Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Meet the Thrustcycle, a two-wheeled EV that relies on gyroscopes to stay upright and a flywheel for acceleration. If it ever becomes street legal, it’ll be like nothing else on the road — and it’ll never fall over.

At first glance, the Thrustcycle appears to defy gravity, balancing its 500 pounds on just two wheels. The secret to it remaining upright lies in a combination flywheel/gyroscope assembly located in the rear of the vehicle, which maintains lateral stability in direct proportion to opposing forces. Whether it’s sliding into a tight corner or getting hit by a car (or a foot, like in the video below) the gyroscope will keep the Thrustcycle standing even at a stop.

That flywheel/gyroscope assembly also recovers energy and assists the Thrustcycle’s LiFePO4 battery pack during starting and acceleration. Drivers can “tap in” to the gyroscope’s energy for bursts of speed without draining the batteries or destabilizing the vehicle, according to the designer. The Thrustcycle also features regenerative braking, and stores that energy in its flywheel kinetic energy recovery system (KERS).

“It’s unlike any driving experience,” said creator Clyde Igarashi, who said the gyroscope gives the small vehicle a feeling of weightlessness. “It’s a bit like gliding on land.”

Top speed with an average adult passenger is about 70 miles an hour, and steering is in the rear wheel. Igarashi said that setup was chosen to prove that even a two-wheeled vehicle with rear steering could remain stable with the proper use of gyroscope and flywheel, though the setup could also be applied to more conventional cars, trucks and even boats.

According to Igarashi, the Thrustcycle is a prototype and no pricing has been announced. His company is gradually working to install its technology on other vehicles while the Thrustcycle is in development.

“We will start by customizing more conventional front-steered vehicles to individual specs,” he said. Expect to see a scooter in addition to a more advanced Thrustcycle with an improved carbon fiber body and turn signals.

Photo/Video: Thrustcycle

Volvo takes safety very seriously, and if it’s going to start building cars with cords it wants consumers to know the technology is every bit as safe as a conventional car.

To that end, the Swedes rolled into the Detroit auto show with a Volvo C30 Electric that’s been bashed in a frontal collision test at 40 mph. We’ve shown you the video already, but it’s still interesting to see the pics and get a look at how the electric drivetrain fared.

“Our tests show it is vital to separate the batteries from the electric car’s crumple zones to make it as safe as a conventional car,” president and CEO Stefan Jacoby said in a statement. “In Detroit we are the first carmaker to show the world what a truly safe electric car looks like after a collision with high-speed impact.”

Volvo says the C30 Electric’s 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery was fully charged when the car was tested at its crash test lab early last month. The test in question is an off-set collision in which 40 percent of the front end hit a barrier at 40 mph. The battery and cables connecting the 400-volt system remained intact.

“The front deformed and distributed the crash energy as we expected,” Jan Ivarsson, senior manager of safety strategy and requirements, said in a statement. “Both the batteries and the cables that are part of the electric system remained entirely intact after the collision.”

The pack, which is good for a claimed range of 95 miles, weighs 660 pounds. It is mounted in the center tunnel where the fuel tank is found in the conventional C30. The battery is “robustly encapsulated,’ according to Volvo, and the body structure around the pack is reinforced. Putting the battery in the middle of the car provides optimal protection while centralizing mass.

The 82 kilowatt (110 horsepower) electric motor is under the bonnet where the engine would be. Ivarsson said that required reinforcing the front crumple zones because the motor occupies less space than the engine, which absorbs some of the energy in a collision.

Volvo says all of the cables are shielded for maximum protection. Crash sensors control the system’s fuses, and the same signal that deploys the airbags in a collision cuts power to the drivetrain in 50 milliseconds. Several other fuses cut power if the system detects a short circuit.

Volvo plans to roll out a demonstration fleet of 250 C30 Electric vehicles in Sweden early this year. Another fleet is slated to arrive in the United States later this year.

Photos: Volvo