Steve Titus REALLY hates using foreign oil. The Bozeman, Montana resident began his personal quest for total energy independence by building a plug-in solar – electric vehicle. Titus’ passion then propelled him to develop the Solar Bug, an ATV powered by roof-mounted solar cells. The machine may only go 20 miles per charge, but Titus has his eyes on the prize: “I was tired of going to the gas station,” says Titus. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that Steve and six like-minded friends paraded their rechargeable vehicles through downtown Bozeman on Friday. While one of the participants optimistically predicted that the area could become an epicenter for green vehicle technology (like Portland and Seattle), you gotta credit these guys for their plain talking. “More and more Americans are sick of paying $80 for gas once or twice a week.”
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Bozeman is north of Yellowstone. I really want to see how those fare in the winter, with those teeny tires. Bet it’s an icebox, too.
I would think that the ATV would natively do pretty well. A few hundred pound machine with a good power to weight ratio and (most likely) 4WD. How is this not fairly capable? Regardless, at least they are attempting to do something about consumption other than buying a Prius then treating themselves to an extra trip to Starbucks for a job well done. They are actually reducing consumption in a meaningful way, even if for only part of the year and that’s quite a bit more than most folks who just grumble about gas on their way to pick up the latest new larger-for-this-year SUV.
I spent part of my youth near Bozeman… out in the boonies really… when we needed to buy groceries or clothes or whatnot we’d drive the 60 miles of canyon downstream to Bozeman. I love that town and would move back in a heartbeat. Megan is right though, winters are VERY cold. I can recall many days 20-below and quite a few at 40-below. It will be interesting to see how these EVs do under those conditions.
As for gasoline prices, I don’t worry about them either, I drive a Diesel and brew my own.
–chuck
I thought they’d be driving motorcycles.
Of very high quality.
Why do these EV guys always build such plain vehicles? Why don’t they build a street rod kit or something? Looks plus some usefulness would carry their point much further. The average pedestrian who doesn’t get to HEAR his message is just going to say – ewww! That’s ugly. You wouldn’t catch me in one of those.
How about a nice old CR-X or something?