Great news for electric cars…Nissan just dropped the price of their all-electric Leaf, now starting at $28,800. Depending on where you live, tax credits and other incentives may lower the price to as low as $18,800! That’s with the $7500 federal tax credit, and a $2500 tax credit available in some states.
Tesla Model S dyno test
I love cars…especially the sounds they make. Which is why I found this particularly interesting – it’s a dyno test of the all-electric Tesla Model S! It’s strange, hearing an electric car do this.
For comparison, here’s one of my favorite dyno test videos of a fossil-fuel car, in this case a turbocharged Lamborghini Murcielago.
Cool bicycling lights
If you’re biking on the roads in the dark, you might be interested in these lighting solutions which dramatically enhance your visibility. The first, pictured here, is not a shipping product yet, just a concept…but looks interesting. It uses a laser to project a ‘safety zone’ on the ground around you to increase your visibility to drivers, and also to signal turns. Read more about it here.
I saved the best for last though. Shipping now (for $250) is a wheel-mounted LED lightning solution from Revolights that is somewhat reminiscent of the Tron light cycles. Each wheel gets 8 LEDs, but those LEDs are switch off and on, depending on the wheel position…with the next result being a band of red LEDs on the back of the rear wheel, and a band of white LEDs at the front of the front wheel. Check out the video below to see these in action.
Now that’s a fast sailboat!
For some people, sailing is a slow, relaxing hobby, a time to be at peace with the ocean and go where the wind takes you. Of course, like any human endeavor, someone wants to be the best…or in the case, the fastest.
Paul Larsen sailed the Vestas Sailrocket 2 to a world record speed of 68mph (59.38knots, or 110km/h)! That’s blindingly fast for any board, where 10-15mph feels ‘fast’ to most people. Awesome. The boat is purpose-built for this effort, and the technology behind it is really cool – check it out at the official website. Check out the video below, too!
Putting old hybrid car batteries to good use
When people talk about how long the batteries in hybrid and electric vehicles last, keep in mind that the battery is still usable at the end of its ‘life’, it just has decreased capacity (around 80% of its original capacity seems to be a common number there). It’d be a shame to recycle a battery with so much energy storage potential…which is why it’s nice to see things like this system from GM, designed to use the cast-aside batteries from their Volts (once they get to that age, that is…it’s still a very new car). One of the systems shown here provides enough energy storage to power three to five average homes, so a more likely use would be in an off-grid system in a larger building, for example. It’s an imperfect solution, but this is an emerging market and it’s nice to see that hybrid batteries have a good chance of finding life beyond the pavement.
(via Inhabitat)