It all starts in the human heart. That gets the blood pumping, which gets the legs moving, which gets the Twike rolling. These are the words being quoted by the company for Twike, a fantastic pedal powered human electric hybrid car. The fully electric, zero emissions Twike car was originally designed by some students in Switzerland in the 1980s and then taken on by a German firm, Fine Mobile GmBH, which added electric batteries and regenerative braking to the current iteration. The product site says that the fitted 5-gear box allows comfortable pedaling at speeds between 15 and 45 mph. The good thing about the car is that you can pedal to produce up to 500 watts in tandem with a passenger to extend the range of the car by up to 50%.

In lieu of the steering, the car has a joystick configuration, which has the accelerator and brakes operated by buttons built into the stick. It has a top speed of 53 mph (85 kmph) and a range of 80 miles (130 km) per charge. The maximum speed is 53 mph, with acceleration from 0 to 40 in 9 seconds. The best part is that the Twike electric car gets about 565 miles per gallon.

The retro-styled Twike electric motor looks quite pricey at US $26,000, but I must tell you that they have already sold out for 2007, and there is a waiting list for 2008 models. The world is going crazy for the super-efficient green cars and if you share some eco-values, the Twike is worth a pick.

via Carectomy151700