George Clooney Will Promote Electric Smart Car in Italy
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 01.29.07
Hybrid Technologies, the Nevada-based lithium-ion battery slinger, just announced that it has recruited Tango-driving, carbon-neutral Syriana starring, George Clooney to promote its new electric Smart Car in Italy this summer. Word of the coming Smart EV has been on the street for a while but the stats have actually improved since Michael Graham Richard wrote about the project back in 2005. Hybrid Technologies has posted top speeds of 80 mph for the Smart, along with 120 miles of autonomous range and a 6-8 hour charging time. (HT starts filling orders for the car Feb. 2007, starting at $35,000.) It is also now clear that Hyrbid Technologies is a lab populated by engineers who don’t sleep. In addition to converting Smart Cars and courting Clooney to beta test their new ride, the publicly-traded company is also testing the waters of electric taxi cabs, scooters, and supercars. It also had a hand in this electric ’64 VW bus, built a renewable-energy house, and provided an electric Mini Cooper to the British embassy in Mexico. ::Hybrid Technologies
I love George, and this vehicle looks interesting. Yet, I'm waiting for George to stop endorsing electric vehicles and start endorsing the immediate redesign of our urban and suburban cities into, as Richard Register puts it, "Eco-Cities". The solution is NOT to rework the car, but to eliminate the need for the damned things. Okay, largely eliminate the need. We don't have time to screw around with electric cars. . . converting them all to electric will do far less good than reworking our cities. In short, alterna-vehicles are the wrong tree up which to bark. Okay, maybe not entirely wrong, but I sure wish people would be paying equal attention to the other side of the equation. The eco-blogosphere is filled with drooling descriptions of vehicles these days. Isn't that just fundamentally wrong? Eco-bloggers at car shows? Our energies are being diverted. I hope we wake up fast. We're almost out of time.
The regular Smart is not good enough to show your green street cred? Probably because regular people drive them,we know greens are a superior class so driving the regular model is just peasant.This single existing example is not available which makes it easy to be green,"I would get one if it was available but for now I will drive the Ferrari"
Hollywood gets a liberal label which is incorrect because only the stars at the point of the spear are liberal.The managers and lawyers and people that do the lifting are not.Films are conservative with the good guy winning and getting the girl not shot in the back after finding out Soylent Green is people.Liberals in Malibu keep people off "their" beach so I will keep "their" car out of my garage.
hello from italy,
we woult like to know that also in europe there are a lot of elettric smart and wery cheep since 2002.
look this article SMART ELETTRICA on www.smartissimi.it web site
We would like to know that in europa there is a lot of elettric smart by DEA.
SMART WHITE
Motore elettrico asincrono trifase 15 kW
Batteria di trazione ZEBRA 13.6 kWh
Velocita' massima 120 Km/h
Riccarica totale (100%) 8 h
Autonomia 125 Km
Autonomia con ricarica parziale ca. 25 Km per ogni ora di ricarica
SMART RED
Motore elettrico asincrono trifase 15 kW
Batteria di trazione ZEBRA 12 kWh
Velocita' massima 120 Km/h
Riccarica totale (100%) 6 h
Autonomia 105 Km
Autonomia con ricarica parziale ca. 25 Km per ogni ora di ricarica
More info and photo www.SMARTISSIMI.it
I hope all electric car manufacturers continue to manufacture and sell all of their models - both to local neighborhood drivers and to Interstate drivers. GM and the other American auto makers like to talk energy but they are bought and sold, just like the USA, by BIG OIL. GM, Ford, Chrysler will all lose market share to any nation or startup that they can't buyout before they would ever actually respond to demand for electric cars. I don't trust their feints at kicking the petroleum addiction - which are are just very expensive attempts at PR damage control.
for god's sake , when could I buy an electric smart car in BRASILIA-BRAZIL??WOULD SOMEBODY HAVE THE KINDNESS TO HELP ME ?? BRASILIA IS A PLANNED CITY AND PROPER FOR THIS TYPE OF CAR... PLEASE... THANKS... A GUY CRAZY FOR AN ELCTRIC SMART CAR...