… and GM teams up with Segway
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
It’s called the PUMA, and it’s expected in 2012 as part of a partnership between GM and Segway. Now, I’m sure every blog and newspaper on the planet has written about this, but I just wanted an excuse to post the picture — this thing is cool. It will have a range of up to 60 kilometres and a speed of between 50 and 60 kilometres an hour, so it’s basically a hybrid between an electric scooter, a Segway Human Transporter, and a low-speed vehicle like the kind ZENN offers. Low-speed vehicles have been a niche market, but GM and Segway could bring brand power at a time when municipalities and their citizens are looking for ways to ease congestion and urban pollution. This is ideal for the household that’s looking to ditch the second gas guzzler in exchange for a fuel-efficient urban two-seater.
Hopefully by 2012 Ontario will finally agree to let LSVs on city streets. The PUMA, it should be pointed out, doesn’t appear designed to tolerate Canadian winters. Perhaps an enclosed version is in the works.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
