We are living on borrowed time.  Opposition politicians and consumers clamour for the government to invest any surplus in relieving the cost of fuel to the average Australian.  Yet all this would do would be to bring the crunch, when it comes as it must, even sooner.  We need to take the long view NOW and invest in technologies and infrastructure that eases us into a future that will inevitably be energy-impoverished.

What sort of future can our children (and us!) expect?  It will be a world where fossil fuels will eventually be rationed to essential services and the petrol driven vehicle we drive today will be a dinosoar.  This future may be closer than you might think;  an investment in a new 4-wheel drive today may well be an investment in a very expensive piece of scrap in 5 years.

If we want to maintain our mobility into this new age, we need to take steps now to be ready for it. 

What alternatives seem to hold the most promise?

• Hybrid electric/petrol vehicles - expensive and still dependent on petrol to a large extent.
• Fuel-cell technology - slow in arriving, will require huge infrastructure changes when it does to generate and supply hydrogen.
  
• All-electric cars: so far not many on-line
  
• Pedal power:  Bikes are fine for fine weather, but are limited in load carrying capability
  
• Light Electric Vehicles - none approved for use in Australia
  

Light Electric Vehicles (LEV's) are basically enclosed electric cars, with or without pedal assist, that can be used as general local runabouts.  Typically they have ranges of 40-50km and acheive speeds of up to 40km/hr, have room for 2 persons and some baggage.  They are much lighter than conventional automobiles.

A LEV is ideal for a huge proportion of local current vehicle use -

• Person transport in the local area and shopping
• Commuting (locally)
• Commuting to public transport

The picture at the right is the Twike, an advanced LEV available overseas.

The problem is, our current vehicle legislation simply doesn't cater for LEV's well.  The current limit of a 200W motor for motorised bicycles is completely impractical for any serious all-weather, load carrying vehicle.

It has been proposed that in line with other countries we should deregulate a class of vehicles with:

A maximum of 500W electric power
A maximum speed of 30km/hr with electric assist (ie: cuts out at 30km/hr)

The only way this can happen is by lobbying government to make it happen. 

One way to help the lobbying is to actualy build some of these vehicles and demonstrate their utility.  This is possible by constructing them as one-off "Individually Constructed Vehicles".  Such a vehicle (if 3-wheeled) could be driven by someone with a normal motorcycle licence.  Compliance with Australian regulations would need to be validated by a VASS(MC) transport engineer for a fee.