MIT Technology Day 1996-"Miracle or Mirage: technology on the horizon"
Power Combines with communist past Trabi quiet thrill.
Warning, BMW, another German competitor is on the stage of spraying, but amiable Trabant is an electric makeover 25 years after the reunification.
A power company is REST small car built for the courageous Communist proletariat of the East with an electric motor, giving the vehicle a range without issuing almost equivalent to the high-tech electric i3 BMW AG.
ReeVOLT technology company said it created its e-Trabant to show the environmental virtues of retrofitting existing vehicles with electric motors The utility WEMAG AG unit also sells electric vehicles versions such as the Fiat 500 and Ford Ka drive the electric Trabant 38 horses without power steering and weak brakes, is a bit like taking a bumper car on the road and get on the gas.
This is much quieter than my old Trabant was, says Helmut Lettow, a resident aged 61 Bremerhaven, as he wrestled the car creaking on the road to the north of Binz, a town on the German island of Ruegen in the Baltic sea It accelerates faster.
Lettow bought a Trabant in 1973 when he was a teenager growing up in West Germany is exported some 1 million of the 3 trabis he produced for hard currency and sold the car for less than half Volkswagen AG charged when the Beetle.
More than 40 years later, Lettow paid 29 euros 32 to drive the electric version for 2 1 2 hours visiting nostalgia Ruegen tourism agency, which started the program in April in partnership with ReeVOLT, painted his orange e-trabis bright with decals of the island on the sides.
The car was made famous in the West after the fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germany blocked the roads of the rock band U2 filmed a version of the music video One with a Trabant, after falling in love with the car when recording the album Achtung baby in Berlin classic - round headlights, a smiling grille and a body cajole, Stubby - has helped make it a collector's item.
At its peak, the Trabant has filled the streets of communist countries like Poland, Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia Made from an envelope of resin and cotton waste, the vehicle cost the equivalent of the average annual salary a worker, and people often waited over a decade to achieve.
E-Trabi costs about 15,000 euros - 12,000 euros for ReeVOLT kit, 2,000 euros for a Trabant and 1,000 euros for the workforce - about half the price of the BMW i3, according to Andre Schmidt, a spokesman ReeVOLT.
The e-Trabi with a flat panel display to show the amount of energy used and product s, exchanged the thwack-thwack distinctiveness of the two-stroke engine - for electrical silent resulted Other changes to the - lawn mower think car are minimal There's hardly space for two adults to sneak in the back seat, and safety features such as rear seat belts and front headrests are missing.
Of course the Trabi network also won t with the phone or beep if a driver is too close to surrounding vehicles yet, the car has a range of 130 km against 160 km for the BMW, and accrued about 5 1 2 hours at from a household outlet.
The maximum speed is 110 km / h 69 miles per hour, Schmidt said that's to give the sluggish brakes a chance to stand up against the immediate pick-up of the electric motor.
It takes off like a rocket, he said that you could build a real Trabant race, but of course we wanted it to be reasonable.
Electric Trabi communist past with silent Combines Thrill, electric Trabant, combines, Communist.