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Wello Family offers a bike-car mashup for nearly $9,000

The French company wants to make commuting and shopping much more energy efficient.

Sean Keane Former Senior Writer
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The Wello Family, seen at CES Unveiled on Sunday, will be easy to park in a city, but you won't be able to fit too many passengers in it.

Angela Lang/CNET

You don't want a car, but a bike won't quite cut it when it comes to grocery shopping. The Wello Family wants to create a solar-powered middle ground by combining a bike and car. The French-made vehicle is designed for an adult rider with one adult passenger or two kids in the back.

Watch this: Wello's eTrike is the adorable urban vehicle for your whole (small) family

The latter option might be a tight fit, but the 7,900-euro (roughly $8,820, £6,600 or AU$12,600) vehicle is solar-powered. And at 7.4 feet in length and 2.7 feet in width, it could be a whole lot easier to find a parking space in a city than it would with a car. You can also convert the back seat into a trunk to hold your shopping.

The Family also sends data -- including your average speed, distance traveled, amount of solar power used -- back to the company, so Wello will know when to schedule maintenance for the vehicle. Riders don't need insurance and can use bike lanes, so you can avoid the worst of the traffic on your daily commute.

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