Canadian Cannabis Car

sykobabul writes "The CBC is reporting: 'An electric car made of hemp is being developed by a group of Canadian companies in collaboration with an Alberta Crown corporation. The Kestrel will be prototyped and tested later in August by Calgary-based Motive Industries Inc., a vehicle development firm focused on advanced materials and technologies, the company announced.' Leave it to us Canadians to come up with all sorts of uses for cannabis."

Comments

Only one word to describe it

[maroberts]

Smokin'!!

Re:Only one word to describe it

[Shark]

It makes great plastic too.

already done

[i.r.id10t]

Didn't Cheech and Chong already do this?

Use more hemp please

[Neil Watson]

It always disappoints me how little hemp is used in industry. It is my understanding that hemp is easy to grow, is a more durable replacement for cotton and can be a more sustainable fibre for paper.

Re:Use more hemp please

[slyrat]

It always disappoints me how little hemp is used in industry. It is my understanding that hemp is easy to grow, is a more durable replacement for cotton and can be a more sustainable fibre for paper.

The same can be said of bamboo actually.

Re:Use more hemp please

[NotBornYesterday]

It's already been available as a hardwood floor material for years now. I'm not sure you could make decent plywood out of it, since plywood manufacturing requires shaving the stock into sheets.

Re:Use more hemp please

[captain_dope_pants]

IIRC it used to be illegal in the UK not to grow hemp. This was back in the days of sailing ships etc. Farmers had to set aside a certain area for hemp cultivation.

Re:Use more hemp please

[tsm_sf]

It always disappoints me how little hemp is used in industry. It is my understanding that hemp is easy to grow, is a more durable replacement for cotton and can be a more sustainable fibre for paper.

It is. That's why it's illegal.

Hemp eh?

[Finallyjoined!!!]

One of the most useful crops imaginable, read the wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp Trouble is a variety can be smoked, so it's all but banned. Shame really.
We need to grow more.

Re:Hemp eh?

[Nadaka]

Shame really, a variety has useful fibers that are cheaper and just as durable as the newly invented nylon by Dupont. One year later, all hemp is banned. Don't kid yourself, hemp is illegal for monetary reasons, its use as a recreational drug was leveraged to make banning it all the more palpable to the American people.

Re:Hemp eh?

[TheCarp]

Actually, the smokable variety came first. Its been refined through breeding over the years... but...

it was in fact a French company that engineered (I don't know if it was through genetic engineering or breeding, or a bit of both) the "low THC" variety, and then pushed for international laws defining "hemp".

The real problem is NOT that most varieties can be smoked, its that some people can't mind their own business as to what other people do, and insist on asking the government to put a stop to the behavior that they don't like.

-Steve

wooooo

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if it can do a burn-out.

a little late: henry ford did that

[circletimessquare]

here's a youtube clip of the original hemp car, in 1941

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgDyEO_8cI

among other hemp facts:

ford and diesel intended their cars to run on hemp oil

jefferson drafted the declaration of independence on hemp paper

much of the founding fathers grew hemp or processed it

read more:

http://naihc.org/hemp_information/hemp_facts.html

Reeferance, please

[hyades1]

Hey, guys, c'mon over here and have a look at my spliffy new car. It's a 2011 Tokeswagen.

Hemp !== Cannabis.

[gus goose]

FFS, people, when will it be understood that Hemp is much more than just Cannabis? Honestly, folk... 'concluding' that the car is made of Cannabis when it's described as a 'hemp' car is like concluding a person is a heroine user when they say they took some drugs... (even if it was a headache pill).

gus

Hemp IS Cannabis...

[Ellis D. Tripp]

FFS, people, when will it be understood that Hemp is much more than just Cannabis?

Industrial hemp is just a cultivar of C. Sativa that is bred for fiber and oil production.

There are 3 separate species of Cannabis, and many different cultivars and hybrid varieties.

ALL hemp is Cannabis. But not all Cannabis is hemp. The varieties grown for drug use are generally pretty poor fiber producers.

55 MPH?!?!?!

[oic0]

Anyone else find it ironic that a car made of weed tops out at 55mph? I dunno about where yall live, but here the slow driving stoners piss me off. 55mph sound like it would suit them fine. Drunks go to fast and kill folks quickly Stoners go to slow and raise our blood pressure, killing us slowly.

Re:ur doin it wrong

[Khyber]

See, folks, this is what happens when you DON'T smoke pot, you say wholly uneducated nonsense such as this.

We can make parts of the car out of hemp - plastic body panels can be made from the seeds and plant fibers by converting it into bioplastics.