Ok, here it goes. The other night when I met with some of my cycling friends for a Sausage Dog Platter at Longdoggers in Palm Bay (ok, I actually had key lime pie), the conversation turned to the topic of oil consumption in America. I don’t think it’s any news that the US consumes about 25% of the world’s total oil. (Check out this chart for a visual comparison http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption). Anyhow, the whole discussion reminded me of my cousin Achim in Germany and his own initiative on being a greener corporate citizen.
I always knew he was a home-engineer when he showed me his first homemade PDA with special attached devices way back when! Over time, his passion for technology tinkering and gadgets apparently could no longer be restrained to the inside of the house and so he ventured into engineering his own environmentally friendly portable device.
The picture below displays the actual size of the magnificent Piaggio Ape 50 (a well-known Italian tricycle) sitting to the left of my Dad’s Mercedes. Please pay close attention to the black square attached to the Piaggio’s roof. Yup, that is a solar panel.
The solar panel continuously charges the battery when the Piaggio is not being operated and shuts itself off automatically when the battery is fully charged. When the Piaggio is in operation, the power supply is managed by a dynamo and the solar panel is switched off through a relay.
The Piaggio’s cabin has a nice roomy interior and is luxuriously equipped with a state-of-the-art Blaupunkt Radio (Blaupunkt Sylt Schwanenhals SQM108). This is one of the very first digital car radios made with a detachable operating interface, manufactured in 1971. Yup, it still works.
Top speed for this hot-rod is 34 miles/hr (faster downhill), and consumes 4 liters per 100 kilometers (1.06 gallon per 62.14 miles). That makes the math easy, the Piaggio gets 62mpg.
Especially impressive is the load area with a capacity of 440lbs. Despite the ample load area, Achim is now designing an additional trailer as pictured below.
This trailer is still in the design stage and will be modified to carry a round object, for instance a keg. More specifically a beer keg! Achim can now go out and do all the shopping and errants for the wife, be energy conscious and still bring home a keg of beer. Prost!
