Silence PT2 rocks three wheels, all electric powertrain

Getting word of a new electric car hitting the pavement is (thankfully) becoming quite common these days, but crafting a vehicle that's made it a few steps beyond the easel is certainly noteworthy. Silence, Inc., a mash-up of Canada's EBW and T-Rex, has set out to "design and build high-performance electric vehicles," and the company's first attempt looks to be a winner. The three-wheeled PT2 certainly has a flair for the dramatic, as its metallic paint, vivid interior, and overall dashing good looks make it a sight for sore eyes in the fully electric vehicle department, and as if that weren't good enough, this bad boy can reportedly cruise 125 to 250 miles on a single charge, hitting speeds "around 125-miles per hour" along the way. Silence states that its PT2 will be "available for ordering" sometime this Spring, but folks with enough interest (and the spare loot to back it up) can hit them up right now to get on the short list, and for those already glancing away to save yourself the pain from viewing the pricetag, remain focused -- this hotrod will only run you around $50,000CDN, or just over 42 large here in the US. Be sure to head on over to AutoblogGreen for a sweet high-resolution gallery.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

[kaybee @ Feb 9th 2007 1:42PM]

Burn and die spammer.

[Cameron Campbell @ Feb 9th 2007 12:33PM]

No doors?

No heater?

No.

[will @ Feb 9th 2007 12:39PM]

How are these cars green? Seriously, I would wager that over its lifetime this car is more poluting than your average deisel.

Think about it, you firstly have the insane cost of production. the batteries alone use more than they are worth in energy to create. Then actually running the car. Fine there are no emmisions from the car directly, but my god it will use a hella lot of power carging the damn thing. AND FINALLY, the cost of these relitively short life-span batteries is astronomical. SO high in fact that people just resort to dumping them. And those things do not degrade.

Gah, the people who think electric cars are problem solved... First we need to rely entirely on nuclear power. Something that all you treelovers seem to think is evil..

/rant over

[kaybee @ Feb 9th 2007 1:44PM]

@Will: I agree with you on couple points, however, no need for something like this to inspire an angry rant. It may be true that current electric cars are not as energy conservative as people make them out to be, but I would wager they are still largely better than a normal gas-car if you are counting production and maintenance. Don't piss and bitch about electric cars, encourage them. If the research keeps up to solve some of the problems you mention, they *could* become a part of the solution.

And you are right, nuclear energy is vastly underrated and overlooked, there needs to be much much more.

[Brian Schend @ Feb 10th 2007 1:36AM]

"How are these cars green? Seriously, I would wager that over its lifetime this car is more poluting than your average deisel."

Wrong for many many reasons

"Think about it, you firstly have the insane cost of production. the batteries alone use more than they are worth in energy to create."

If they can sell it for CDN$50000, then their producing for less than that. This is comparably to a lot of sports cars.

"Then actually running the car. Fine there are no emmisions from the car directly, but my god it will use a hella lot of power carging the damn thing."

Gas efficiency is about 20% while electrics get about 90%, including the battery. Also, the electricity lost due to transmission ineffieciencies is much less than the electricity used to turn crude oil into gasoline or diesel. Electric cars will use WAY less power than gasoline.

"AND FINALLY, the cost of these relitively short life-span batteries is astronomical. SO high in fact that people just resort to dumping them. And those things do not degrade."

The cost is low enough to make a $50,000 car, and will continue to drop (which gasoline cars aren't) More than 98% of current car batteries are recycled. I see no reason why this would change with different kinds of batteries. The lithium and whatever else would be made into new batteries - degrading wouldn't matter.

"Gah, the people who think electric cars are problem solved... First we need to rely entirely on nuclear power. Something that all you treelovers seem to think is evil."

The department of energy concluded that with charging at night, existing power plants could charge 85% of all vehicles, since about half of those power plants are only turned on for peak use. Of course, the battery development created by the electric cars would also be purchased by utilities, so they could store power and require fewer plants. I won't go into the pros and cons of nuclear here.

