A man believes he has solved the world’s traffic congestion problem with a car narrow enough for ‘lane-splitting’ and compact enough to park perpendicular.
Called Tango, this tiny electric vehicle is just eight and a half feet long and 39 inches wide, making it half the size of a traditional automobile.
The car comes with a $108,000 price tag and costs $420,000 to make, which is why only 12 have been built — one of which is owned by George Clooney.
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Rick Woodbury, who is the president, founder and sole employee of ‘Commuter Cars’, thought of the idea of Tango after witnessing commuters riding alone in vehicles and transforming highways into parking lots.
‘I used to drive a Porsche from Beverly Hills to Hermosa Beach every day and the traffic was horrendous,’ he told BTV.
‘I noticed that everybody around me was a single occupant in a car, taking up the whole lane.’
‘I thought, everyone wants to get from point A to point B efficiently, and in cities like Los Angeles there’s really no center, there’s no hub, everybody goes everywhere.’
Video: Electric car is as skinny as motorcycle and costs $420,000 to build
‘I don’t think there’s any other answer except doubling lane capacity.’
Tango is built with four motors, one on each wheel, powered by lithium batteries and goes from zero to 60 in just 3.2 seconds – making it faster than the Telsa Roadster.
Made of carbon fiber, the Tango weighs 3,057 pounds and can reach a top speed of 150 mph.
It is the same width as a police motorbike, allowing two Tangos to travel side-by-side or lane splitting – when a bike or motorcycle drives in between lanes to pass congestion.
The compact design also frees up space in parking lots, as four can fit in a single spot.
‘Tango may appear unsafe however, it has a race car roll cage and weighs as much as a mid-sized sedan,’ Woodbury explained.
‘With two-thirds of its weight below the floor, it has a five star roll over threshold rating, the same as a 911 Porsche.’
The tiny vehicle can be fully charged in just three hours with a dryer plug-in at home and a single charge provides a range of about 80 miles.
The T600 model requires a $10,000 deposit against its $108,000 MSRP.
Though its size may bring a smile to your face, its price is definitely not funny.
‘These cars cost an average of $420,000 each to build, including all R&D demonstrations and all expenses over the last 21 years,’ admitted Woodbury.
The cost is down to all the highly specialized custom parts used for the vehicle, and having to amortize the total expense over only 12 vehicles
Woodbury continued: ‘It has a Momo steering wheel, a MoTeC dash that’s actually used in race cars, a 4-point shoulder harness, the exact ones used by pilots of commercial aircraft.’
‘It handles really well as it has a lower center of gravity than any car we know of.’
And with a top speed of 150 miles per hour, the owners of this tiny vehicle don’t even have to compromise on speed.
‘I’ve had it up to 120 miles per hour – the current Tango being built has a 90 kWh hour battery which will give it around 300 miles of range,’ said Woodbury.
The Tango T600 is so exclusive and expensive that only 12 cars were ever made in its 21-year history.
Perhaps the most famous Tango T600 owner is George Clooney, who famously bought one in 2005.
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