Following on from my post on the latest from Tesla, I’ve just come across details of a new electric supercar, due to be launched at the British International Motor Show. The Electric Lightning GT uses a bank of 30 rechargeable batteries based on a new “Nanosafe” technology providing power to four, wheel mounted, electric motors, generating a claimed 700bhp and propelling the car from 0 to 60 mph in 4.0 seconds. The car is equipped with full traction control and regenerative braking on all four wheels and lightweight carbon fibre/Kevlar composite structure. Of course, a silent electric supercar somehow seems wrong, at least to petrolheads, so this car comes equipped with a engine-sound generator that emulates an engine’s roar. It’s expected to cost £150,000, is exempt from UK car tax and the London congestion charge. This is what it looks like..

Well it certainly looks shiny and the technology seems pretty clever, but something doesn’t quite add up. I remember reading that the main reason people buy the Prius is because it says something about them and the way they’re safeguarding the world, so what does an electric supercar which looks like and sounds like the ultimate eco hate-object, complete with an engine-noise generator, say about it’s owner? Is it possible to have your cake and eat it too?

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Following on nicely from last week’s post on platforms for co-creation, Apple have just taken another step towards C K Prahalad’s vision of tomorrow’s innovation model. Alongside the launch of the new 3G iPhone, Apple have just snuck out a new business platform which could, in time be as big as iTunes is today. The Apple App store is a new online Apple store that will post and sell third party software applications. The plan is to split revenues between Apple and the 3rd party software developers in the ratio of 30/70. So far, hundreds of thousands of developers have downloaded iPhone’s software developer’s kit, and with predictions of hundreds of millions of iPhone users five years from now, the App store could be a very busy place indeed.

Third party software could enable the market itself to keep the innovation pipeline going. Steve Jobs says that the new iPhone is about the things consumers have been asking for, and about delivering a whole bunch of stuff they didn’t even know they wanted.

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On the news today, I found out that there is an experimental hydrogen fuel cell powered aircraft on show at this years Farnborough Airshow. As you might imagine the Boeing FCDA (fuel cell demonstration aircraft) is not the most powerful of aircraft, but it has flown for over 20 minutes entirely under fuel cell power and it’s only emissions are water and heat. If you’d like to see it in action, here is some video from youtube. Although fuel cells are now commercially available (the fuel cells in this plane come from the UK), it will be a while before fuel cells will be used to power anything but the smallest aircraft. Even so, it does seem to be a pretty cool direction for a more sustainable future.