One more thing. Producing the pollution at each car guarantees that the highest pollution is at the most populated areas, maximizing the number of people whose health is endangered. Even with polluting power plants, they could be located in remote areas where no one lives, moving pollution to where it causes less damage. Also, unlike cars, power plants are professionally maintained, and usually in much better condition than an old car. It is also a lot easier to enforce pollution controls for 10,000 power plants than for 500 million cars.

[will @ Feb 10th 2007 9:45AM]

Moving the pollution??? How naive are you? You can't just move the pollution, it still has the same effects in general on the planet.

I cannot be bothered to argue the toss with this. I'm afraid that there are people like you who just swallow up the crap fed to them by various governments and big energy suppliers who are desperately trying to remove the "bad guy" image that they have associated with them.

The biggest and most environmentally damaging aspect of these cars over the long term is their batteries, not only do they get the materials to build the things from pits in south America causing crazy damage to the environment but once they die (after about 8 years at the moment) they are impossible (impossible) to dispose of cheaply, resulting in people simply dumping them somewhere.

The second biggest cause for concern is this illusion that charging a car overnight is better for the environment... WHY? Its still using electricity. And where does that electricity come from? It comes from power stations. And what do they do? That right! They pollute. So, instead of all our cars causing pollution, it will be all of our cars charging that increases the workload for the power stations that in turn pollute even more each day.

Until nuclear power is used in nearly every power station electric cars are just not worth the damage they cause.

Hybrid cars are almost there, although they still have the batteries, they generate their own power for them. Then again, they are still bloody useless.

Wind farms are another thing that pisses me off. If anyone was serious about using them for actual energy production they would take them ALL off shore where there is always wind and no visual or environmental or noise pollution (yes, thats right, they are noisy, they destroy natural habitats and they look like hell). Unfortunately thats expensive, so they just passify people by building them in areas with lots of public interest in the subject.

The real funny thing about all this is that I think that Global Warming is a crock of shit. It exists, but its not our fault. Its a natural process. Its probably the reason any of us are even alive. Without global warming a long long long time ago we wouldn't have this toasty warm atmosphere. It would be a bit colder. Sure, we are accelerating the process, but its still a natural thing, and its going to eventually fuck something up anyway whether we were here or not. Think ice age, or total climate shift.

Wooo!

Hippies/Greenpeace/energy efficient houses/macdonalds suck!

[Darryl @ Feb 9th 2007 12:41PM]

I guess this would have to be registered as a motor bike to get onto Canadian roads. It has none of the safety features that are required to be sold as a car. It would be interesting to see how they spin this.

[andrepig @ Feb 9th 2007 1:28PM]

This is a wild car, I want one!!! Who needs heat when the girls will be giving it to you!

[Sergio @ Feb 9th 2007 1:54PM]

agreed =D

[JC @ Feb 9th 2007 1:33PM]

"I guess this would have to be registered as a motor bike to get onto Canadian roads. It has none of the safety features that are required to be sold as a car. It would be interesting to see how they spin this."

I've already seen this on the road, albeit the gas version, running up and down in the Yorkville area in Toronto. And yes, it had a motorcycle license plate.

[NHAnimator @ Feb 9th 2007 1:34PM]

Took a look at the hi-res pix on AutoblogGreen's site... The damn car's got some gawd-awful dune buggy paint with all the colored flecks in it! That is NOT good.

[michael @ Feb 9th 2007 1:35PM]

@ will:

how does nuclear power resort to less pollution? Nuclear power gives off radiation and nuclear waste. Plus the fact that plutonium and/or uranium would have to be available to consumers in amss quantities, since that's how a nuclear reactor works.. then you have the uranium waste that is left over, which cant be handled by the "averge joe" without being subjected to massive amounts of radiation.

I think this is a step in the right direction, but true electric cars should be run off of a hydrogen system where water can be converted to hydrogen and oxygen. In this system the only by-product is water, which then can be reused.

[Tim @ Aug 31st 2007 4:49AM]

Well, the main advantage nuclear energy has is that it does not emit co2, so it does not contribute to Global Warning. Anyone who REALLY believes the doomsday scenarios about GW should be CLAMORING for all coal power plants to be replaced by nuclear ones. Even the founder of Greenpeace has come to this conclusion!

[Josh @ Feb 9th 2007 12:28PM]

He at least tried to make it look vaguely genuine, and had read at least two words of the article. So perhaps just burn rather than burn and die.

