Personal ground vehicle: Difference between revisions

A personal ground vehicle (PGV) refers to any vehicle that is privately owned, and intented for transport over ground.

Types

Several vehicles are used for personal transport purposes: electric scooters, segway PT's, Toyota winglet's, bicycles, recumbent bicycles, cabin cycles, velomobiles, motorised and human powered steps and monowheels, inline skates, heelys, ...

Kart

A kart is a 4-wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting a passenger, which also carries its own engine or motor. They are designed to be used solely on constructed roads, have seating for 1 person and do not allow goods to be transported. Karts have minimal safety features and are not designed for comfort or protection from the weather. They are not generally used for personal transport, but rather for competition and demonstration.

In some competitions such as the Shell Eco Marathon, average car weights of 45 kg have also been achieved with karts. ^[1][2] As well as low weights, the small size and low profile result in make low wind resistance easy to achieve. The resulting lower fuel use can be up to 2560 km/l ^[3].

Car

A "car" is is a 4-wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. They are designed to be used solely on constructed roads, have seating for four people and also allow small amount of goods to be transported.^[4]

Minivan

A minivan is a 4-wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. They are designed to be used solely on constructed roads, have seating for 1-8 people and also allow small to very large amount of goods to be transported. The amount of people/goods to be transported influence each other; ie with only 1 person to be transported, the amount of goods that can be transported can be very high; or alternatively, the exact opposite can also be done (allot of people, little goods can be transported). A relatively good ecologic minivan is the E-jeepney.

Weight

Weight is a very important aspect of a PGV, influencing fuel consumption and performance. General weight estimates are as follows:

• compact motor carriage: 1500 kg to 2250 kg
• mid-size motor carriage: 2250 to 2700
• minivans: 2500 to 3500 kg^[5]

According to a research conducted by Julian Allwood of the University of Cambridge, global energy use could be heavily reduced by using lighter cars, and an average weight of 500 kg has been said to be well achievable.^[6]

Design

Aerodynamics

For karts, the Belly tank design should be mentioned. See the Bill Burke and Alex Xydias cars and the recent GM Performance Division Ecotec Lakester 2006

• http://www.barracudamagazine.com/belly.htm
• http://www.autoconcept-reviews.com/cars_reviews/gm/GM-belly-tank/cars_reviews-gm-belly-tank.html

Cradle-to-cradle design

An example of a C2C kart is the ECO One, made by Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick

Examples of C2C motor carriages are the Ford Model U, the new Jeep Renegade, Edag light car, CQS Group T Racing Team Pegasus (see http://www.cqsgrouptracingteam.be/nl/odyssee/doelstellingen_o ), Joe Harmon Design Splinter, ...

Special features

Some manufacturers such as The Naro Car Company have very small cars (ie Naro) designed to allow more cars to drive the streets. Other cars are the foldable car from MIT Media Labs, the adaptive suspension car (CLEVER) invented by Benjamin Drew (see http://royalsociety.org/CLEVER---Compact-Low-Emission-Vehicle-for-urban-transport/).

Also notable car designers as Luigi Collani (http://www.colani.ch/visions.html; yellow hydrogen-car), Coqueline Barrière/André Courrèges (Zooop; see http://www.gizmag.com/go/5844/) Syd Mead, ...

Modular cars also exist, such as the GM Skateboard; see http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=293

References

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