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"Production" consists of 100 cars worldwide. That's less than one tenth of the number of EV1 cars produced.

Until I can buy one at my local VW dealership, it ain't real and it ain't relevant. The world is full of "someday I'm gonna make this".

In any event, I have serious doubts it will meet US safety standards. As for the mileage claims... a low cD and a low frontal area and all that are nice, but you can't cheat physics. It takes a certain amount of energy to move a car around, and there's no getting around that. Even a little 50cc scooter only gets a little over 100mpg, and we're being told a two-passenger car capable of going 100mph with a vehicle weight of 1750 pounds gets three times that? I doubt it. In fact, I'll just plain call bullshit; that figure has to include propulsion from a full battery pack. Show me distance traveled where the battery pack has the same state at the beginning and conclusion of the run while burning 1 gallon of fuel; THAT is the "miles per gallon" that can ethically be claimed.

All that being said, it's not a bad-looking car (as eco-pharisee-mobiles go). I'd like to see it succeed, but first it has to be real and it has to be honest. There's also the little matter than I'm 6'2" tall with a 36" inseam. If it only fits oompa-loompas like the Lotus Elise (which I absolutely do not fit into, and believe me I've tried), forget it.

I ride a 2006 Vino 125 (scooter). It goes around 55 mph, accelerates a lot faster than ~80% of cars out there, and I get 80 mpg.

The new ones supposedly get 96 mpg.

I dunno.

THIS scooter might be OK to ride. Let's face it, it does look pretty cool.

--You know, Yamaha V-Max motorcycle owners will be champing at the bit to get these new solid tires; typical rear-tire life on a V-max is only ~5000 miles before they have to be replaced.

http://www.yamaha-motor.com/products/unitinfo/2/mc y/4/23/0/yamaha_v_max.aspx

Winter before last, a nasty ice storm took down countless power lines across the state of Michigan. I was in a similar situation as the original poster: nat.-gas-powered hot-water furnace but with an electric pump. Temperatures were in the teens Fahrenheit (say, -10C) but for the first day or so, all I needed to keep comfy in my house was to add a sweater. (By the end of the third day, when my power finally came back on, I was wearing a couple t-shirts, a couple shirts, the sweater, a coat, sweatpants under my jeans, and a wooly hat.)

Afterward, I did invest in a 1000W inverter-type petrol-powered generator. Between ice, wind, lightning, the occasional suicidal squirrel, and general flakiness of the local grid, I lose electricity for a few hours at least once a year, and I make some of my living from being on the internet, so it was worth it. It provides just enough juice to keep my mail/web server online, and to power a lamp, radio, or laptop, as needed. It puts out a pretty smooth current (I run it through the UPS anyway) and with the power-throttling enabled (so it slows down to produce only as much power as you're drawing) it'll run for several hours on a single tank of petrol. It's makes a bit of noise, but not really bad, especially it being outside and with the door closed.

When I first read the title of your post, I thought you were going to make some sort of creative comparison between the Delorean and the Yamaha Vmax (which is one formidable bike).

Oh well... another day, another bitter disappointment.

BTW, You wouldn't, by chance, be the mightiest sorcerer in these isles, would you?

Generally speaking, a UPS doesn't make a lot of sense for that kind of situation. If the power goes out briefly, your stereo isn't at risk for data loss. Even a TiVo, despite being just a specialised computer with hard drives and everything, isn't going to benefit much from a keeping the power on, because that's the standard way to turn them off anyway: pull the plug. And a TV is probably going to suck a UPS dry in pretty short order.

The main thing a UPS is good for with such devices is power conditioning, acting as both a surge and slump suppressor. For that purpose, all you need is something that will provide enough relatively steady power until you walk over and clunk the power off, cleanly. Don't buy the cheapest unit on sale at Best Buy, but you don't need to spend an arm and a leg.

If you want to run these devices through a power outage, you want a generator. Yamaha makes some fairly inexpensive inverter-type generators which will produce a fairly clean power supply as long as you feed it petrol. You might want to run the generator's output through a UPS or at least through a surge protector, as an added measure of safety. (Keep in mind that you'll need an electrical cord that'll reach to your gear from outside, because the noise and exhaust of the generator mean it can't be indoors.) But again, the TV is going to suck up a lot of petrol. I've kept my home web server going through a couple of short (a few hours) outages with Yamaha's 1KW generator, but with an LCD monitor only, no CRT.

The Yamaha Vino and Zuma (both 2-stroke vehicles) can be purchased in the USA. I imagine that 2-strokes are banned for a class of motor-vehicles, but clearly not all vehicles.

The Yamaha Vino and Zuma (both 2-stroke vehicles) can be purchased in the USA. I imagine that 2-strokes are banned for a class of motor-vehicles, but clearly not all vehicles.

You posted what can only be considered an ADVERTISEMENT for the Segway. Bricklin is downright fawning. The only criticism AT ALL of the vehicle is in a very short scetion called "Did you find any limits or problems?" in which he goes to great lengths to downplay the problems.

He fails to mention the battery life at any point during the two articles. He fails to mention that it requires many hours of charging. He fails to mention the price ($5000). He compares it to bicycles, but only in the most unfavorable light. He does not really compare it to any sort of motorized scooters like this one, which is 1/3 of the price of a Segway.

This is pure advertising and PR.

For the money, I'd rather have a Yamaha Zuma, (MSRP $1699). (or Honda or Suzuki equivilent) Plus, it runs on gasoline so I don't have to plug it in for 8 hours to recharge it. I can just pull up to any service station and get another 100+ miles for $2.

So let's recap:
Segway HT: Range 10-15 miles. Top speed 15 mph. Must find electrical outlet to recharge with. Cost - 5,000.
Gasoline Scooter: Range - 100+ miles, easily refilled with gas. Cost - 1,700.
Bicycle: Range: variable. Fuel: biomass. Cost - $200.

Strange, the less it costs, the more sense it makes.

that is too easy. buy an R1, and big chunk of land in a semi-hilly region, build a F1 spec race course, and ride ride ride. then, when i get bored, promote as many races as possible, of all types (car, truck, bike, go-cart, tank, snowmobile, lawnmower etc), on that very track.

likelihood: zero

*sigh*

Here is what I want...

apart from carting shit about, my trail bike goes anywhere your monster goes, and is tons of fun to ride. too bad you spend all that cash on your car, a bike shits on a car for raw power any day (bike = engine with wheels). however some twits still think they can race me at the lights and win...

i never bothered to calculate fuel efficiency, but i estimate it's something around 150k's off 5L of premium.