Jim Corning had an idea. Wouldn't it be cool if you could put four solar panels on your house, and then be able to power a vehicle with the energy created with them? Corning, who founded Prometheus Solar LLC, didn't have a vehicle he could power with sunlight, but he did have a wife with a Ninja 250 that wasn't getting much use.

Today, Corning has a proof-of-concept electric motorcycle. At the Santa Monica AltCar Expo, Corning was talking with curious visitors all weekend, but was happy to tell AutoblogGreen about the bike. The four panels behind Corning in the picture above offer 800 watts, enough to recharge the bike. During testing, he's blown up the batteries twice, and those accidents helped him realize the benefits of a more aerodynamic bike. Inspired by Craig Vetter's fuel efficiency contests of the 1980s, Corning designed the Prometheus research vehicle to be quite slippery (note the front wheel cover and the extended back end to give the air somewhere to go). He also wanted to keep the upright seating of a motorcycle, which influenced the desighn. Currently, the bike uses lithium-ion phosphate batteries from Thundersky that have a 4.6 kWh capacity connected to a 10 HP Perm PMG 132 motor. That means he can go up to 70 mph and has a range of about 50 miles. The bike is not for sale, but there has been no lack of interest, both at the show and on the street. Corning said he had to buy an open face helmet to talk to all of the people who chat him up at stop lights.

Listen to Jim Corning (5 min):

Why do so many people want to be hatin' on home electric vehicle conversions? When we featured Andrew Angellotti and his DIY Mazda pick-up truck conversion, a lot of people felt the need to criticize what this boy had done. Granted, there were some who defended him as well, but the very fact that people took the time to denegrate what he'd done was strange to me. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that something similar happened to Travis Gintz, the guy behind the eVFR (above).

It's taken quite a while to get to this stage, but Gintz wrote in to let us know that his electron-powered Honda VFR is finished. The other day, he took it to EV Awareness Day in Portland, Oregon. As Travis writes on his blog:

The first question out of everyone's mouth was "How far does it go"... to which I replied "15-20 miles on crappy used UPS batteries I got for free". I initially wanted to go with larger lead [acid batteries], but since these were free, I wanted to develop/test the mechanical first, and then upgrade to lithium in the fall. Its all working and now I can shop for alternatives to lead. Most people scoffed a little, I didn't care, Its quite a feat in a motorcycle, especially keeping it stock looking. I know what the end result will be.... LiFePo and AC will eventually find their way into that bike. It will perform well, and range will be 30-40 miles.

Compare this positivity to the negative comments some people feel the need to leave. Gintz said that the bike is now completely assembled, except for the turn signals and will be registered to be street-legal soon. We talked a bit with Travis about his project and you can read our interview after the jump.

UPDATE: picture updated at Travis' request.

Click on the image for more shots of the Deus Ex Machina concept

Bumsuk Lim, a professor at Art Center Pasadena in California, has started a new program which aims to push the boundaries of future motorcycle design. Lim projects two-wheeling as a possible green revolution of sorts, saying, "There is no point in designing existing vehicles and simply adding green technology to the same old problem when we have the opportunity, and the moment in time, to make a greater change! Why not use these new environmentally safe technologies to change the way we ride?"

Judging from the first design we've seen from Jake Loniak, convention has taken a back seat to design. Called Deus Ex Machina, which means God Out of a Machine, the three-wheeled vehicle is a melding of motorcycle and exo-skeleton, complete with artificial vertebrae and pneumatic muscles. A built-in helmet, which sits atop the machine at rest, tilts forward with the body of the rider, making for a leaned-forward riding position. If it were ever built, which seems rather unlikely, the vehicle is projected to accelerate to sixty in three seconds and travel up to sixty minutes at a speed of up to seventy-five miles per hour, all after a fifteen minute charge of the Doped NanoPhosphate batteries and ultra-capacitors.


[Source: GreenCarDesign via Hell For Leather]

We love the British show Scrapheap Challenge. Reruns of the old Junkyard Wars episodes sometimes appear on satellite TV, and we've seen all of them. The show still runs in the U.K., and the latest episode featured junkyard-derived motorcycles, which the show charitably describes as superbikes. One rule in particular made the challenge rather difficult: no parts originally used on a motorcycle may be used on the scrap-bikes. This made the design of the two-wheelers rather interesting, to say the least. One team decided to go light and nimble with an electric motor and lead-acid batteries. The other team chose to use the engine from a small car. What could be greener than making usable electric machines recycled from discarded junk? Would the powerful internal-combustion engine powered "superbike" grab the victory from the plucky little electric machine? If you'd like to find out, follow the build progress and recaps of the three races which would decide the winner. Thanks for the tip, Willo!

