3 Wheeled Honda

[milnes]

What do you think of this 3 wheeled Honda?

Only a concept at the moment though.

http://www.greenmuze.com/climate/cars/2334-honda-3r-c-concept-car.html

[Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker)]

Looks to me like a concept in search of a purpose. If you're going to make it too big to weave through traffic and build in a safety shell with some sort of door, why not go the whole hog, stick on a roof and make it a fully enclosed car?

[marcus]

It is a nice bit of modern styling, but seriously flawed in its "available space" compared to its "foot-print on the road". Furthermore, there seems to be a lot more bodywork than is needed on a scooter, and far less than is needed to make it anything like a proper car for safety and weather protection. I would love to have a go on it, but no-one outside of Honda's conceptual design department will ever drive it, yup another tease!

[AndrewG]

It's wrong in more ways than I can count:
- too large for a one-person vehicle with little or no storage space;
- it's too tall to be decently stable, even with batteries;
- it doesn't tilt (which is an alternative cure for the stability issue);
- the weather protection ends when the rider gets on board!

Yup, all styling, no substance.  Which is surprising as while Honda is only slightly less hidebound than other 2/3/4-wheel manufacturers, they have made plenty of sensible vehicles in this size range.

Andrew

[Big Al]

College boys have got the Lego out again have they?. Where are the real first concept ground breaking ideas? Not that it matters since they will only get built by private finance since the few remaining manufacture groups are locked in a conservative war for sales.
I have still to understand why electric cars are classed as green. Using rare earth metals from dirty great big holes in the ground and moving the pollution emissions to a power station are not green. Bring on the alternative calorific fuels and lighter vehicles constructed to last. Oh, sorry no money for the vested interests in that, silly me. I will stick to my traditionally powered old bangers until they are not green by total lifetime footprint against usage which is the criteria that really counts. As we know if you keep cars long enough the styling becomes different by default so no need to buy something new to stand out anyway. Be trendy by being tight!
Wasn't this thing on James May's show with the Robot or something?

[Bob Purton]

To make a standard lead acid battery electric car you use no more [probably less] of the earths precious resources than an ICE car [internal combustion engine] but when you charge it the power station emits only 40% of the CO than if you were to burn the fossil fuel yourself in a petrol car. I'm talking quadricycle size here.This however is only true if you buy your electricity from a providers that supplies a high proportion of sparks from renewables but at least you have the choice. Apparently some modern diesel cars are more CO friendly than electric cars! A more sound argument in my view is that at least with electric cars there are no emissions at all at street level to poison the kids! It makes sense to me. At the end of the day we are at the mercy of the people dishing out the statistics and as we know they can make them say what ever they want. I speak as a complete hypocrite as I own two microcars and two mopeds that are all strokers!

[blob]

Wonder if the driver gets decapitated by the canopy in a crash test ?

[marcus]

Wonder if the driver gets decapitated by the canopy in a crash test ?

No, because Honda have also developed a "Concept Driver" for it!