Peraves AG was a Swiss manufacturer of high-end aerodynamically-enhanced

cabin motorcycle A cabin motorcycle is a fully or semi-enclosed motorcycle. They first appeared in the 1920s In parts of Eastern Europe, they are known as dalniks. These fully enclosed non-production motorcycles used for land-speed record-breaking attempts, su ...

s. It won the

Automotive X Prize The Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE (PIAXP or AXP) was a set of competitions, programs and events, from the X Prize Foundation, to "inspire a new generation of super-efficient vehicles that help break America's addiction to oil and ste ...

for its entirely electric X-Tracer in 2010. By 2019 it had declared bankruptcy.

History

Peraves AG was founded in 1972 by Swissair Pilot Arnold Wagner. Wagner finished a prototype of an enclosed motorcycle in 1982, and was able to convince the Swiss government to make it street legal in 1985. The vehicle, christened the

Ecomobile The Ecomobile is a cabin motorcycle produced by Peraves AG, manufactured in Winterthur, Switzerland since 1984. History Arnold Wagner of Switzerland received a patent in 1983 for a support device for a single-track vehicle, a requirement f ...

, was approved by the TÜV, which allowed it to be sold in the EU in 1991.

Production

Peraves produced 90 Ecomobiles from 1991 to 2005 until the main factory in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

burned down. In response, Peraves decided to commit to redesigning the Ecomobile. The new, more affordable design was named the MonoTracer. It was named number 41 in

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

's list of the 50 best inventions of 2008. In 2010, Peraves won the $2.5 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize with an electric powered version of the MonoTracer, renamed the X-Tracer, capable of driving up to 150 miles per hour and accelerating from 0 to 60 in under four seconds. The design was originally suggested by Stefano Parris, an aero-mechanical engineer who saw the gas version on display. In 2013, the X-Tracer was blocked from entering the United States while at the

Port of Los Angeles The Port of Los Angeles is a seaport managed by the Los Angeles Harbor Department, a unit of the City of Los Angeles. It occupies of land and water with of waterfront and adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach. Promoted as "America's Port", t ...

by the

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

, United States Customs, and the Transportation Department because the vehicle didn't comply with government regulations. Electric vehicle advocate Paul Scott commented, “For the EPA to be in the way of this is as bizarre at it gets.”

External links

Official Website

References

Motorcycle manufacturers of Switzerland Swiss companies established in 1972 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1972 {{motorvehicle-company-stub