Towards that end, if this beginning was not made, we will not work towards getting newer tech to power our vehicles in future.

For residents in Washington DC (the District) we rarely drive more than 10 miles at any given time, and we do not go over 40 mph. A vehicle like this is perfect to pick up groceries, go across town to meet friends, it’s small enough to park anywhere and the battery charge would last for weeks.

However, one major flaw that these engineers and manufacturers fail to consider in their design is how to charge the car while parked. It seems like all of these engineers only live in the burbs and have big homes with garages. However, the urban dweller usually lives in an apartment and has street parking. Or they are lucky to have a parking garage to park their car but since this is a shared garage there are no public outlets for them to use. The same for the street parking. No public electrical outlets to be found near the road. So how can we, as urban dweller, charge our electric vehicles? I guess the only option would be to run an extension cord out the window, down the wall, and out to one’s electric bike/car. Seems silly to me.

Thoughts from the manufacturer are appreciated. My only suggestion would be a removable battery chassis that was mobile that I could wheel into my place and plug into the wall. Or you can do the plug in car option. Have a small generator that ran on gas and would charge the batteries. I considered solar panels to charge the batteries, but not sure if the panels could charge the battery in a short enough time for a daily driver. Maybe if it sat for days at a time it would work, but that is not convenient.

Good luck with the next design.

I agree with Buzz Saw about use of photovoltaic panels and, in theory, wind turbines. Much of my driving is a commute to work and back. That is a very common use case across America. I drive about 40 minutes round trip each day. I don’t know what the average is, but for users like me, a solar panel could provide more than 50% of the total energy consumption of the car.

No, it won’t help taxi drivers or others who spend most of the day driving, but it would help a significant part of the driving public.

Regarding wind turbines, the logic is the same, but it is important that it be inside the car when driving. After you park, however, it could readily recharge your car. The thing about wind turbines, though, is that they don’t produce enough power. a 200 watt solar panel would fit on the car, and you would get about 200 watts from it most days. A 200 watt wind turbine would be crazy big, and you would basically never get 200 watts from it unless you live in a super windy place.

Remember, the first people who are going to buy electric cars are the same people that don’t like big electric generators. Sure, they can do trade offs, and they choose the lesser of two evils, but a nice solar panel would be a big selling point. And, with a $20,000 price tag, increasing the cost to $22,000 for the solar power version which can still be plugged in, I’ll bet 90% of sales would be for the solar powered version. Not including solar panels seems like a marketing failure.

Build something that is big enough for an average American to feel like they are not a sardine, not in an ugly car contest and has real world driving ability.

2. Hydrogen or CO cells are much more efficient than the batteries. You get back almost all of the electricity that you put in.

3. the mass-production in automated factories could make them imho much, much cheaper – even under 7000 €, I dare predict.

4. adding wind turbines to charge batteries while driving doesn’t make much sense. The turbines would cause the drag that will take away exactly the energy you get. They can be useful on windy days and parked car, though. Or even better, use the new, flexible solar cells to cover the car body.

5. I hope they are already constructed so, that the braking energy is conserved back to the electric system instead of dissipated?

In 10 years batteries will at least halve in price gas will double in price. Batteries will cost $18,000.

2 people, 10000 miles per year/10 years. One electric, other gas.

Gas: 4 Gal’s per 100 miles @ avg. of $7 per gal. given the price gas will increase. Total gas cost: $28,000.

Electric: Projected average cost of electricity $8 per 300 miles. Electricity costs: $2700. Battery Replacement Cost: $18000.

Electric: $20,700
Petrol: $28,000

(These calculations do not include the higher maintenance costs of gas as mentioned by Bill Dale).

However on cool mornings the defrost system sucked (none) and the air conditioner really really really sucked (not cockpit after a long day sitting in the sun).

For any EV to met the wants of an American it need range, speed, fast recharge and a good heater and AC.

Muffy and Biff won’t load themselves into a swealtering car at the end of the work day.

Why the high price? Lithium batteries? Small scale of production? What if it is produced and mass marketed in China and the rest for other countries?

Sorry for taking so long to reply to your query.

I’m happy to say that you can now see my BMW EV conversion running on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbCpFHJ7GJs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=581OcqLLt1o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brsKlo9NI-k

I don’t know where you live, which makes it difficult to give you much help, but generally speaking, I suggest you check to see if there is an Electric Auto Association chapter somewhere close to you. They can be invaluable. Below is their main address, where you can find links to chapters.

http://www.eaaev.org/

Also, many of the EV conversions that I have heard about have been done with the help or oversight of a technical college, trade school, high school, etc.

There are several books on conversions available, too, if you look for them, and I’ve been told they’re worth buying. Good luck!

The problem is. I know of orders placed in August 2008 that today July 13, 2009 still have not been delivered.

I could not possibly trust that company for that reason alone.

greetings.

