It’s a car… It’s a motorcycle… No, it’s the CLEVER!!! OK, it really doesn’t sound as good as the all-too-familiar Superman line. But the CLEVER being the next superhero in a looming fuel crisis is not an impossibility. Well, that is if any major auto manufacturer would be interested in making a production version of the prototype car.

The CLEVER, or the Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport, is a concept vehicle unveiled last Tuesday at the University of Bath in western England. It is the product of a three-year, $3 million project funded by the European Union and carried out by a bunch of universities with the aid of various German, French and Austrian organizations, one of which is BMW. The four European universities involved in the project are the University of Bath, the Technische Universitaet Berlin, the Institut Francais Du Petrole, and the Institut Fuer Verkehrswesen Universitaet Fuer Bodenkultur.

The CLEVER is a 3-wheel, 2-seater concept car that has the compactness of a motorcycle but the safety and driving characteristics of a car. The vehicle is powered by a 218 cc engine that runs on compressed natural gas, the same gas used to run many household appliances. The said engine enables the CLEVER to accelerate from 0 to 40 mph in 7 seconds, with a maximum speed rated at 80 mph. The said engine also enables the vehicle to run at an equivalent of 108 mpg.

But how does the CLEVER differ from the microcars and other three-wheeled concept cars in the past that was met by failure? Aside from the impressive fuel economy it delivers, the CLEVER also boasts of driving characteristics (especially in terms of handling and cornering) that closely resembles that of cars, thanks to the electronically controlled hydraulic system it is equipped with. With its reinforced frame, safety airbags and other safety features, the vehicle also proves itself safer than the three-wheeled concept vehicles developed before it.