Perhaps a bit impractical for most U.S. drivers. It could work as long ss you stayed off the freeways.
Can you imagine what would happen to the oil industry if everyone drove one of these.

"Can you imagine what would happen to the oil industry if everyone drove one of these."

Yes. Their existence would be prolonged and they would find new ways to exploit consumers.

I can imagine...

They would shut down refineries under the guise of less required fuels.

They would say there is diminished supply, and hike the price up to maintain their profits.

They would lay off thousands of oil workers to maintain their profits.

The car I'm waiting for? Not Volkswagen...but this one...

http://www.theaircar.com

A hybrid version that runs on compressed air under 45mph...gasoline over it...and while on gasoline power, it recharges the compressed air tanks.

And...the air conditioner in the car? It's the pure cold air that is the exhaust from the car when it is running on the compressed air engine side.

But, I guarantee the car companies and oil companies are doing their best to keep these innovations out of the market...at least...until they own the rights to it and can make a mint from it.

So much for free enterprise...

To JCK, gas prices are high because we in the US have refused to allow any new refineries to be built here for over 30 years. Furthermore, we've empowered the EPA to seek out and destroy all the smaller refineries, which couldn't afford the draconian requirements of meeting your 1,000+ various refinery-specific regulations.

That left only a few big players in the industry...and no chance of anyone new coming along. Companies try, but every new permit is denied.

So yes, we have a problem. We shot ourselves in the foot, and turned off the free market system. But blame us....we did it to ourselves.

So who will we blame when there is no more oil to rape from the planet? What will happen to gas prices then? Jack the price up to 100.00 a gallon for all I care. Maybe then people will wake up and demand a "renewable" resource as the major fuel source. Just kidding, greed will never let it happen especially with dubbas running the world.

A real practical threat to the dominance of the ICE (internal combustion engine) is the ultra-capacitor being developed by EEStor, which will be used in the upcoming ZENN (Zero Emissions No Noise) vehicles coming out in late 2007, or early 2008.

Read what I wrote about the real threat to BiG OiL in my
blog at Free Software Magazine (the url is below).

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/power_to_the_people

Tell mee, how they can make Zenn, if they cant show this new 'capacitator' prototype ? Sounds like some kind of BS to rip off money from investors :-{

Who cares about this super-capacitor malarkey good old fashioned Lithium works for the Tesla Roadster

http://www.teslamotors.com

Looks a bit like the bubble cars of the 1950's. Did VW buy Heinkle?

Actually, it was Messerschmidt, not Heinkle that built the bubble cars, but who's counting. Although, at this time the milage they offered would be welcome. Aside from fringe projects or boutique manufacturers, only Mercedes and GM seem to be looking to bring high milage to the consumer and only Mercedes with it's Smart car has a production vehicle in the works. They start selling thier car here in the US in 2008.

They have had super caps for years. And I belive the Tesla uses a super cap for acceleration.

Single cylinder engine, small body, good on fuel. Dare I say Messerschmidt, BMW & Heinkel (to name but a few) three wheelers from the '50s & '60s?

Nothing new under the sun. If they built it at the prices mentioned I would have one with little hesitation.

America already had a car which would do 85 mph max and was totally electric, but all this was killed by big oil companies. Saturn had made these cars.

yah, i'm sure that the big oil companies told GM that they couldn't build the electric Saturn you speak of. Um.. here's this thing... that conspiracy theory is as full of holes as your tinfoil hat.

Hasn't the SmartCar been available in the US for a while now? I know its been in Canada for at least a couple years.

http://auto.xprize.org/downloads/AXP_Draft_Competition_Guidelines_20070402.pdf

X PRIZE Foundation is supporting a leap in the realm of Automotive towards achieving such a goal. The development of a vehicle that would have any multiplier of what is currently available in the best gas mileage range for the consumer's marketplace would not significantly reduce the use of petroleum. Hopefully it could stabilize price fluctuations.

www.fueleconomy.gov

The most promising vehicle may arrive in 2009 with Honda's diesel engine being introduced into the US (50-65 mpg). I wish there was a reserve list that I could get on.

Did the 222 mpg include the mileage for the VAN that is obviously protecting the aerodynamic-bladeless-riding mower on its way to the prize?

