Meet Trev: A two-seater renewable energy vehicle

Posted by Big Gav in australia, electric vehicles, trev

Phil at TOD ANZ has a post on a new South Australian produced electric vehicle - Meet Trev: A two-seater renewable energy vehicle.

Major auto companies are now close to introducing their first electric vehicles onto the market. But in many cases these new vehicles are as big and heavy as their gasoline powered brethren, and consequently burn just as much energy even though they take it from batteries rather than a fuel tank. I’m not convinced that helps us very much.

I believe there is instead a bright future for a spectrum of 'micro' electric vehicles, from battery powered bicycles up to compact size cars, which I’ve mentioned briefly before in 'How Big is Your Bicycle'. Here I want to feature a new concept car, named Trev (Two-seater Renewable Energy Vehicle) developed initially by a team of staff and students at the University of South Australia.

1 comments

Anonymous says 9:23 PM

You know how I love Better Place & their battery swap thing, right?

Some have critiqued it wondering if instead of one big mother of a battery, it should have 4 or 5 smaller batteries that might be swapped in some different method.

Why smaller?

1. Roadside assistance is easier if you run out of charge, an NRMA van could conceivably swap out smaller batteries.
2. Could be jiggered up to supply a range of smaller cars and electric bikes or side-cars. Instead of all 5 batterys, just swap 1 or 2 or 3.

anyway, we'll see how Better Place goes and I'm glad the idea is at least out there.