News

Dale Vince, an environmentalist and wind-farm millionaire, has built Britain’s first electric supercar. ‘Nemesis’ can accelerate from 0-100 mph in 8.5 seconds and reach speeds up to 170 mph. Nemesis started life as a Lotus Exige, before a specialist team fitted it with 96 lithium-ion polymer cells, two motors developing 330 bhp and a new...

Scottish street trials maestro Danny MacAskill has posted a new video on Youtube. His first film, a five-and-a-half-minute street trials video posted on YouTube in April 2009, brought his incredible skills to the attention of the world and has been viewed by over 21m people. MacAskill, a twenty-four year old from Dunvegan on the Isle of...

A £32m deal that will see car club giant ZipCar buy its British rival, StreetCar, has been given the go-ahead by the Competition Commission. Zipcar has 360,000 members across America and Europe hopes to expand the British arm of its business. With diesel prices in Britain returning to the record levels reached earlier this year, it is...

Trees with naturally-glowing leaves could provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to street lamps. Researchers in Taiwan have discovered that adding nanoparticles of gold to the leaves of the Bacopa Caroliniana tree causes its leaves to glow. Dr Ye-Hsun points out that this is potentially a win-win-win situation, with the glowing...

Cyclists looking for an effortless boost in speed need look no further than a robotic suit that increases leg strength by up to 40kg (400N). The Panasonic Powerloader Light (PPL), which goes on sale this month, uses six-axis sensors in its foot pedals, allowing the robotic legs to match and augment the users movements. The suit is intended...

Thanks to the artist Joseph Griffiths, we now know what a bicycle will draw when given the opportunity. Griffiths’s work seeks to ‘transcribe the living relationship between man and machines’. His mechanical installation translates the movements of both the handlebars and pedals into colourful and vibrant images. Make your own cycle pannier...

Internet giant Google has integrated search engine technology with hybrid engine technology to produce a Toyota Prius that is able to drive itself. The fully-functioning prototype uses data from Google maps, an array of cameras on the car’s bodywork and a roof-mounted laser scanner to negotiate any road conditions. The autonomous Google...

The bicycle basket is as practical an accessory as a pair of full-length mudguards, but just as unlikely to be fitted by the average cyclist. Bicycle baskets are commonplace in continental Europe, but are regarded as so unfashionable by some British cyclists that they are believed to provide a strong deterrent against bike theft. However,...

The third generation Prius may boast many technological and styling improvements over its predecessor, but Toyota recently tasked its Conversion and Development department with demonstrating its potential for modification. The pimped Prius boasts a long list of improvements including new instruments to display the car’s efficiency,...

Drivers will soon be able to unlock their cars, sound the horn, check the fuel and oil levels and start the engine via their smartphone, even if they are thousands of miles away. The OnStar service incorporates mobile phone technology into cars and was originally intended to automatically report a crash to the emergency services, but the...