Volkswagen just announced their latest gadget, the Bik.e – a folding electric bicycle designed to fit in the trunk of your car, in the space currently taken up by your spare tire. With a maximum range of 12.5 miles, I question whether it would be a good spare tire replacement, but I still like it. It is interesting to see a company like Volkswagen get into the electric bicycle concept though.

Of course, it’s not available yet, no one knows when it will be, or how much it will cost. We do know that the Bik.e will charge itself up from your car so you won’t have to worry about keeping it powered up. Regardless of how much it costs, it definitely looks cool. I’m not 100% behind the fact that you can’t pedal it though, that kind of limits the functionality.

[via Gizmodo]

The EV Up! will be available in Euroland before America, but at least it’s coming unlike a lot of other electric cars found only across the Atlantic. Tougher safety regulations over here tend to keep away other manufacturers. But since the Up! has been developed to also house a diesel/electric hybrid powerplant, the already developed platform might as well have an all-electric option. The non-EV Up! lineup is set to be released for the 2011 model year with the EV option coming in 2014.

Flower children,

It looks like Volkswagen is considering bringing back the Microbus, a symbol of your generation I think I read once. The company wants more of a presence in the North American market; suggestions that it re-make the Microbus (or Kombi, depending on where you’re from) quickly followed.

And here’s the business, straight from a senior VW official:

We’re looking at ways to produce the Microbus that will make it competitive in North America. At the moment there is no firm decision but, with the exchange rate the way it is, there is no way we could entertain building it in Europe.

So there you have it, VW wants to bring her back, maybe.

Now, does this news appeal to anyone not a product of the 1960s?

via squob

The Li-ion batteries would lower the weight of the car by hundreds of pounds, improving handling and mileage. You’ve already got them in your phones, media players, and so on, but adapting them for the high-capacity, high-throughput application of powering a car is a serious endeavor — which must be why Sanyo is pledging nearly a billion dollars over the next couple years to developing the technology.

Volkswagen says they are planning to produce a 1-Liter car, ready for sale by early 2010. The body of the car will be made of plastic and magnesium. A one-cylinder engine with a top speed of about 74 mph will power the gas sipping car.

With the rising price of fuel, the main selling point for this car is that it will get 235 mpg (hippies are going to love this thing). That might sound like a fantasy to some, but its true. VW developed a concept version back in 2002.

I know the Space Up! Blue from VW was announced last Fall, but this is the last time it will be seen in the US and I got the chance to take a look up close. For all intents and purposes for CG we’ll focus on the interface, which was eerily similar to Apple’s slew of touch screen devices. The monitor in the center is 7-inches of touch screen goodness. It utilizes proximity sensors that react to certain gestures. To scroll through the menu you can either tap on each icon or do the swipe thing and the icons will begin to carousel. When you bring up the phone icon, you hover your hand towards the side and it brings up a cluster of your contacts pictures. Depending on which corner, I think, you hover your hand over it brings a different cluster up for you to choose from. The driver gets an 8-inch monitor that shows info like vehicle speed, battery reserves, hydrogen volume and range as well as album art. Check out the gallery and more info the SUB after the jump.

The SUB is concept and we may or may not see this get produced. I, for one, hope it does go into production because it’s frickin’ sweet. I always wanted one of the old VW buses and this is just ten times better. The rear-engine bus is the world’s first to have a high temperature fuel cell and 12 lithium-ion batteries. The electric motor (45kW/61PS) can handle up to 65 miles on one charge while a full hydrogen charge gets you 220 miles from where you start. Fueling up the SUB is done via an electrical outlet, hydrogen station or directly from the sun. That’s right, the VW SUB has a solar panel on its roof that feeds 150W into the battery. The high temperature fuel cell is far superior to anything else out on the market today because it weighs less, it’s cheaper, and is utilized better on a day-to-day basis.

Going back to the engine, the 45kW/61PS motor churns 10,000 times per minute and produces a maximum torque of 120 Newton-meters. Top speed on the bus is 75MPH and does 0-62MPH in 13.7-seconds. As a quick comparison, other hybrid cars can only go 1.24-miles on the battery alone. The SUB does 65 miles. Two tanks on the belly of the SUB store 3.3 kilograms of compressed hydrogen each. I’ll spare you on the other details I have, but just know that high temperature fuel cells kick ass for a variety of other reasons.

I just hope VW puts this bad boy into production. Enjoy the photos.