aptera 150 miles per charge

Notes: I'm told the safest 3 wheeler has 2 front wheels.

There are a number of factors with respect to safety.  I had a brief discussion with an online acquaintance that listed the Twike as being less safe due to the three wheeled configuration, single wheel in front.  I took exception to it, and he politely educated me

I know that from personal experience that the Twike is quite stable due to it's low center of gravity (CG).  In turns taken with too much speed, the rear wheels (where 90% of the vehicle weight is located -- you can actually pick up the front of the Twike quite easily, and it is a 500-600 lbs. vehicle) will actually slide/push out.  It exhibits no 'roll over' tendancies at all like the kiddos that got killed driving 3-wheel ATV's or Farm Tractors when I was growing up.  Both tractors and ATV's have a very high CG.

However, he mentioned that the roll-over factor was not the only safety issue, and that the 2-wheels in front/rear wheel steering (like the Dymaxion by Buckminster Fuller) was more stable when it comes to actually steering.

I can attest that piloting a Twike in gusting winds requires a firm grip on the steering tiller.  This is most likely due to the lightness of the front end (the wind grabs it quite easily) as well as the fact that it is a single-wheel front steering vehicle. 

alternate fuel engine to go farther the few times required and or for heat

Using an ICE for 'heat' in an EV is impracticle for a significant number of commuters (using US DoT 1990 Nationwide Personal Transport Survey, 50% of americans drive 25 miles a day or less).  Heat is a byproduct of running the engine, therefore it must 'warm up'.  One of the selling points of electric heat is that it is 'instant on'.  True, it is one of the worst possible use of electricity in terms of efficiency, but in comparison to using an ICE engine for heat, very efficient.  In my case in particular (a less-than 10 mile commute) in our ICE car the engine gets warm enough to provide heat right when I pull into work.

Then there's the question of whether heating is really needed or not.  I Twiked to work all winter in Central Illinois in dress pants, dress shoes and a Columbia Leather coat (insulated, but not a 'puffy coat' by any means).  Leather thinsulate-lined gloves, but no hat.  I did switch to SuperWool dress socks, but plan on using them in the summer too since they're so durable/comfy. I put on earwarmers/scarf for the 100' walk into the building where I worked. 

I was never cold, and the Twike does not have heat.  It was of course stored overnight in a heated garage, so the internal air temperature was warm before I took off in the morning.  On the way home it had sat outside all day, but was significantly warmed by the winter sun.

A far better question is air conditioning ;-)  That same passive solar heat system and laminar airflow does not let a whole lot of air into the Twike, even with the cabriolet top off!

When people ask me about the lack of a heater in the Twike, I snarkishly reply "I firmly invested in Global Warming as a reality" 

I've got a 1967 Johnson outboard that spews less than 200ppm & 1%

I'm assuming your point is that the emissions tests aren't worth the recycled paper & soy based ink they're printed with.

The police idling thing is funny.  The rational is to save maintenance & repair bills on starters and batteries...  Many years ago my neighbors' home was broken into and vandalized (that's not the funny part).  The cop dispatched to investigate/file left the car idling in the street while he took statements and prepared his reports...

It was early summer, a beautiful day, and he left the car idling when he came inside and took statements... after about 45 minutes we smelled that nasty odor of burning paint & plastic.  We all acknowledged and ignored the odor for several minutes, not knowing where it was coming from...  That's when the cops shoulder radio told him to investigate a vehicle fire in the area he was in... 

That's when it got funny!

All hybrid vehicles I'm aware of have the same deficiency.  They have a combustion engine that is large enough to move the vehicle briskly all by itself and an electric motor fitted so that both engines/motors drive through the same transmission.

You have mentioned the benefit (savings) of being able to charge the thing up at home but don't point out that hybrides have very short range on battery power alone. Most auto trips are 10 miles or less, so, here's what I would like in a hybrid.

A combustion engine and an electric motor sized so that they will both have to run to provide the performance that we need for hiway travel.  Each engine drives the wheels through independent automatic transmissions. The combution engine permanently connected to a separate alternator, and a battery capacity capable of moving the vehicle 10 miles on electric power alone. 

This will allow the electric drive motor to generate while braking and the combustion engine to run at optimum speed to recharge or replenish the batteries as needed.

Build something like that and you will outsell the air driven cars now being built by Tata in India.  We still need the inefficient infernal combustion thing to melt the ice in the winter, but a small engine with the radiator under the driver's seat will be just fine.

athena

just a note to update you all on aptera. They have signed on to be in the X-prize for efficient vehicles. They are listed on good for the first 31 companies like Tesla and many other efficient vehicle makers.

This should give us many more efficient choices even if the companies all can't win the millions for the top prize. This is a contest we all can win.

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/08/01/automotive-x-prize-announces-31-compe...

• Aptera Motors – California, USA
• Commuter Cars Corp. – Washington, USA
• Cornell University – New York, USA
• DEHyds – Washington, USA
• Delta Motorsport – Northants, UK
• Desert Fuel – Arizona, USA
• Disruptech – California, USA
• Dragonfly Technology LTD – Northhampton, UK
• Fuel Vapor Technologies – British Columbia, Canada
• GreenIt! – Oregon, USA
• Herf Duo – Berlin, Germany
• HyKinesys – California, USA
• Kinetic Vehicles – Oregon, USA
• Kuttner Doran Inventions – Virginia, USA
• Loremo AG – Munich, Germany
• Maine Automotive X – Maine, USA
• MDI, Inc. & Zero Pollution Motors LLC – New York, USA
• Michigan Vision – Michigan, USA
• MotoTron Corporation – Wisconsin, USA
• Phoenix Motorcars – California, USA
• Prometheus Systems, LLC – Arizona, USA
• Porteon Electric Vehicles, Inc. – Oregon, USA
• Psycho-Active – Georgia, USA
• Roane Inventions – Texas, USA
• Society for Sustainable Mobility – California, USA
• Spirit One – Alberta, Canada
• Tesla Motors – California, USA
• Valentin Technologies – Wisconsin, USA
• Velozzi – California, USA
• X Tracer – Winterthur, Switzerland
• ZAP Motors – California, USA

aptera is one of the entries in the automotive x-prize.
Maybe we could really have a chance to buy one of these someday.