CambYoCar, the brainchild of the ex-airline mechanic, will be relatively inexpensive because it will be made out of a combination of balsa wood and aluminum, keeping the price in the $18,000 range and the vehicle light. A svelte body is always good for hybrids or electric vehicles even those that (in mini prototype form, at least) look a bit like a scrunched up DeLorean.
Costa Rican officials love the idea of a locally made, cheap hybrid or electric vehicle because of their goal to make the nation carbon-neutral – and the fact that many of the cars there are decades old and of the smoke-spewing variety. Until now, Costa Rica hasn’t shown much interest in advanced-powertrain vehicles. Of the approximately 80,000 new and used vehicles (with a 50/50 split) imported to the country each year, just 40 or so are hybrids. Undaunted, Blenn has earmarked an old guava jelly plant for the car’s production. There’s a joke in there somewhere.
