ZeUS: Zero Emission Urban Scooter by Springtime
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 12. 5.05
We've been quite taken with power-assisted bikes lately, with this electric version and this fuel-cell assisted one; now we bring you ZeUS, which is like a bicycle you don't have to pedal. ZeUS is a scooter powered by a rechargeable electric motor with a brain. The electric motor can be operated in a conventional way (100 percent of the available power available until the battery runs down), but ZeUS encourages a much smarter use of its resources. You can set a desired journey distance on the controls, and ZeUS decides how much power to supply to the motor according to the selected range. That way you can be certain of getting where you want to go, with a maximum range of about 30 miles (50 km) with the smart-drive feature enabled. In conventional mode, with full power available, ZeUS has a range of about 12 miles (20 km) and a top speed of approximately 28 mph (45 kmh) and uses regenerative braking to help keep the batteries juiced along the way. ZeUS also features direct drive to the rear wheel, saving enough power that it only takes a 13 pound (6 kg) NiMH battery to make it go. ::Springtime Industrial Design
With a maximum range of only 30 miles I can't even get *to* work, and definately not back home! Geesh, you'd think that they'd at least make it useful. On my bike I can at least get to work and back at about the same speed as this thing.
30 miles seems to be the glass ceilling of any electric scoot that uses lead-acid batteries (while not my fav for performance, or recharging time, if you work at it they can be completely recycled-- try that with LiIons or one of 'em fancy aluminum oxygen batteries)
if you really need more mileage, you may consider getting some LiPoly batteries and tinkering... but if you are happy on a bike, hey, that's much better, right?
incidentally there are vehicles that will be out *soon* like vectrix and the EVader EVolution and tehy go faster and longer... just want you need to drop that dusty old bike heh heh heh
one last thing, on the romantic tip-- if you have a date or something, and an electric scooter/motorcycle, you'rein for a treat !nulike a loud vespa wheer you cant even hear yourself think, or a harley where the neighbours also can't, with on eof these babies, you have a smooth silent ride, ideal for small talk and chit chat !
BTW what is that ugly as sin coke-machine-on-wheels
on their website?? even if it did use fuel cells,
do we need that? ick!