I'm a big proponent of electric vehicles, and I lust after the Tesla Roadster as much as anyone else. But lately, new battery and ultracapacitor technology has gotten inventors a little greedy. Enter Bill Dube, a scientist who devised an electric motorcycle he calls the KillaCycle... which can go from 0 to 60 in 0.97 seconds. Just how "killa" is it? So killa it smashed Dube into a minivan when he tried to demonstrate its awesome speed at this week's Wired NextFest.

You can check out some slow, low-res, stuttering video, featuring an interview with Dube followed by his soon-to-be-infamous wreck, by clicking through to this TG Daily post [LINK REMOVED at TG Daily's request; see alternate link below for the video]. If anyone finds a more reliable link to this video, please let me know and I'll update the post.

The key to achieving such performance from batteries is nanotechnology: Tiny particles of iron phosphate are used to stabilize the lithium-ion matrix, giving these battery packs more overall power, faster charging time, and a better safety profile (as in less explosive). To date, these batteries have been relegated to power tools and other industrial applications, but companies like A123 Systems want to get into automotive applications next. This experimental motorcycle is one of the first large-scale applications of the company's batteries... and it may just be too much for one man to handle.

Dube is OK. The crash sounds bad (it's mostly off-camera), but he remained conscious despite not wearing a helmet and looks like he'll be fine. Time to throttle back how far we push electric vehicles into the high-performance world? Well, maybe at least time to use a little more common sense when we climb atop one of these things...

ALTERNATE VIDEO LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pM1j2d1RMU