To own a car or not to own a car — a pressing question, particularly if you live in any kind of massive city. The German engineering group EDAG is trying to sidestep the issue entirely with its offering at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, the Light Car Sharing and Light Car Open Source project.
The Light Car project is a car sharing network, similar to the popular Zipcar program. However, since Germany (along with the rest of the EU) is taking carbon emissions pretty seriously, EDAG’s version of the car sharing network involves an electric car.
Zero Emissions, Lots of Blinking Lights
The car in question is the third in EDAG’s Light Car series. It will have a range of around 90 miles and a top speed of 87mph, both of which are more than adequate for a city environment. It also boasts bumpers covered in a soft gel, to reduce any risk of injury in case of minor collision (with pedestrians, presumably) on crowded city streets.
EDAG’s concept car isn’t a “light car” because it weighs very little, although it’s super compact — it’s a “light car” because it lights up. LED strips embedded in the front, rear, and sides of the vehicle glow red, orange, and green to indicate occupancy (up to six people total – three in front and three in back) as well as the current state of the vehicle.
No, You Cannot Avoid the Smart Phones
Much like the electric scooter sharing project in San Francisco, the Light Car Sharing project also fully integrates smart phones into its process. Users can find cars and see if they’re available using their phones. Your phone can also be used to reserve a car. (Although, the Light Car isn’t controlled with the smart phone, as far as I can tell).
EDAG is drawing on its 40-odd years of engineering experience to work on the Light Car Sharing project. As it also supports new developments in the automotive field in 21 countries around the world, the project falls right in line with the rest of its work — and hey, zero emissions from the cars themselves and the ability to charge them with greener and greener power (as Europe’s renewable energy continues its rapid growth) is pretty great.
Questions or comments? Would you like to see one of these in a city near you? Let us know below.
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
