VIDEO: Brammo rides Detroit to Washington, 40 miles at a time

Sam Abuelsamid — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:59:00 EST

Brian Wismann on the Brammo Enertia - Click above for high-res image gallery

Earlier this week, Brammo's director of product development Brian Wismann along with Dave Schiff of Crispin Porter Bugosky, began a ten-day journey meant to take them to Washington, DC. The trip, which is being chronicled on the site shockingbarack.com, is intended to raise awareness of the company's new electric motorcycle, the Enertia, and electric vehicles in general.

The trek began at Zingerman's deli in downtown Ann Arbor, MI, which just happens to be a a few blocks from this blogger's office. Brian and Dave swung by the office for a visit to show off the bike - which they prefer to call a powercycle - and chat about what it can do. Along the route to the capital, they'll be making plenty of similar stops, partly to demonstrate the bike but mostly out of necessity. While the Enertia is undoubtedly a neat ride, it underscores two of the major problems with EVs. They are expensive ($11,995 for the Enertia) and have limited range. This bike only has a 42-mile range and then takes four hours to charge. That means plenty of short hops to cover the 520 miles to DC. On the plus side, it should only take about $4 worth of juice to make the trip.

Hopefully sales will bring volumes that help bring the cost down. In the meantime, check out the video after the jump.

Gallery: Brammo Enertia: Shocking Barack

[Source: Green Fuels Forecast]

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VIDEO: Brammo rides Detroit to Washington, 40 miles at a time originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ariel Atom builders heart the environment, change new supercar from V12 to all-electric

John Neff — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 20:02:00 EST

Filed under: Green, Supercars

If we're honest, most decisions in the business world, especially in the auto industry, aren't made for altruistic reasons. Money is the name of the game, and as the environment is becoming a much talked about issue around the dinner table, many automakers are realizing that it's in their best interest, financially speaking, to develop greener vehicles.

Craig Bramscher, the CEO of Brammo Motorsports, which builds the Ariel Atom in the U.S., seems to have changed the course of his company's direction based on the revelation that it could be making less of an impact on the environment. Brammo had been developing a new supercar called the Rogue GT that was to be powered by a V12 engine swilling gasoline like there was no tomorrow. Since Bramscher has realized there is a tomorrow, however, he's changed the product plan to make the supercar all-electric and renamed it the Enertia GT. This could be the beginning of a lineup of EV vehicles from Brammo, as it just unveiled an all-electric motorcycle last week called the Enertia. While the Enertia GT is likely to have a lower top speed than the Rogue GT due to the switch, acceleration is expected to improve. There's no word on what type of batteries the car will use or how far it will go on a charge, either.

While one could certainly question Bramscher's motivation for going green (one might argue you can attract more attention with an electric supercar than it could with one powered by a V12 engine), it appears the CEO just grew a soft spot for Mother Earth and is changing his dirty ways.

[Source: Winding Road]

Ariel Atom builders heart the environment, change new supercar from V12 to all-electric originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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