TEST

CLEVER Concept For Eco-Friendly Urban Driving

Jun 18, 2008 By Matt

21 Comments

Here is a clever design from the Technical University of Berlin that they cleverly named CLEVER. CLEVER stands for Compact Low Emissions Vehicle for Urban Transport (wait…that spells CLEVUT. Not so clever!). This TRON-esque 3 wheeled wonder is about 10 ft long, 3.3 ft wide and 4.4 feet high and weighs 870lbs. It’s single cylinder 230cc compressed natural gas engine is capable of going 62 mph with a range of about 125 miles all the while emitting less than 60 g/km of CO2 (the Toyota Prius does 104 g/km).

The CLEVER is a result of collaboration between TUB, BMW and several other automotive innovators to design a lightweight, low consumption, low emissions urban driving vehicle. While they have a working prototype there is no word about when or if this will come to market. .

CLEVER Details:

3-wheel tilting cornering vehicle
Length: 3 m (9.8 ft)
Width: 1 m (3.3 ft)
Height: 1.35 m (4.4 ft)
Tandem seat constellation
Single-cylinder 230 cc natural gas engine - Kerb weight ~395 kg (870 lbs)
vmax= 100 kph (60 mph)
0-60 kph < 7 sec.
Range approx. 200 km (124 miles)
Aluminium space frame with plastic body

Visit the CLEVER Project

Category: Cars+Tranportation

21 Comments, Comment or Ping

Green Authors

All I want for Christmas is one of these! For some reason all of the fuel efficient fun little cars are never allowed in the US.

Jun 18th, 2008
Greenpointer

I WANT ONE TOO!!!!! Seriously… where can I get one?

Jun 18th, 2008
baudman

CO2 - It’s only better than the Prius if the Prius is only taking one person. As soon as the Prius has two (or 3, 4 or 5 and a load) it is better than multiple CLEVERs.

Jun 19th, 2008
driving course

Looks like good, safe, fun commuting to me - sign me up.

Jun 19th, 2008
Shane

Where do I put my groceries??

Jun 19th, 2008
Syd

I like it, on certain levels, but I wonder…what is the target market? Would-be-Vespa-riders who live in rainy climates? It seems like something for the Segway set, and virtually nobody else.

Jun 19th, 2008
GateCrasher

The reason you dont see cars like this in the U.S. is because they need to pass the crash test rating. Which a car like this would never do, and if it did, its fuel efficiency would drop 50%.

Jun 19th, 2008
vplakhi

@gatecrasher:

actually check out the Aptera (www.aptera.com) that’s in production. as three-wheelers, these types of vehicles are actually classified as motorcycles in most states (including CA), and so can easily meet the crash test requirements, and get out onto the US market quickly. the other benefit is that they’re allowed in HOV/carpool lanes in many states, and registration/insurance is cheaper.

not a bad deal.

Jun 19th, 2008
Sm4k

@ Gatecrasher

Vehicles with 3 wheels do not have to pass crash tests.

Jun 19th, 2008
Matt everett

What’s so clever about this. It’s a tricycle with plastic sides.

You can buy bicycle engines on ebay that do 40 MPH and get get 150 MPG for 400 bucks. Put it on any bike, trike you like.

Nice to see a minimalistic design FINALLY, but how much will charge for that thing ?

Most carbon comes from power plants, not cars.Cars are actually easier to limit also rather than telling people to stop heating their homes.

The government has the full breakdown per sector per source.

Most importantly electric use is growing more rapidly

Jun 19th, 2008
Ken

Amazingly Cool! Cooler than Dauphin and Smera that I’ve posted about in my blog. Absolutely going to have it if I have the budget.

But this thing still emit something, which is still dangerous for our below earth…

Jun 19th, 2008
Alex P. Keaton

http://www.3wheelers.com/gmlean.html

Reminds me of this concept vehicle I saw at EPCOT as a kid

Jun 20th, 2008
Fred

Plus you can almost park it vertically.

Jun 20th, 2008