You can’t compare electric vehicles directly to gasoline cars and reach reasonable conclusions. EVs must be evaluated on their own terms.

Purchase prices for EVs are higher (for now) than gasoline, but once you buy one, you spend far less every month to drive it than you would driving a gasoline car. The dramatically lower cost of operation can make it possible to buy a fully electric car; as time goes on and gasoline prices continue to spiral upward as they are, it will become more and more apparent that an EV is the better investment.

And since EVs require virtually no maintenance– no oil changes, oil filters, air filters, spark plugs, oxygen sensors, mufflers, catalytic converters, timing belts, fan belts, radiator hoses, smog tests and similar expenses that EVs do not, you save there as well– I don’t know about you, but my time is valuable, and I enjoy being able to drive my friend’s EV and never having to stop at gas stations and repair shops, and I’m so very glad I’ll be able to drive fuel-free very soon.

I plan to install a solar panel on my roof as one of my friends has done, which he uses to recharge his EV, and he sells the excess back to the utility company. When you have a solar panel, virtually the only expense you have driving an EV is your car insurance.

Other benefits: EVs use regenerative braking, or regen, which helps to recover much of the energy you use to stop your car, something gasoline cars cannot do. Regen not only helps to recharge the battery, but also extends the lifespan of the brakes dramatically, too– not only are the brake pads used far less, but the brake fluid hardly heats up at all, so the brake fluids, brake disks and brake pads may all last the life of the car.

EVs use electric motors rather than engines, and the torque curves of motors are far broader than those for engines, which means that an EV can get by with no transmission at all, or maybe just a single forward gear– an EV can back up just by reversing its electric motor, eliminating the weight, complexity and expense of a reverse gear. Transmission repairs and maintenance are among the most expensive and time-consuming parts of operating a gasoline car– look forward to eliminating that from your budget.

An EV’s electric motor only has one moving part, compared to a gasoline of diesel engine– that makes it far more reliable, quiet, and vibration-free… all it does is spin on its own center of gravity, rather than slamming up and down thousands of times per minute as pistons have to do… for this reason, an EV can last for decades with virtually no maintenance.

There are several new technologies that may soon be able to increase the storage capacity of batteries dramatically– 10 times more energy, meaning that an EV may be able to drive several hundred miles between charges, or else the battery packs can be reduced to less than 10% of their sizes today to get the same range between charges.

If you live in a heavily-populated area such as myself, much of your driving is creeping from one red light or stop sign to the next– that drives down the efficiency of gasoline cars, but the slower an EV is operated, the more efficient it is– in gridlock, in lines at fast food drive-throughs, train crossings and similar situations, EVs use no energy at all.

Oil for gasoline will grow progressively more scarce, and increase in price as it does. Get yourself an EV now, or convert a gasoline car to an EV as I am almost finished doing myself, and avoid all the problems.

One more thing: hybrid cars are NOT EVs– hybrids are terribly complex, lugging around twice as much hardware as either a gasoline car or an electric car, which eats into its efficiency. EVs are far more efficient than hybrids; the only justification for a hybrid is that it may help to transition to a society that learns to use plug-in cars, charging at home most of the time, and occasionally recharging at public stations when necessary. As soon as public charging stations are readily available, the need for hybrids will disappear, and the 600 billion dollars we spend yearly in the US can then be spent at home paying off our enormous national debt, and on health care, education, and on repairing our crumbling transportation infrastructure.

I am almost finished converting a BMW coupe to full electric power… it will have better performance than it had with gasoline power.

Buzz Saw: you obviously never studied physics– yes, solar panels could help, but only marginally unless you park the car during the day where there is lots of sun. But to put a wind turbine on the car would not INCREASE its range, but DECREASE it– the inefficiencies of generators combined with the aerodynamic drag of the turbine and the significant drag that all generators have when making electricity would make it impossible to have a net gain of energy when driving.

The only time it might be theoretically possible to use such a turbine for an net increase in battery charge would be when the car is parked, but the excess weight of the generator would reduce the overall efficiency of the car, especially in hilly areas, and so would likely make it difficult to win that battle, either.

Gasoline cars are on their way out. Just how much growing pain we will have before EVs replace them will be determined by just how quickly battery technology advances. Several new technologies may make it possible within the next few years to recharge an EV nearly as quickly as it takes to gas up an SUV, and far more economically. We need batteries that are affordable over a given life span, that can be recharged rapidly, that are safe to use and provide a range of 100 miles or so between charges.

However, the 2 front/one rear, three wheel vehicle also allows a vehicle to be more of a tear drop shape (meaning more aerodynamic) and it’s also lighter (less energy to make it move). So for an electric vehicle it makes sense to use this design.

Funny thing about this vehicle is the company is based in Marin, CA. I commute through this corridor and the average highway speed is 65-80 miles per hour. So they need to up the cruising speed before I would seriously consider buying this car. Make it a 100 mile range at 80 miles and hour and I’m on the waiting list.