Electric Cars - Time to Tango

Tango, Electric Commuter Car at CommuterCars.com

Tango T600 ($108,000 with $10,000 deposit)

Tango T200 ($39,900 with $1,000 deposit)

Automotive technology specialist Prodrive and Commuter Cars Corporation (CCC) of Spokane, Washington are producing the Tango, an electric commuter vehicle as a possible solution to commuting problems in congested cities. Only 39 inches wide and eight and a half feet long, the Tango is as tall as a conventional car but takes up only half the road width.

The Tango is more like a motorcycle by it’s ability to change lanes to gain advantage in traffic. Unlike a motorcycle, you can safely ride in comfort listening to tunes, carry most of your stuff - even your significant other, staying dry and basking in the envious stares of other stuck in traffic as you whiz past. CommuterCars states that “extremely heavy traffic a Tango or motorcycle can travel in 20 seconds the distance that cars travel in 20 minutes.”

From a CommuterCars pdf: “According to the
US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 90% of all automobile trips are single occupant, and the average round-trip commute is 20 miles. With relatively inexpensive lead-acid batteries, the Tango can travel 4 times that far on a charge. With lithium-ion batteries, 300 miles should be achievable.” “…Thus the equivalent mile per gallon cost of theTango could be over 300 mpg, based on $.05 per kWh as found in the Pacific Northwest and gasoline at $3.00 per gallon.”

” An all-electric car like theTango is the only currently practical true zero-emission vehicle. If charging from the grid, emissions are minimal due to the current mix of power sources. In addition to the much higher efficiency of an EV, there are more sophisticated pollution control devices on
power plants than can be placed on individual cars. Hydro, wind, geothermal, and tidal are some of the clean and renewable sources of energy. As the grid gradually changes over to these, there will be less pollution yet. About $2,800 worth of solar cells on a rooftop, approximately 80 sq ft, is enough to get the average commuter to work and back for a lifetime.”

Commuter Cars is now accepting orders with fully refundable deposits for the Tango T600 kit and for the Tango T200 and T100 production vehicles. Production of the ultimate high-performance, luxury Tango T600 is underway. They are being delivered as mostly-assembled kits requiring less than a day to complete. The T200 and T100 production vehicles are expected to be available in 2008 and 2009, respectively, depending on funding.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 9:27 pm and is filed under EcoFriendly, Energy Saving, Green Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.