German adventurers and inventors Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer have just completed a wondrous three week journey from Perth to Sydney in their sprightly, pod shaped car, and quite remarkably they made this ‘voyage’ in just under $16. The car named as the Wind Explorer, is touted as the world’s first self-sufficient wind-powered vehicle, and is powered by lithium-ion batteries that can be charged overnight by a mobile wind turbine.
The car can cover a range of 100 km expending half the electricity required for running a washing machine. The specifications of this peppy vehicle are ‘breezy’ as well. The whole car just weighs about 200 kg (440 pounds), and can achieve a top speed of 88.5 kph. The battery pack itself just weighs 80 kg. And talk about innovation – this supple framed car can use kites to harness the extra wind energy!
The two men have also created a world record of sorts, when the Wind Explorer became the first wind-powered vehicle to be driven across a continent. As Dirk Gion put it:
We wanted to prove how good the technology is. There are a lot of skeptical people and we wanted to show them how efficient you can make it. People are ready for this technology. They want to have it and use it.
Via: Metro
