The Progressive Automotive XPrize! In my opinion, this is the most important competition of our lifetime. Sure, it’s great that a team will receive a grand prize of $10M for building a car that gets at least 100 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalency) in real world driving while being safe, affordable and desirable.  BUT, the real winners here are you and I… and our children… and their children.

The XPrize is Generation X’s version of the moon landing.  Think about all the social advancements that the space race brought us!  Ok, Tang… I know there are others, but what I’m trying to say is that the XPrize is a major catalyst for change! The winners of this competition will provide evolutionary genetics to our next generation of transportation!

Knowing the importance of the Automotive XPrize, don’t you think you should participate?  So, you can tell your grandkids “You know why you’re driving that newfangled doohickey?  Because I voted for it!” and they can nod their head and say “SURE you did gramps.”  Well, this is your moment!  You’ve got from now until August 16th to vote for FAN FAVORITE in the MOST PRACTICAL category.  Need MORE incentive?  How about this… Register to vote and every day that you vote you get another chance to win $3000 bucks!  That’s worth it, right?  Voting to tell the builders what would make your future car more practical while getting chances to bank $3k?!

Fan Faves for MOST STYLISH (Zap Alias) and MOST INNOVATIVE (Aptera 2e) have already been chosen… so vote on MOST PRACTICAL now and then MOST WANTED coming up August 17th – September 6th.

AND… as long as we’re talking about voting, K-Way MOTUS sent us a little note and they would love for you to pick their ride (seen above) as most practical.  It’s essentially an MP3 with a roof like a BMW C1, but running on a parallel electric / gas hybrid platform.  You’ve a pair of electric motors in the two front wheels and for the long haul it’s got an 850cc gasoline engine on the real wheel.  The K-Way MOTUS will hold two passengers and in a future incarnation they plan on adding a swivel-out front seat for easy entry & exit.

There are lots of exciting choices, so go register and CAST YOUR VOTE!

***UPDATE***
Oh, we forgot to mention that “The $10 millionprize grand prize will be presented at an Award Ceremony on September 16, in Washington, D.C.”

Expect to pay about $1000 to crate and freight, not including any special port fees, customs, warehousing, etc. fees. Also expect for it to take about 6 weeks to arrive from Jakarta. If you can get over all of that heartache, and don’t mind shelling out the $2800.00 (estimated) winning bid then she could be yours!

But the good news is that the seller has 53 perfect ratings, in case you were worried. See the post HERE>

As long as you’re poking around eBay, you might wanna check out this ghost Cub, this DREAMY Honda Dream and this nice-but-pricey Gorilla.

This is what happens when you weld together two 150cc liquid cooled scooters and set it up for tank style steering.

Follow this link for more photos and information on the build.

The bike has quite a few options depending on your need and application. Their website even has a neat “build to suit” feature where you can add and subract the options you need.Three-wheeled cargo scooters like this appear to be very popular in the Scandinavian countries and I can see why.

I would think something like this would go over big in any urban area and especially Southeast Asia where so much of their inner city cargo is hauled around via scooters and motorcycles.

Oh… and I can’t really see any pedals, so it may not be an actual moPED… more of a cub I suppose.

Hats off to Prof. Vittore Cossalter & Prof. Giuseppe Buja’s fine team of students who knocked out this prototype for a three-wheeled, tilting, electric.

The goal was short distance, low consumption, low emission, in a small package that could be used to travel the inner cities.

The e-Snake is powered by dual electric motors mounted in the hubs of the rear wheels. Looks like it was a success because, from what I can read, they took home the award for acceleration and speed at the Formula Electric and Hybird Italy 2007 student competition.

Though the thing appears to be made of bent aluminum pipe it still weighs in at 357 lbs. With that heft, this electric scoot is capable of reaching 31 mph and covering a distance of 62 miles on a charge (from what I can understand).

For more info you can click on the title link which will take you to the CyberScooter post where I found this OR you can just zip directly to the University of Padova’s student website HERE.

(Here’s a video presentation in English)

Piaggio’s groundbreaking MP3 250 hasn’t even been on the market for a year, and already it’s the bestselling scooter in the Piaggio brand lineup. So what’s a manufacturer to do? Capitalize on that success with a one-two punch: a pair of 400-cc and 500-cc maxi-scooters that use the same twinned wheels and articulated front end to increase the bike’s stability and riders’ sense of calm.

Yeah? Bestselling Piaggio? Ok, that’s pretty cool. I’ve yet to test drive the MP3-500. In the article they also speak of the Vectrix V3… that’s Vectrix’s electric scooter that uses a licensed mp3 tilting wheel mechanism. Susan Carpenter was NOT very impressed with the outcome.

See more odd 3-wheelers HERE mostly photoshopped strangeness.

I’ve been doing a little digging around lately and discovered some interesting facts. The Piaggio MP3 and Gilera Fuoco 500 have been creating quite a buzz since the MP3 first touched down in 2006. Did you know that the features found on these modern tilting 3-wheelers are courtesy of Italjet founder and designer Leopoldo Tartarini?

Yep, the man who brought you such classics as the Italjet Dragster and Torpedo had been toying with it for some time. As a matter of fact his son, Massimo, used a version of the tilting mechanism in his folding, tilting, electric scooter (no doubt popular in Japan) called the JACK from BlueEnergy back in 2001 (seen below).

Later, in cooperation with Piaggio (using a Piaggio motor), Leopoldo Tartarini created what you see below… It’s the “SCOOOP” scooter, which would have definitely created some confusion for our site here had Italjet not bowed out before it could be put into production. Sure, Piaggio had been considering a 3-wheeler for some time. Back in 1983 Wolfgang Trautwein created a prototype called the PK3, but the more modern design with independently tilting wheels didn’t show up until now (see the sweet Video).

After the Scooop, Piaggio picked up the ball and started testing THIS Mad Max looking prototype, which I kinda liked as it is. This was just the beginning.

Later Piaggio busted out their prototype called the Los Angeles (below). Kinda big and bulky, not as refined looking as the Scooop… actually it was kinda hideous. I was referring to it as “the gorilla bike” (still a concept).

Which finally became the sweet three wheelers we know today, the MP3 and the Fuoco 500 and I’m sure it will spawn even more varieties in the future. Just think, if it wasn’t for the work of Leopoldo Tartarini, you wouldn’t be able to do this:

Whew… It’s been quite a long break, eh? Sorry about that, I’ve been working out a few things here at the home front… can’t say what right now, but there’s definitely some good stuff in development for myself. I’ll keep you posted.

Now then, back to the topic… ADIVA. Don’t search too hard… You’re not going to find them in the USA. The closest thing you’ll find here is the Diamo Velux and you’re not going to find a huge variety in Europe. Looks like they have one model that comes in 2 sizes… the 125 and 250. From what I can tell, Adiva has split off from Benelli (who has a spacey concept of their own) and speaking of “concepts”, what you see in the photo here is some photo scoopage from Cyberscooter.it.

Take the roofed Adiva, stick a 400cc motor in it and graft a front wheel configuration from the MP3 on her and BLAM! What could possibly be the perfect commuter scooter. Retractable protection from the elements… get up and go… crazy stability… CHECK!

This could be a big seller in Europe and Japan, where it may actually be available in 2009. Keep an eye out at EICMA 2008 for developments.

Click on the title link to see a couple more photos of the TO 400.