Cannabis Car?

Please post a chunk of the article in future ;) (But not all of it, stupid fucking cash-grabbing whores are stopping us from doing so :p ).

As we're faced with an increasingly large world population and ever-dwindling resources the race is on to produce cars that not only produce zero tailpipe emissions, but ones that are green to manufacture too.

But what is the ultimate material for cars? Steel is strong, but hardly light enough to make ultra-efficient vehicles. Many plastics are based on oil, and composite materials like carbon fibre are difficult and costly to manufacture and repair.
switch_397x224.jpg

Enter the Kestrel. Designed and engineered by Motive Industries, a Canadian firm based in Alberta, the fully electric car features a body shell made of hemp--which may be better known as Cannabis Sativa L.

The hemp for the Kestrel's body is grown by Alberta Innovates Technology Futures (AITF) under license from the Canadian government.

Unlike the cannabis Californians may find available at their local medical marijuana dispensaries, hemp grown by AITF ends up on a production line, where it is turned into a composite material that has the impact resistance of fiberglass.

But unlike fiberglass, the hemp bio-composite is cheaper to produce and has fewer health risks connected with its manufacture. It is also significantly lighter than glass-based composites traditionally used in racing cars.
Click to expand...
Linky for the rest of the article
 
Whilst i'm a firm believer electric cars = gay, this could very well be the future!
 
ya very impressive. seems like the car crash fatality rate might increase with weaker cars..idk tho very cool regardles.
 
Mafioso said:
ya very impressive. seems like the car crash fatality rate might increase with weaker cars..idk tho very cool regardles.
Click to expand...

If you're depending on the outer shell of any car to protect you from a crash, then you should make sure your life insurance is up to date asap. ;)
 
Newbierock said:
Whilst i'm a firm believer electric cars = gay, this could very well be the future!
Click to expand...

electric cars are notoriously stupid.

for one, they contain more hazardous materials than the average ICE-powered car. in other words, it would be quite a bitch to recycle. for two, they might not directly emit any scary greenhouse gases but the juice to fuel em up has to come from somewhere and for most of us that means coal plants which do emit CO2 en masse. HMMM big win there, NOT.

fortunately, there's better business in making the ICE more efficient and using cleaner-burning fuels because for those options you can attain similar zero-emissions results without; and this is a big positive, without having to radically change the infrastructure as countries would be required to do in order to keep electric cars charged.

gas stations can pump any fuel that is liquid, since electricity is not liquid there would have to be costly new things built just to give the electric car industry a leg up to compete with the ICE on any meaningful level, and it's not like they can just retrofit gas stations because not everyone is going to suddenly own an electric car so there will still be a need for liquid fuels for quite a while.

good news on the hemp shell though, hopefully they will make the material accessible to the average hobbyist looking for a safe alternative to fibreglass!
 
Pretty interesting concept, but when I saw the thread title I thought it'd be about a car that ran on cannabis for fuel. Every driver with their windows rolled down behind you would be stoned. :P
 
this is nothing new

www.hempcar.org

back in the 40s we had the technology to do this. its just back then oil was cheap as chips so the idea was not able to compete with other materials. Another reason why so many vestied interestes wanted Cannabis Sativa outlawed.
 
just read about this the other day. maybe the hemp revolution will resurface again!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top