Top Gear presenter, Richard Hammond plugs the Th!nk City
Many of you know Richard Hammond from the very popular and amusing show about all things automotive from Britain called Top Gear. Did you know that he is also a columnist for the UK tabloid The Mirror? Neither did I, but apparently that is indeed the case and has been since 2004. On Fridays he "gives his expert insight into the world of motoring, while on Saturday he gives his own irreverent take on the week's news," according to the Mirror's website. The reason I bring this up is because he did a piece the other day on the electric Th!nk city car which is coming to England. In the past, Top Gear has not been especially kind to other electric vehicles they've featured, so I was surprised that he seems to be quite upbeat about the Th!nk. Of course, he hasn't driven it yet but says, "I'll no doubt give the THINK a go..." Hopefully if he does, he'll refrain from blowing it up.
Gallery: Th!nk City
[Source: The Mirror]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
top 7:40PM (3/31/2008)
top gear is popular in Britain and not in the u.s. because they never give an objective judgement but a humourous testing and mocking of what is real and important for automakers and customers. they value their own and primarily european cars and bash or do unfair comparisons that are non-european.
for ex. they take a ride on the prius and say it isnt good because diesel cars do better mpg. but they don't take into account that it was made in Japan where diesel is not an option for the public! And I don't see or hear that the english majority drive diesel cars because if it were so popular there would be no gas stations in england but only diesel stations.
Until I hear both of those judgemental announcers say objective statements about the Think I don't really trust anything they say even if it means backing the Think. I haven't heard any news of them talking about the Tesla which have plans to go to European countries.
the bigger questions is who sponsors them? oil? gas carmakers? That'll probably answer why they are so distorted in their result analysis.
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Doug 1:27AM (4/21/2008)
At the end of the article Hammond makes mention of the Tesla Roadster:
"Tesla Motors was founded by a bloke named Elon Musk..."
As we all know, Tesla Motors was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, both of whom were forced out a few months ago. Since then, more and more I've seen Elon implicitly and explicitly referred to as the founder. Perhaps Daryl Siry should address the "Elon as founder" myth in his next Mythbusters blog.
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jeffzekas 3:12PM (3/30/2008)
The Think car is quite clever, and usable in a small town, or for local commuting. Hey Ford, why not buy distribution rights to the car you once owned? And attention, state governments, attention: start requiring 10% of all new vehicles sold to be electric, and soon, the change-over shall begin. "We can move into the new, oil scarcity era with grace, or we can move forward, screaming and kicking. But either way, the oil WILL run out." (quote from my uncle, a petrochemical engineer and geologist).
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rgseidl 6:12PM (3/30/2008)
@ jeffzekas -
*fossil* oil will run out. That doesn't mean we won't figure out how to produce enough liquid or gaseous fuels from sustainable sources - it's mostly a question of price points and how investors expect them to develop.
Electric drive technology will have its place in the vehicle fleet, in everything from HEVs to PHEVs to true EVs. However, it is inappropriate and counterproductive for any government to mandate unit sales of any particular non-existent technology by any given date - cp. the tortured history of California's ZEV mandate.
Public policy needs to focus on desired outcomes in terms of public asset metrics: air quality, fuel economy/GHG emissions, traffic density etc. Let the engineers figure out the best way to get there.
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kert 4:04PM (3/31/2008)
::Public policy needs to focus on desired outcomes in terms of public asset metrics...Let the engineers figure out the best way to get there.
Close, but no cigar. You see, engineers cant pull infrastructure for their vehicle ideas out of the thin air.
Public policy needs to deal with infrastructure development as well. Whether its bike lanes, fast EV charging stations, photovoltaic parking roofs for EVS, hydrogen fueling stations or something else, they can make or break the nice ideas that engineers dreamt up.
The infrastructure playing field is hugely tilted to four-wheeled hydrocarbon internal combustion engines in some big parts of the world right now. This needs to be fixed.
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