Last week, one of my colleagues at work, excitedly left early from work to test drive a mini-marvel. A environmentally friendly marvel called GWiz. Over the last few months we have pondered over making our business environment friendly. In fact we have even tested battery charged delivery vans for London. Although, it is a perfect option for driving around the busy streets in London and for avoiding hefty congestion charges, it didn’t work out. So, it came as no surprise to see Will, who reviewed our electric van trial, test drive a mini electric car for personal use.
Back in 2004, when I first arrived in the UK, the mainstream media in the UK was gung-ho about the new automobile marvel Gibbs Aquada. For people who haven’t heard of it, Aquada is an Amphicar just like the one you would have seen in the movie, The Spy Who Loved Me. With a price tag of £150, 000, it was an invention which only James Bond and the British Industry’s flamboyant poster boy, Richard Branson could afford. In fact, the Virgin Boss was the first to drive and sail an Aquada and even broke a record of crossing the English channel in one hour forty minutes,which prompted Aquada to the mainstream media. True that people drive much expensive cars than Aquada, including the Bentleys, Lambhorghinis, Bugatis, Ferarris etc. But Gibbs Aquada, one of the promising inventions of the decade seems to be on a similar path as the Sinclair C5. In both cases, the hype died down quickly. What a commercial disaster for a promising invention!