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Alastair Sloane

Solar cells in ute cover provide on-the-job power for tradies

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Canadian company Worksport has developed a folding tonneau cover for pick-up trucks that contains a cutting-edge solar charging and storage system. The cover, called TerraVis, uses solar panels to pull in the sun’s energy and send it to removable batteries packaged in the truck’s bed. It is capable of storing up to 1000W of useable energy, says the company, which can be … [Read more...] about Solar cells in ute cover provide on-the-job power for tradies

Electric car ‘Luca’ is made from recycled ocean plastic

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Meet Luca, an electric car build almost entirely from recycled trash by students at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. The project took around 18 months to complete, said group spokesman Matthijs Van Wijk. The chassis itself was made from ocean plastic. “I’m so proud that we could make the chassis with ocean plastic. This is a really very difficult … [Read more...] about Electric car ‘Luca’ is made from recycled ocean plastic

It’s feeding frenzy – three out of four new cars are SUVs

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The growth of SUVs in New Zealand goes a long way to explaining the old maxim that car ownership is not about what we truly need, but more a combination of what we want and what we think we need. The traditional car – sedan, station wagon, hatchback – has been shunted aside over the years by an SUV feeding frenzy fuelled partly by marketing hype that said New Zealanders are … [Read more...] about It’s feeding frenzy – three out of four new cars are SUVs