2002 BMW Clever

The lastest creation of the European scientists is the prototype of a revolutionary vehicle, only a meter wide, specialy designed for city use. The vehicle combines the maneuvrability of a motorcycle with a car’s safety. It also has a small fuel consumption.

C.L.E.V.E.R. (Compact Low Emision Vehicle for Urban Transport) is a 1.5 million euro project and the rezult is amazing. The result of this project is a three-wheel vehicle. The special thing about this vehicle is it`s unique hydraulic tilting mechanism.

The driver and the passenger are protected by a metal framework and the crash tests have shown that this small vehicule is almost as safe as a normal car.The results from the USNCAP first crash at 56 kph against a rigid barrier met expectations and would again result in a 3-star grading. The head and chest stresses on the driver were very good, and the head stresses on the passenger were also acceptable as a result of the energy-absorbing foam on the driver’s backrest.

Because it`s radical three-wheel design, the C.L.E.V.E.R. was very unstable at high speed cornering. So two engineers, Matt Barker and Ben Drew came up with the ideea of the electronicaly controled hydraulic tilting mechanism. This mechanism makes it act lile a bike when taking a corner, so the stability is increased.

Running on compressed natural gas, the vehicle would not only help preserve stocks of oil but would emit less polluting carbon dioxide than conventional cars. Its fuel consumption is predicted to be equivalent to 188 miles per gallon.