Meet the "Cannabis Car" That's Greener Than EV's
Apr 17th 2024
As the world continues to shift focus to environmental issues, Electric Vehicles or "EV's" have become increasingly popular, as they don't contribute as much to pollution, and they don't rely solely on fossil fuels. However, EV's still have a carbon footprint, and for engineers like Bruce Dietzen, that means there's more work to be done.
That's where the "Cannabis Car" comes in.
The Cannabis Car, officially titled the "Renew Sports Car," is a world-famous car introduced by inventor and engineer, Bruce Dietzen. The Renew Sports Car's first prototype was completed in 2017 and claims to be the first carbon-negative automobile in the world.
"Made from 65% woven hemp (several layers of them) and 35% bio-epoxy, which hardens and offers rigidity, the Renew Sports Car is lighter and more durable than anything on the market right now, Dietzen says. Unlike vehicles built from fiberglass, carbon fiber or aluminum, the Renew has a negative carbon footprint, because industrially-grown hemp doesn’t create more pollution when it’s processed. On the contrary, carbon dioxide absorbed by the plant remains locked inside – a process known as carbon sequestration."
The car is available in 3 different configurations: the Canna 225 (225 horsepower, and a claimed power-to-weight ratio comparable to a Porsche 911 Cabriolet), the Canna 525 (525 hp, only for experienced racers), and the Canna EV (which “can be configured as anything from a conservative 80 hp commuter to a blistering dragster”).
No matter which style you choose, you'll still end up with a car that claims to be "three times greener than any EV out there," because even the non-electric variations of the Cannabis Car run on biofuels derived from agricultural waste, and each car is made with a hemp-based body.
Unfortunately, progress on this project was neither fast not cheap, with Dietzen admitting that the prototype cost him about $200,000 in "actual expenses" and another $200,000 in lost revenue. The Renew Sports Car's original retail price when it was introduced was about $40,000, but now starts at around $100,000. Expensive as it may be, the Cannabis Car is showing that EV's are not the end of the road - there is more improvement that can be done to make automobiles more environmentally sustainable.
"Renew Sports Cars aims to bring the Renew Ultra-Low Carbon Footprint (ULCF) Sports Car into production by 2025, and the latest update on the official website mentions plans to build and deliver only a “handful” of such custom vehicles in 2020."
Dietzen believes the solution to saving our planet is to create an electric or biofuel car that's made from plants - or to, in the words of the first inventor of "hemp-mobiles," Henry Ford, "grow automobiles from the soil."
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