Last we left the Dream Car 123, the pyramid-shaped electric car that always gets picked last in kickball games, it was (in the words of Addy) "pootling" along the snowy streets of Illinois at about 45 mph, with a 80-mile range. Today we can report that, while the thing still looks like all sorts of ridiculousness, it's upped the range considerably, has bulletproof glass protecting the driver's compartment—and cut costs to boot!

The old specs and pricing for the ironically named Dream Car were about $60,000 in supplies, and that not-so-good 80-mile range mentioned above. Today, the numbers have increased remarkably, with the Dream Car now costing about $8,000 in materials and a mass production model checking in somewhere between $16,000 and $24,000 (depending on government alternative fuel incentives). A single 3.5 hour charge give the car a 240 mile-range for about $5 in electricity costs.

Here's the car in action, looking like something out of Mos Eisley:

And here's the Christmas Tree-shaped car lit up like a Christmas tree and looking like a low-flying UFO:

[TreeHugger]

Send an email to Jack Loftus, the author of this post, at jloftus@gizmodo.com.