO.
Thanks again Darkoford for posting this.
PJ

PJs an I sprinkle IMNSHO's readily and liberally, likely neither of us dispense mere HO's at all...

Genau;, creative movements have to start somewhere.
Very few have resources or capability boot something like this into reality. So when 'new' appears, that very naturally initiates chain reactions in other bright minds. Even misinterpreted, it still is a spark. Such instances are so vast in number, I doubt few creations can legitimately claim full originality.

[Frank S]

That ain't no Trabant! Better looking, and apparent performance than any Tesla...I'd hate to know the dealer price.

Over 3 million Trabant owners couldn't have all been wrong.
But then for the well to do they could always be chauffeured around in this

Or a modified

The Trabi as many called them actually stayed in production until sometime around 1990.Low cost easy to maintain very basic transportation really not much more than a spark plug with a roof, as some would say.