Flood Simple: The Salamander Amphibious Trike

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Have floods, will travel? The innovative Salamander amphibious trike could be the answer to a question being asked a lot more often due to global warming. salamander-amphitrike-main8

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Homegrown problems sometimes lead naturally to homegrown solutions, and the Salamander amphibious concept trike is a prime example. Designed by Filipino designers and engineers over a five-year development period, the Salamander can handle just about anything Mother Nature can throw its way – well, maybe not blizzards but “Snowpocalypse”-style events aren’t all that common in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, the Salamander’s target market.

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The Salamander’s three-wheeled format closely resembles the ubiquitous Tuk-Tuk, a motorized trike employed as basic commercial and private transportation from Beijing to Bangkok and back again. Unlike most Tuk-Tuks, however, the Salamander was designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible. That means no oil-burning two-stroke motor – instead, the Salamander features either a 250cc gasoline engine or an electric motor rated at 5 kilowatts.

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No matter what powertrain purchasers choose – a decision probably predicated on the state of EV-infrastructure in their area – the Salamander is fully equipped to get up and go… rain or shine, and by “rain” we mean typhoon-monsoon storms that more often than ever are making roads impassible by “ordinary” vehicles. The Salamander, you see, is named after an amphibian for one very good reason: it’s fully amphibious and can flip from land to marine powertrains with the flick of a switch!