| Special to The Province |
Friday, March 07, 2008
Behold, the car of the future will be powered by fuel vapour and sip the juice at a miserly rate of about three litres for every 100 kilometres driven.
And an example of a car using the revolutionary technology will be on display at the 2008 Vancouver International auto Show, later this month.
It is a three-wheeled single-seat vehicle and has been named the Alé (alay) by its creator, George Parker of the company FuelVapor Technologies.
The Alé's new technology is able to increase the fuel efficiency of any gas engine by up to 20 per cent while at the same time decreasing CO2 emissions by 30 per cent, all without a catalytic converter.
Furthermore, it emits 75-per-cent less CO2 than your average hybrid vehicle.
Conventional cars mix up air and gasoline at a ratio of 14.7:1.
That's mostly air, indeed, but this design takes that a step further, mixing that ratio up to 20:1 of air to gasoline, making it a lot more efficient.
The Alé can actually drive from Vancouver to San Francisco without refuelling and it's capable of zipping from zero to 60 in five seconds.
Plans for a limited production (hand-built) run of these cars is slated for this year with an estimated cost of $75,000.
Mass production for the Alé is predicted to bring the price down to less than half that inside five years.
FuelVapor Technologies will be entering the Alé in the "Automotive X-Prize" (aka Richard Branson's competition for the most fuel-efficient production vehicle in the world).
The prototype will make a second appearance in the city in April at EPIC -- The Sustainable Living Expo (April 18-20).
But check it out first at the 2008 Vancouver International auto Show, March 31-April 6 at BC Place Stadium.
For more information on the 08 Show visit: www.VancouverInternationalAutoShow.com.
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