SIR CLIVE ON ELEGANT ELECTRIC VEHICLES !

[PLOD11]

Not sure if this has been posted on here before,but this was on at the weekend on BBc

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/8781295.stm   (C5 bit)

Rest of the main program
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t1c1x/Click_03_07_2010/

[Karl]

A lovely piece of footage 

I think the interview shows that Sir Clive's thinking is still ahead of all those manufactures of "horseless carriages" 

..why don't they employ him as a consultant 

[coverman]

The cost of producing a dedicated electrically propelled platform and shell would be enormous if it were to meet worldwide legislation. A quadricycle gets around lots of that legislation but how to get it light enough to qualify when laden with enough batteries is a conundrum. And how many Western people want to drive around in something intrinsically unsafe in an accident? The very cheap Tata Nano is better than a motorcycle, which is what it was designed  to be, but to re-engineer it to meet Rest of World safety standards is a very expensive business and will result in the vehicle costing nearly three times its existing price in India.