The Comuta-Car Electric Vehicle

I think Americans are more interested in alternative technology than Big Oil and Big Auto admit. Hey, we're a country built on self reliance and Yankee ingenuity. And yet, Corporate America keeps saying that we love our SUVs, our excessive consumption, our couch potato lifestyle -- that's why they make big cars with big V8s and big appetites.

Not true!

Just returning from the Alternative Transportation Festival in Boston, I've gained a new perspective on things...

At City Hall Plaza I saw the corporate offerings of future technology. But I also saw today's offerings of tinkerers and concerned Americans.

Meet Chad Conway, a 16-year-old high school student from Duxbury, Mass. , who "has loved cars for as long as I can remember." When he came of age (driving age) his environmental interests turned him away from the 70s Mustang he was considering to an unusual car. His technology & engineer teacher, Mr. Connors, had a "Comuta-Car" made by Vanguard Electric that was bad shape. Because of Chad's "strong environmental concerns" he chose it as a class project.

"I will never forget opening the dashboard for the first time," Chad recalls. "A rainbow of different colored wires sprung out at me. About a quarter of the hundred wires behind the dashboard were either cut off or dangling free." The car runs now but Chad is beefing up the storage ability with more batteries.

The only downside to choosing the electric car over the Mustang is dating. "Girls don't really like the styling of this car," Chad observed. If you are inspired by Chad's example, here is more about his unusual Comuta-Car.

Note to Mr. Connors: Give this young man an A.

Posted by

Philip Reed September 27, 2006, 9:30 AM

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Fuel Economy