News from Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter, By Dan Richman:
Watch out, Segway -- here comes the EPIC Saga, an electric-powered mo-ped whose Seattle-area inventors hope it will change the world's personal-transport habits.
Candy-apple red and fetchingly streamlined, the Saga glistens under spotlights in an oversized Lynnwood storage locker that doubles as a showroom and workshop. The hand-built prototype, 15 years in development, does work. But few people have set eyes on it.
No country's transportation ministers -- they might steal the idea, said Saga's prime mover, Boeing Co. tool-and-die maker Bill McCoskey, 55. No venture capitalists or government funders -- they'd want a share of the profits, added McCoskey's business partner, engineer Robert Welch, 58.
To bring the Saga to the masses "requires finding the right person, in the right company, to get excited about it," Welch said. The men are about to approach Harley-Davidson.
Once a deal is made, it will just be a matter of several million sales a year before the bike's most innovative, important feature becomes affordable: propulsion assisted by a compact, 350-watt fuel cell burning propane or methane.
Read the full article...
