Its a hybrid! A carbon-based! No, perhaps it runs on fuel cells! Nay still! Alas! Its a...........TRIBRID! A What ? A tribrid. Or, more specifically, its called the 'Obvio'. Yes, a combination of not just two energy sources as in hybrids (gasoline+electic power) but three! Gasoline, Ethanol and electric power. The Obvio not only promises to unleash higher standards in fuel efficiency eyeing or even surpassing the oft spoken 100mpg mark, it also shoots to be quite the cultural and futuristic icon from Brazil designed by legendary car designer, painter and sculptor Anisio Campos. I can already see scores of to-see-and-be-seen Obvios painting the beaches along Brazil's rocky shores and matching the green bikinis of their owners (I imagined that, I have never been to Brazil, wife won't allow it). Anyway, snapping out of that mid-blog summer dream, a remarkable thing about the Obvio is that it can run on 100% Ethanol and would be the only car in the USA around mid-2007 to carry that boast. Moreover, it can take in a variety of gas/ethanol mix and tune out its mechanism to use that particular mix. Pretty cool. Bravo Brazil! If this keeps up, I may finally find a legitimate excuse to travel to Brazil though I fear its always going to be an uphill battle.Despite the Obvio's overtures into high track of new fuel technologies, it seems to be looking to mark itself out to be more the fashion item than a serious attempt at converting the landscape. The car is actually a full 4 feet shorter than the Mini Cooper (I didn't know that was possible!), another car that comes through more as a style statement. Take a look at the 2nd pic below. Get my gist? The makers of Obvio may be wise to take their little beauty to the humbler shores of cultural Europe. A natural for places like France, Portugal, Spain and Italy where small vehicles are certainly not frowned upon the way they are here by, as Borat the Kazak journalist (I gotta see this movie) would call us, idiot - Americans. Out here, I, the co-maker of americasmpg.com, myself have stumbled twice to trade-in my 240bhp V6 Sedan for a similar-sized 4-cylinder 30mpg car. Why? I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I see these 5.0L V8 SUVs blazing through our multi-plex of freeways and it gives me the creeps. These peitite wives and girlfriends of 200+ pounds college football player has-beens are in love with these monsters. Just cause they are elevated on the road also gives them the illusion that they should be going faster than anyone else. And I am all too happly to oblige in dispelling that illusion for them. As for now, I must concede, I have held on to my 240bhp car to be able to survive the Large SUV and Truck aero-dynamics created on the freeway, slay the higher-means-faster myth and work on efficiency regiments like the ones I have noted on www.americasmpg.com/regimenting.aspx. In Europe, serenity is au naturale, the country drive is craved, bicycles and mopeds are still steet side sights (travelling to boring Switzerland to visit my brother is A-OK by wife). And Asia too, I would reckon is a good target for the Obvio with the basic yet powerful premis of the smaller body dimension and weight of the average Asian. Not to mention the compact culture of Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. Back to sprawling USA, manufacturers here are moving aggressively to hybrid exisiting car models and keep America's appetitie for power intact. One car that I see more than other hybrid-versions is the Toyata highlander V6 which takes a crack at 30mpg with 200+bhp at $30k+. Thats the deal for now folks. As for in my suburbia hometown outside LA, I wouldn't be caught dead in an Obvio, idiot-American.By all means, the Obvio will and should come to the US. Its success, I hope, is at least modest. And I, may well be wrong. In the vastness of America, there should be a place for it. And perhaps a special place in America's heart, if not the wallet. Specially, if the sexy chick next door embraces it into her beach life.
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