Inhabitat's Week in Green: new EV concept cars and Napmobiles
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
Up until now, Tesla has blazed a trail in the electric vehicle market -- but the major automakers are finally starting to catch up. This past week Porsche unveiled its new Mission E electric car, which packs over 600 horsepower and recharges in 15 minutes flat. Meanwhile, Audi showcased a sleek all-electric SUV to rival the Tesla Model X, and Mercedes-Benz debuted a car that can actually transform at high speeds. Even LA is jumping on the green-car bandwagon -- the city just announced plans to launch the largest electric vehicle fleet in the US. If you prefer pedal-powered transportation, don't miss out on a chance to win a Public V7 bike in our back-to-school giveaway -- it only takes a second to enter!
Carnegie Mellon professor Jay Whitacre has created a non-toxic battery that's clean enough to eat -- and this week it won him the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. In other energy news, Ethiopia is turning to giant solar energy-generating tulips in its quest to become carbon neutral by 2025. And researchers recently developed a new hybrid solar cell that produces five times more energy by harnessing sunlight and heat at the same time.
What will the buildings of the future look like? Last week a team of architects unveiled plans for an underground bubble house that could be 3D-printed on Mars. Here on Earth, the world's largest delta 3D printer can produce entire houses out of mud for practically zero cost. World-renowned firm Foster + Partners announced plans to construct a Droneport in Africa that will use unmanned aerial vehicles to distribute emergency medical supplies. And we showcased several examples of mobile architecture -- an incredible tiny home on wheels, and a Napmobile that lets you test-drive a cozy mattress on the road.
