Deliveries of the highway-capable and reasonably priced TRIAC electric vehicle from Green Vehicles Inc will start in December, according to the EV’s designer Ehab Youssef. The car should be a leading contender in the eco vehicle race, fetching a top speed of 80mph with a 100-mile range and a price tag of just $22,995 – making it the cheapest highway-capable EV on the market.

Another great selling point for the TRIAC is the very short battery charge time. EV’s usually take between 6-8 hours to complete a full charge cycle, including Chrysler’s recently announced Peapod. The TRIAC apparently takes just two hours to complete a full charge, which is truly groundbreaking. The vehicle runs on a 20kW AC motor and a 160 amp hour lithium battery pack, which is good for 2,000 charges. As you’d expect, the carcycle (my term) makes use of full regenerative braking.

The TRIAC has managed to escape a lot of expensive testing by being classed officially as a motorcycle (you can call just about anything a motorcycle these days, including this and this). That does not mean, however, that the vehicle is unsafe. The vehicle features a structural steel cage, side impact bracing and disc brakes but oddly, does not stretch the safety element to include airbags.

As far as the design goes, I’m a little confused. Okay, the single rear wheel may reduce the vehicle’s weight considerably, but what’s with the seemingly superfluous bicycle/motorcycle headlight on the nose? Is it to conserve power by using only one headlight when you’re low on juice? Any ideas?

Sources:
Triac and AutoBlogGreen