A compact electric vehicle called “The Kestrel” is being developed as we speak in Canada. Later this August, the prototype will be fully developed and tested by Motive Industries, Inc., a Calgary-based firm “focused on advanced materials and technologies.”
The body of the car will be made up of impact-resistant composite material from mats of hemp. Nathan Armstrong, President of Motive Industries, says hemp has around twice the strength of other plant fibers, adding that Henry Ford himself built a car out of hemp fiber and resin over 50 years ago.
The Kestrel will be a compact car, built to contain a driver and up to three passengers. It will be powered by an electric battery, and will have a top speed of just about 56 miles per hour. The Kestrel is just one of five electric cars in development by Project Eve, founded by Motive Industries and Toronto Electric. The hope is that Project Eve will help boost the production of electric cars in Canada. Hopefully, it will motivate car-makers in the U.S., and inspire more hemp-based endeavors, as the plant itself is an astonishingly eco-friendly alternative to the many pesticide and water-intensive plants we use today.
[Via: CBC News]
[Photo Via: Naturally Advanced]
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The photo used is clearly recreational/medicinal marijuana. It is unfortunate that the confusion between the plant varieties is continued via your coverage of this most excellent development.
A better photo to use would have been…
http://www.hempreport.com/graphics/blog/mike_duckett_hemcore.jpg
or perhaps another from a simple google search…
http://www.google.com/images?q=Industrial+Hemp&um=1&hl=en