Do you have the worst enemy of the environment parked in your garage? To change the car from ENEMY to FRIEND depends on us.

One hundred years ago Henry Ford’s Model T transformed the world.
It put affordable cars in the hands of the common people. But it also started an industrial and energy dependence that has led us to our worst environmental crisis in thousands of years. Plus, the transfer of wealth for automobiles and their energy sucks the foreign exchange out of scores of developing countries.

Cars spew over a billion tons of CO2 into the air each year. Electric cars can reduce that to a small fraction, or even eliminate it, but they are overpriced, especially for developing countries. I am Jesse Blenn, an aviation and auto design consultant with Asesorias para el Desarrollo in Costa Rica, and I am here to present our “electric car to change the world,” the Cambria CR.

Its innovative design uses simple flat and curved body panels of recyclable aluminum with a renewable locally-grown balsa wood core. This sets us apart and makes the CAMBRIA easy to build on any scale with a minimum investment in machinery and a maximum of sustainability.

This is a four seat car with seating in a diamond rather than square arrangement. This lets the driver enter from either side and gives maximum protection from side impacts. The 60 cm front crush space uses a patentable system of energy absorption - including from diagonal impacts. Ours is not designed just to pass the tests, it is to protect the people! The unique doors open up for super-easy entry and to shield the rains. You can open and close your umbrella without getting wet! Because they only protrude a maximum of 35 cm from the side of the car, they can be electric powered. The rear wheel drive Cambria uses two 30 horsepower DC motors with two battery pack options: 10 kWh or 20 kWh, giving from 60 up to 200 km range. We will use the Navdy projection instrument panel, and special air suspension with semi-trailing arms front and rear for best ride on rough roads. Length 3.4m, 1.7 wide, 1.525 high.

Among its many unique features is a double roof that slides forward when parked to expose three square meters of solar cells. These give 10 to 20 kilometers of added daily range. Many of us will travel by solar power alone, without even having to plug in.

By working with small investors worldwide as franchisees, we can offer a new, clean, local industry and energy independence to the developing world, and help convince the major manufacturers to build affordable electric cars also - to make a real difference!

After three years of preparations and two months building we have the basic chassis of the prototype and are anxious to continue. But to do it right, we need your help, because to change the world, we have to change the car.