Dutch students grow their own biodegradable car
EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - What's made of sugar, can carry four people and travel at 50 miles (80 km) per hour? A biodegradable car, whose inventors say could be the next step in environmentally friendly motoring.
The lightweight electric car, created by students in the Netherlands, is made of a resin derived from sugar beets and covered with sheets of Dutch-grown flax.
"Only the wheels and suspension systems are not yet of bio-based materials," said Yanic van Riel, one of the developers from the TU/Ecomotive team at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
The structure of the car they have called Lina has a similar strength-weight ratio to that of fibreglass and weighs only 310 kg (about 684 pounds).
More (includes video): http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-netherlands-biocomposite-car-idUSKBN1AO1BL
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