Tags: Eco-friendly car. Automobiles. Environmentally. History. Hemp based fuels.
From when the first automobile was produced, vehicle designers have experimented with various methods that will not only improve economy but will also have less impact on the environment and whilst one Canadian company has recently designed what is claimed to be the world’s most eco-friendly car with a body that is manufactured completely from hemp, few people are aware of a previous attempt to produce a similarly made vehicle by none other than Model T inventor, Henry Ford.
History reveals that Mr. Ford spent something like twelve years researching the viability of such a vehicle and had even included the possibility of incorporating an engine that ran on a hemp-based fuel. However, due to the restrictions placed on the industry during World War II, his plans failed to come to fruition and the idea was shelved in 1941, never to re-appear on the company’s design and development schedule.
Obviously having access to a much greater degree of technology than Henry Ford could have ever dreamed of, Calgary based Motive Industries Inc have come up with a design that is seen partly as the result of the Canadian Government’s pro-active support of the industrial use of hemp and with that, the farming of the product.
The four-passenger vehicle, the “Kestrel, is powered by an electric motor which is manufactured by TM4 Electrodynamic Systems of Quebec and produces a top speed of ninety km per hour with a arrange of approximately one hundred kilometres before the need to re-charge. Interestingly, the body of the Kestrel passed it’s crash testing admirably and unlike steel, the panels are not only lighter but have been reported to bounce back into shape after impact.
As hemp is relatively easy to grow, requiring nothing but the sun, the retail price is said to be very affordable. Hemp is a substance which complies with every eco-standard that exists in the world today, in fact, it actually exceeds those standards by an appreciable margin. The oldest recorded instance of hemp farming was five thousand years ago in China and for thousands of years, ninety percent of all ship’s sails and rope are made from hemp which is regarded as a forever lasting resource.
It has uses in over 50,000 applications including medicines, fuel and clothing and is regarded as a large threat to the profitability of large corporations that control the supply of energy, health products and many more. From when Motive Industries first revealed the Kestrel to the motoring world and predicted that it would be readily available within two years, all Seems to have gone quiet and one is left wondering if this is just another case of a product which is a threat to our current financial and economic system being stifled by the large companies which stand to be affected by it’s existence.
Whilst the systems which we have in place are used to justify the reasons why products such as the Kestrel should not be mass marketed, we must work towards implementing new methods and technologies that are more harmonious with the planet.
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