Bamboo has come a long way since it was introduced primarily as the backdrop of tiki bars and the symbol of all things tropical. With modern technological advances, inventors have been able to construct anything and everything from bamboo cane or bamboo fiber. Not just for fencing and tropical décor anymore, bamboo is now being considered as the primary frame material for electric cars.

Currently, electric cars utilize a heavy electric battery that will propel the car an average of 100 miles. The approximately 200 pound battery, coupled with a fiberglass or steel frame makes for a heavy car without much room for battery mileage improvement. However, a bamboo frame would reduce the overall weight, compensating for the battery and increasing its potency.

Bamboo has a strength-to-width ratio between fiberglass and steel and has been proven to be twice the strength of fiberglass and six times the strength of steel. The strength, weight and density of this “green” building material make it an ideal component for one of the worlds most popular and necessary consumer products.

Greg “Gadget” Abbott envisioned the conversion to bamboo while he was constructing electric cars from kits using fiberglass. Perhaps he was inspired by the bamboo surfboards now gracing the waves of Hawaii that are 15% lighter that regular surfboards and grant more control and speed in turns. He believes that the tensile strength of bamboo and its regenerative growing tendencies make it the next logical step towards the carbon-free society idealized by the green revolution.