A new bird has been spotted in the automotive sky – the three-wheeled Sparrow. Hatched by Corbin-Pacific, Inc., in California, the Sparrow is a mono-seat electric vehicle. It weighs about 1,300 pounds, which in California allows it to be classified as a motorcycle. With an operating range of 30 to 60 miles and a top speed of 60 miles per hour, it is intended mainly for city use.

   Tom Corbin, the owner of Corbin-Pacific, calls the Sparrow “an urban bird.”

   “You don’t really notice them,” Corbin says, “but if you look around, they’re everywhere.”

   They may, in fact, be everywhere but it is difficult to imagine that they go unnoticed. The sleek, colorful design of the three-
layered composite body is quite unconventional.

   The Sparrow looks more like a designer’s vision of future transportation than a ready-to-use vehicle. Rolling down a city street, the Sparrow will certainly raise an eyebrow or two.

   But apart from its novel appearance, what’s important about the Sparrow is that it runs on electricity, an environmentally “clean” form of propulsion. And it is inexpensive to run. A full charge of the batteries costs only about $1 and is equivalent to 7.8 kilowatt hours of energy.

   Although the life span of the batteries is limited to between two and four years, the other components on the Sparrow are more durable. The electric motor, for example, has a rated life of 100,000 hours, which is more than 11 years. It is made by SL-MTI in Minnesota, and is fitted with CARB^TM toroidal roller bearings from SKF.

   Production of the Sparrow started in 1998. It has been certified by state officials in California, which is known for stringent certification requirements. Sparrows have also been sent to Germany, Belgium and elsewhere for certification.