Charles Greenwood Shares His Electric Dream

Call me a sucker for mad-visionary types, but I think Charles Greenwood is a genius. He's one of the few people who lead me to believe that this strange species called the "car enthusiast" will thrive on long after the fossil fuels have run dry. Last month, Wired.com reported on this Seattle-based engineer's muscle-powered FM-4 HumanCar as part of a roundup of the fastest green cars on earth, and now he offers us an exclusive glimpse at HumanCar's next big thing. Dubbed Imagine and derived from the four-passenger FM-4, the car augments its rowing-machine-style propulsion system with a pair of DC electric motors. Juiced by a lithium-ion battery pack, the motors to keep things moving when the car's four primary engines — its occupants — need a breather. Greenwood has brought aboard designer Stephan Brand to shape the Imagine's body, which will feature a dual canopy and fender arcs swathed in photovoltaic cells, and pannier-syle body-side storage compartments.

Greenwood plans to have Imagine prototypes finished within the next few months. "They will literally burn rubber," he notes. We'll be there.


Source Wired

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