p2pnet news | Off Topic:- Not long before I moved to Canada from England in 1979, I got around town in Bond Bug, the same as the vehicle on the top left, except mine was black. It was a two-seat, three-wheeler built by Reliant and had an alarming tendency to threaten to lift off if you went beyond 70 miles an hour

It was a, “wedge-shaped microcar, with a lift-up canopy, instead of conventional doors,” says the Wikipedia. “It was originally designed for Reliant and used a modified version of the Reliant Regal chassis, but was sold under the Bond Cars Ltd name after Reliant acquired them. The engine was front mounted and was the 700 cc Reliant four cylinder unit.”

The car immediately underneath is the older Messerschmitt KR200 Kabinenroller three-wheeled bubble car.

It was designed by aircraft engineer Fritz Fend and produced by German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt in the 1950s and early 1960s.

“Messerschmitt, temporarily not allowed to manufacture aircraft, had turned its sights toward the production of vehicles, much like its cousin company BMW,” says the Wikipedia.

And beside the pair of them is what’s being touted as a brand-new idea – Nissan’s electric Pivo 2.

It’s one of three similar energy and space saving Japanese mini-cars, the other two being Toyota’s Rin and Honda’s Puyo, and they’re billed as “therapeutic,” says Associated Press going on:

And none of them are promised for sale to the public anytime soon.

Behind the offerings is the growing view among Japanese automakers that more must be done to fight the image of cars as culprits of pollution, global warming and traffic accidents.

Their answer: Transform the car into a friendly companion – not just a machine for getting around.

Apart from the fact you plug ‘em in to fill ‘em up, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of difference

Jon

Slashdot it!

Also See:
Associated Press – Japan’s ‘Big Three’ to Debut Cute Cars, October 10, 2007

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 6:28 am and is filed under Off Topic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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