Solar Powered Electric Bicycle: Now we're talking!

For all those nay sayers, who love to point out that electric powered vehicles probably get their juice from coal or nuclear power plants. Not with this curious beastie they don’t. Photovoltaic panels are built in to the wheels, sort of like those aero discs used in racing bikes to reduce wind drag. Anyhow, the press release for the Canadian developed E-V Sunny Bicycle suggests it is the “first all Solar electric bicycle driven completely from power derived from the Sun’s Rays.” For about $1300 CAD you can apparently coerce dear old Sol to drive the bike along at speeds up to 30kph (19 mph) via the 500 watt motor. A kit is available for $800 CAD, which we assume allows for retrofitting of existing bicycles. Sounds almost too good to be true. Can't see the motor in this pic, nor is there any explanation of how the power is extracted from the spinning wheels. We do hope it turns out to be bona fide though, could be an intriguing development in urban transport.














By Warren McLaren, Bundanoon, Australia