Laminated Bamboo Car: Vehicles made out of a renewable material.

It can be built with a chassis made completely out of glued bamboo composites, from pre-cut kits or shared patterns, using locally-grown sustainable materials, with low-tech tools. A 15-minute You Tube video is available, including engineering, fabrication with woodworking joints, bonding and stiffness testing. Custom designs can be made out of foamcore panels.

Bamboo is a renewable structural material. Some grades have a greater strength-to-weight ratio than steel, and its fibers are stronger than carbon composites, and it can re-grow in less than 5 years, while turning CO2 into O2. Woven bamboo sheets, laminated into four-by-eight foot panels like plywood, are commonly used in construction in Asia

Design and build your own chassis models, which can be scaled up, using race car unit-construction technology, and a small-scale chassis to plan glued tab-and-slot assembly. Even flat or compound-curve body panels, solid-disk wheels, struts, roll cage, and sling seats can be made from bamboo panels, cloth, or poles.

The production strategy is to give away the technology in developing Asian countries where bamboo grows naturally. Or use kit production for Do-It-Yourself, where tools and skills allow, as the example shown.

This entry is a complement to the 2021 category winner: “Afreecar E-kit” -- a complete electric powertrain, incorporating motor, controller, battery, and drive wheels in one package.