[SporkRocker @ Feb 9th 2007 1:45PM]

"Gah, the people who think electric cars are problem solved... First we need to rely entirely on nuclear power. Something that all you treelovers seem to think is evil.."

Yes, we do need a flux capacitor. :D With accidents now, you won't be affecting other cars or rails or whatever, now you'll be affecting nearby states and countries. :D

[aws910 @ Feb 9th 2007 2:24PM]

I've always wanted one of these cars(the gas-powered ver)... 0-60 in 4.1sec, 1.9G cornering... but $45k for a motorcycle is kinda excessive.

VW was going to make their own version of it for the USA but decided not to because of liability issues. Too bad, they were only going to charge $17k for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW_GX3

[Max @ Feb 9th 2007 4:26PM]

I saw it few days ago at the montreal international auto show, the sound of this baby at very high rpm is like a jet aircraft.

[Frankenstein Black @ Feb 9th 2007 5:26PM]

This is for the lucky types that live in yearound sunshine states. Oh, and some extra cash to spare. Well I’m not one to besmirch a green machine, but I think I’ll wait around for the “energy positive” Tesla 2.0 ;^)...
http://www.teslamotors.com/


----------
FB a.k.a LDM
Water-bending Master
http://www.eternal-champions.com/images/ldm_master_builder!.jpg

[Kieran Coghlan @ Feb 9th 2007 5:45PM]

If you look at the pollution per usable kW produced, an oil-burning electric power plant is better than your average gasoline powered car.

Go to the Tesla Motors site, they have some great info pages on the energy balance for electric cars. Yes, they still burn fossil fuels to create the electricity, but overall they are way more efficient and "cleaner/greener" than a gasoline car.

[matt @ Feb 9th 2007 7:00PM]

i prefer the t-rex with the kawasaki engine in it instead. those are louder than.......something really loud.

[Clark H. @ Feb 10th 2007 2:54PM]

"Daddy, Daddy! I want to ride my Big Boy Trike!"

[Gerald S. @ Oct 27th 2007 8:29PM]

Yes, I would Not mind driving one of these cars/motorcycles; but, they cost too much. ANYWAY, for a motorcycle [2 or 3 wheel vehicle --for 3 wheel type-2 in front will sell and is better] I want something that will LEAN! Gas or electric.

Facts to not argue about: Global Warming is contributed to by simply starting your heat producing vehicle; millions of us do so, every day. Something like 80% of gasoline converts to Heat, when ignited, instead of motion to the vehicle. Whenever we Do Begin to use less gasoline, and Only "Then", will Global Warming begin to returning to a more Natural Earth temperature pattern; and the Icecaps will begin to form, and the Sea levels to lower, and......you get the idea.

Nuclear Power= Is Deadly! To All living matter,Forever!It's Waste Is a "problem", already. Much Better to use Other More "Natural" forms of energy conversions: Wind and Solar, and currents.

[Annonymous @ Feb 5th 2008 3:15PM]

We are adding to global warming. The carbon in fossil fuels was removed from the carbon cycle (carbon cycle- THe cycle of carbon dioxide being absorbed by plants, then the plants eventually releasing the carbon, through burning or other) Anyways.. The carbon was removed from the carbon cycle MILLIONS of years ago, and now it is being added back. This is causing there to be more carbon than our trees can handle. Want to know why the Dinosaurs existed? There were many more trees, which were much larger. Then the herbavores had more to eat, and the Herbavores grew in size, and the predators grew in size because of the larger herbavores, making huge beasts. Our plants are not capable of becoming huge and numerous, so we ARE contributing to Global warming. If you dont believe we arnt causing global warming you are wrong, and are probably a worker for some gasoline company.

If Im wrong in saying we are actually causing global warming, so what? You dont need to get technical and bitchy, saying: NO! ITS NATURALLY HAPPENING, WE ARE JUST HELPING IT!
Because honestly thats just an escuse to say you arnt going to do anything about it. "We didnt cause it, so therefore, we dont need to fix it"
That is bullshit, we need to fix it or we are butt-fucked! Stop arguing on if we caused it or not! WE NEED TO SOLVE IT!