Bring on the super capacitors. I would love my laptop to be able to go 300 years on the factory charge!

Kyle - Tesla does not use super/ultracaps for acceleration - they're running a variant of lithium (pretty sure its li-ons though they're tight lipped about their battery supplier) that can deliver fairly high currents. Though realistically the limiting factor for high current in batteries is generally regenerative braking, not acceleration (even with a powerful motor) - this is obvious by how much faster most cars undergo negative acceleration versus positive acceleration.

Obviously DaMinority - supercaps don't (and won't) have insane energy density over batteries - so don't expect your laptop to last that long. Supercaps can simply deliver and receive very high power in addition to having an appreciably longer service life that li-ons (which is a huge advantage). That said, we've been waiting on EE-Stor for several years now.

Btw, the VW 1-liter car saw fuel economy in the 235mpg range and actually over 270 (.86litre/100km if I'm not mistaken) on a highway trip by Ferdinand Piech to a shareholders meeting.

i usually get about 45MPG on a 750CC motorcycle, I have measured about 80MPG on a 200cc Honda Twinstar. I think 100 MPG is possible on a practical diesel powered car.

Anything far above 100MPG is going to be a tiny car that very few people would find practical. Electric cars can run much much more efficiently than any gas car but you sacrifice range. I don't see this bubble car being better than an electric because I sure would not plan a long trip in that thing.

I think the future will be clean bio diesel powered cars because diesel engines are about 40% more effient than gasoline and bio diesel is made from plant oil so it does not add c02 to the atmosphere and it does not need to be imported from the middle east. Bio diesel is a great subject for anybody who wants to know the probable future of liquid fuels and I think an important fuel from now on because of the costs of petro fuels.

. If fuel keeps getting more expensive we will learn to live with the limited range of electrics.

I saw earlier comments about the world running out of oil. Let me state the world will NOT run out of oil in our lifetime or our grandchildrens lifetime.

The world has already run out of cheap oil. We will now be paying over 2 dollars per gallon for our fuel. At prices over 2 dollars per gallon a whole new range of options opens up.

Canada has a huge amount of oil sand, as the name implies it is oil mixed with sand. It costs about two dollars per gallon to separate the sand. That was not done in years past because it was cheaper to use oil from wells. Now that prices have gone up the oil sand is being processed. Canada has more oil than the entire middle east.

The United States has huge reserves of coal. Coal can be converted to natural gas and to exremely clean diesel / jet fuel. The united States could meet all the countries oil needs through coal conversion. The estimated cost is also about 2 dollars per gallon wholesale. The conversion process is actually very clean because the oil is not burned, it is just put under pressure to release methane.

Unfortunately burning Canadas oilsand or Americas coal converted oil would still add c02 to the atmosphere just as burning petroleum based oil does. C02 is one of the greenhouse gasses we hear so much about contributing to global warming.

If it turns out we can not keep burning fossil fuels because of climate change, there are still other options. We can grow crops that have high oil content to make bio diesel. Bio diesel does not add c02 to the atmosphere because the plants remove c02 when they grow so its c02 impact is none. Bio diesel is becoming very popular with truckers now because its high lubricity is good for engines. Bio diesel can run in any diesel engine. Bio diesel burns cleaner than petroleum diesel and it is non toxic.

There is a limit to how much bio diesel we could make because we have only limited farmland and it is needed to grow food. Some crops that grow on marginal land can be grown for bio diesel and I would rather send my fuel dollar to local farmers than to the middle east.

There is also promising research on growing algae, a water plant that can be as much as 50% oil by weight. Most of these alternate fuels will cost about 2 to 3 dollars at the pump but remember they will burn in diesel engines which get 40% more energy per gallon so they will be cheaper than what we pay now. They will also burn much cleaner than petroleum based fuel oil.

We will always have fuel, just not the cheap fuel of years past. I would rather pay farmers than an Arab oil cartel.

It is a modern version of the Messerschmitt KR200. I think they should not only produce it but also import it to the USA. I would definitely buy it. IMO; It is way cool. I think there are lots of micro and mini car enthusiasts that would be very interested in acquiring this vehicle. :)