[Source: Channel 4]

Three months and $3,000 is what it took Instructable's poster Stryker (aka Ben) to build this great electric motorcycle. Unhappy with rising gas prices and ready to learn, Ben took a 1984 Honda Interceptor 700, gutted the gasoline components and added a 72V Advanced DC motor and 6 Yellow Top Optima batteries. He's explained the process here and here.

If a company offered this bike for sale, it wouldn't sell in great numbers. The 70 mph top speed is fine but it can only go 10-15 miles on a charge. Considering that Stryker lives just three miles from work, though, that "limit" is nonexistent for what he wants the bike to do. Of course, three miles is well within bicycle distance for some people, but the fun of creating a zero-emission motorcycle should not be dismissed. Don't believe me? Stryker is selling this bike so that he can build another.

[Source: Instructables via The Kneeslider]

Racing electric motorcycles is something we seem to be seeing more and more of. The race we're talking about here was a friendly three-lap affair at a track on the edge of Bangkok, Thailand that ended (*spoiler alert) in a win for the gas machine. However, if the Electric GPR-S, piloted by the owner of Electric Motorsport, Todd Kollin, hadn't wiped out half-way through, the result might have been different.

While the race was pretty cool, the exciting news here is the coming of another electric motorcycle to our shores. Using a motorcycle chassis from Thai motorcycle maker Tiger Motorsports and powered by 72 volts of lithium ion, this newest entrant into the market should have a top end of 70 mph and a range between 40 and 60 miles. Look for a price in the neighborhood of $8,000, which isn't too bad considering the competition. Tiger Motorsports has plans to sell the bike in Asia as the E-Boxer. Check out the story and video at TG Daily for more details and pics. To keep up to date with the latest on the Electric Motorsport bike, watch this space.

[Source: TG Daily]

Click in the image for more pictures of the electric Kawasaki conversion

Benjamin Nelson of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin thought it would awesome if he could ride to work, the grocery store, the post office and other locations nearby while using no gas at all. He used to ride an electric bike which was able to hit speeds of around 20 miles per hour, but he noticed that other drivers had problems seeing him coming. Precious few manufacturers offer anything suitable, so he decided to make his own electric motorcycle. Using plenty of good-old-fashioned ingenuity, a second-hand Briggs & Stratton ETEK motor and a few deep-cycle lead acid batteries, he now has an electric Kawasaki which can cruise at nearly 40 miles per hour and travel up to 15 miles on a charge.

Considering what he's got into it, those specifications are plenty good enough for Nelson, who uses the electric cycle as his primary transportation. He adds, "If gas is three bucks a gallon, I can go 300 miles on that same amount of electricity. 300mpg isn't too bad for a motorcycle, is it?" Not bad at all!


[Source: Hell For Leather Magazine]

In case you are not faimiliar with the term "steampunk", it's a part of the literary sci-fi punk genre. Need more explanation? Consult the all-knowing wiki here. Now that we're all on the same page, check out this electric-steam hybrid motorcycle, built by Tom Sepe. We think that it's pretty cool, although the steam part is a bit misleading. Sure, steam bellows forth from the rear of the bike, but that's for show only. We think it would be epic if the steam boiler powered a turbine which in turn powered the batteries. As it stands, though, this is still an electric motorbike, plus, it throws flames ... and that is cool enough for us. Follow past the break for a short video of the machine in action.

[Source: Steampunk Workshop via The New Cafe Racer Society]

Click on the image able fore more pictures of the Zero X

Last year, we introduced our readers to the Zero X electric off-road motorcycle, which is capable of a forty-mile range after a two-hour charge. Last year the bike was selling for just under $7 grand, and although it is now going for nearly $7,500, we hear that they're having no problem selling the bikes. In stark contrast to Vectrix, Zero Motorcycles is reportedly looking for enough funding to undergo expansion in order to keep up with demand.

What is even more exciting is the new Zero S on-road electric motorcycle that the company is currently rolling out. The new S model will come complete with everything needed to register it on the street, including lights and turn signals, and is expected to be available this summer. Of course, the key to any electric vehicle is the battery, and the unit used by Zero contains 168 individual lithium ion cells and is expected to endure six years of hard riding.


[Source: Zero Motorcycles via The Kneeslider]

Travis Gintz from Portland, Oregon is currently working on converting a 1986 Honda VFR from gas to electric power. He's using a DC motor from Advanced DC, twelve 12-volt lead-acid batteries and other assorted electronic pieces, including a 600 amp motor controller. With this setup, he's planning on being able to get up to 70 miles per hour or so but the range is undetermined thus far. He managed to get lots of free stuff and managed to find good deals on the rest, so his conversion is moving along quite nicely. His VFR is currently stripped down and awaiting the installation of the motor and batteries, so this would be a good time to start following his progress. We'll keep you updated when his project is completed, so stay tuned for more.

[Source: eVFR]