Sinclar C5 Tricycle

In Istanbul's Rahmi M. Koç Museum, you can see the 1984 Sinclair C5 British tricycle, which was a bold but unsuccessful attempt to create an environmentally friendly vehicle. The author of this original design, Clive Sinclair, is widely known for his incredibly simple and cheap yet effective computer, the Siclair Sprctrum, which revolutionized the home computer industry.

The tricycle has a steel frame and a plastic body. It has a pedal-powered main drive, but it also has an electric motor (from a Hoover washing machine) that can be used for acceleration and climbing hills. The tricycle weighs only 40 kg, can reach speeds of up to 25 km/h, and has a battery life of up to 30 km, which is sufficient for daily commuting.

The inventor planned to produce up to 100,000 units per year, but only about 9,000 tricycles were sold, as potential buyers considered the machine to be unsafe. Next to it, you can see the Segway "Ginger," which was developed 20 years later for the same purpose. Although it is mass-produced, it has not become widespread and is primarily used as an exotic means of transportation for tourists. Electric scooters have been more successful.