http://www.lightningcarcompany.com/home.php

I don't know about the battery claims they make. If true, the age of the electric car is here. But they stole the Tesla business model (copied, I guess is a more fair comparison). Pay for the car before it's built, or they even have a prototype.

Now, I'm interested in the price point, as when I checked out the costs of the wheel motors about a year ago, a 160 HP unit was over $15k each. Since that time, maybe the costs of manufacture have dropped some, but the dollar has as well.

When I saw the rear view, I though Saturn Sky!

Matt

 

No doubt, the rear view looks identical to a Sky/Solstice.

Those are some pretty impressive claims, but unless they can make their car stand out (and by that I mean not look like someone built it in their backyard), I dont' see it doing well. The interior looks nice though

 

That's close to $400k. And the batteries are modified Li-Ion batteries that use a different electrode material to modify ion propogation at the surface. Also, they're appealing to the "all british" crowd, and it isn't coming to the US yet. So it seems that the use of the wheel motors quadrouples the price of the Tesla. Seems like a small production play, unless they can get the motor tech much, much cheaper.

Matt

 

Yikes!!! Still, it is a looker. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Maybe we'll, as Matt said, see the age of efficient, usable, electric cars in our lifetime. Not a bad thing.

 

The front almost looks like a GM EV1.

I have to ask, if our powergrid is maxed out, and expansion is not happening, and a bunch of electric cars come on line, where will the extra power come from?

 

That's an interesting point. I wonder how many kilowatt-hours it takes to charge the batteries? Perhaps as the use of compact flourescent lamps in place of incandescent lamps gets more widespread, we'll lessen the load on our power infrastructure. I've switched almost all of my lights over, and I'm happy to be getting the same light output with 75% less power draw.

 

the front reminded me of the old RX7...

 

let's see. We all drive a plug in hybrid to work and plug it in and charge during the day. The elecrical grid melts down to lines of gloppy copper where there used to be a power line. The idea of electric cars only works if you charge off peak power demand, like at night time. With the folks EV1 and "rate of use" metering, they paid about 1.8 cents, yes cents, a mile. Using cash eqilavlence and $3 gas, that's over 160 miles per gallon equivalent. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Matt

 

i think the annoyance of having to have to plug it in every night is
just a pita and part of what kinda killed the EV1's idea (?). not sure, but
i would like to have one less thing to worry about or have to do
every day.

are there any induction chargers where you can park in the proximity
of the charger (like in your garage) and get a charge?

 

the EV1 owners wanted to keep thier cars. There were waiting lists for the cars. People who never got to drive them. The act of inserting the paddle into the car was all of about 3 seconds work. and really, you never had to go to a gas station, so you got that time back in spades.... 3 sec x 14 days = less than one minute of time, twice that for removing the paddle too. And you'd drop a 15 min gas station visit, so it saved time overall. And no gas running down the side of the car from nozzles that drip or anything like that. What killed the EV1 was incompetence, not a market failure.

My dad even spoke to Rick Wagoner (sp?) about keeping his. And pops was on the GM science advisory board, and swims in a pretty elite circle. Still no go. The lease price was high (a bit over $500 a month), but at 1.8 cents a mile, there were tons of savings to help defer the cost of the lease.

But even though GM screwed the pooch big time, the technology wouldn't stay down. The drive system in the EV1 was based on some work by a company called AC Propulsion, and that was the basis for the drivetrain in the Tesla. So GM passed on a tech they could have sold just like Tesla is selling (more than they planned) to keep the EV1 momentum growing, and reduced the cost of manufacture by starting to ramp in volume, and then making the 5 seat sedan that will be Teslas volume product (in 2009 or 2010). But they could have done it 15 to 20 years ago. And pretty much owned the electric car market.

Look at GM now....

Matt

ps, when on the SAB at GM, pops also pointed out that GM's divisions were competeing against each other (high end chebies competing with olds and pontiac and low end caddies) and this was just stupid business. GM didn't like the message..... Roll forward a few years, there goes olds! Pontiac is doing better, but for years only made product differentiation with ghastly body kits, but they are far from the unique brand they used to be.

 

yah, i guess you're right. going to the gas station is a pita especially in the snow...