Tech Times - Clever Car

Clever way to get around town
July 03, 2007 Edition 1

Sebastian Stent

The Clever Car is a breakthrough in automotive design, and a radical rethink of the way in which personal transport should both look and function.

The Clever (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) project was a collaboration between nine Eropean Union countries.

The project was co-ordinated by Heiko Johannsen of the Technical University of Berlin, who oversaw the design and construction of the vehicle.

Alongside him was award-winning designer Peter Naumann, who drew on a number of different sources to create the unique look of the Clever vehicle, which is both practical and visually arresting.

As the name implies, the Clever is a city vehicle, both fun to drive and economical. It is made with two rear wheels and a single front wheel, with the passenger compartment tilting in much the same way as a motorbike.

It has enough space for two passengers in the enclosed cockpit, and its single cylinder 213cc engine is capable of taking it from 0-60km/h in less than seven seconds.

A priority during design was how it would be powered. The team focused on renewable energy sources, and created a unique CNG (compressed natural gas) refuelling system, which will probably become a more successful commercial tool than the vehicle itself, especially with the rapid growth of interest in alternative fuel sources.

Costing approximately R80 000, the car reaches a top speed of about 90km/h. The car is 3 metres long, less than a metre wide and 1.4m tall, allowing it to squeeze through the traffic and into any parking space with ease.

Because of its low weight, the car is capable of an incredible carbon efficiency of only 60g/km, and has a range of more than 200km.

Safety is also a focus on the vehicle, with a unique chassis that protects the occupants, and a hydraulic tilting array to allow amazing stability when cornering at high speeds.

Whether or not this breakthrough vehicle will ever reach our shores is entirely up to South African entrepeneurs.

What is for sure, however, is that it is just one of many new technologies re-inventing the way we travel, and it is only the will of manufacturers and distributors that is keeping the future vehicles from our door. - bigeyeddeer@yahoo.co.uk