Inhabitat

TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: The Kite Powered Car

Here at Inhabitat we love wind powered vehicles for their inspired approaches towards sustainable transportation – after all what could be simpler than sailing along on a breeze? Designed by Tsun-Ho Wang, Min-Gyu Jung, and Sung-Je Do, this futuristic Wind Light Vehicle is an electric concept car that can deploy a wing-like device to propel it along like a windsurfing board or even a kite!

kite car, wind powered vehicle, concept vehicle, green vehicle, wind light vehicle, windsurfing vehicle

When we featured the Mercedes’ Formula Zero Racer a few weeks ago, we thought that it was rather unique insofar as it was propelled by a sail. The Wind Light Vehicle takes a similar approach, with a wing-like hood that can be used as either a vertical sail or flown high above as kite. For times when the wind dies down, it also features an electric motor in each of its three wheels.

While this concept definitely tends towards the far end of future-forward, it does capture an inspired approach and we’re looking forward to the development of more immediately viable wind propelled vehicles.

Via Yankodesign

5 Responses to “TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: The Kite Powered Car”

Tdebin Says:

November 25th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

These look so darn cool. Would love to just design those for a living!

cmonaco Says:

November 26th, 2008 at 10:04 am

Does anyone know why car designers do not include a front grill full of wind turbines that would spin while driving to recarge an electric car?

pburgess Says:

November 26th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

cmonaco: same reason you can’t stick a fan in front of a wind generator, run a connection between them and expect the pair to run in perpetuity; thermodynamic principles prevent any such physical system from running at perfect efficiency. In the case of turbines on a car, it’s aerodynamically inefficient: the energy collected would amount to far less than the additional energy required to push said grill through the air. Hence the teardrop shape of solar race cars and the like…better to cut through the air as efficiently as possible, because recapturing anything from turbulence would just be a losing proposition.

larias Says:

November 26th, 2008 at 5:38 pm

So where’s the innovation here? this is called ‘landyachting” and it’s been around for decades.
( http://www.flickr.com/photos/frakassor/489762792/ )
instead of a kite, it uses a windsurfing sail which I personally think is a better option. Imagine getting that kite tangled on powerlines, traffic lights, etc.

angusjcampbell Says:

July 1st, 2009 at 10:09 am

This is essentially a kite buggy, invented 20 years ago by Peter Lynn. Similar designs are available from many brands and are in use all over the world.

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