Putting the zoom into electric cars

[steinravnik]

Putting The Zoom Into Electric Cars

Watch out, Detroit. A new crop of electric-vehicle startups aims to put a dent in the Big Three by applying the latest in high-technology engineering and design.

Steve Fambro didn't get into the car business to save the world. He did it to go faster on freeways.

Fambro was driving 36 miles a day, during rush hour, to and from his biotech job in La Jolla, Calif. As traffic slowed to a crawl, motorcycles whizzed past in the carpool lane. He wanted to do the same, and after trying a motorbike and becoming worried about his safety, he decided he wanted to do the same in an enclosed vehicle. He bought a hybrid, but as an engineer he still yearned for a vehicle that got even better fuel economy.

That left electric cars. The selection was discouraging: tiny, boxy vehicles with a short range that took a long time to charge. "Anything you could buy looked as if it was designed in the 1970s," says Fambro.

So he decided to start his own car company. In November 2008, Fambro will begin selling the Aptera. That means "wingless" in Greek, but don't think this car won't fly. It's a sleek two-seat, three-wheel electric vehicle with a top speed of 95 miles an hour, and it comes in two versions: all electric and hybrid.

Made of a Space Age composite material, the hybrid gets 300 miles per gallon, while the electric goes 100 miles on a single three- to six-hour charge. And it looks great in the carpool lane.


Continued...
http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/19/smbu...fsb/index2.htm

[mgescuro]

Certainly looks very George Jetson-like.

[steinravnik]

Originally Posted by mgescuro

Certainly looks very George Jetson-like.

I was looking at the company's website, the specs sound pretty impressive, under $30k, 350 mpg. Although, I wonder how it will perform in a crash test? It looks pretty fragile to me. According to the site, they have performed computer simulated crash tests, but have yet to do a real one.

[jkennedy293]

Originally Posted by steinravnik

I was looking at the company's website, the specs sound pretty impressive, under $30k, 350 mpg. Although, I wonder how it will perform in a crash test? It looks pretty fragile to me. According to the site, they have performed computer simulated crash tests, but have yet to do a real one.

Well it is classified as a motorcycle, so it won't need any of those pesky airbags, and the crash test requirements should be fairly basic.


It seems kind of risky to buy from these small upstarts. These hybrids require a lot of specialized hardware and software to run. What happens when the company goes belly up, as so many did during the dot com crash? How will you get parts? It seems that you could end up with a $35,000 lawn ornanment if your not careful.

[Michael_S]

Originally Posted by jkennedy293

Well it is classified as a motorcycle, so it won't need any of those pesky airbags, and the crash test requirements should be fairly basic.

It seems kind of risky to buy from these small upstarts. These hybrids require a lot of specialized hardware and software to run. What happens when the company goes belly up, as so many did during the dot com crash? How will you get parts? It seems that you could end up with a $35,000 lawn ornanment if you're not careful.

Yes, it's a risk.

Most of the basic technology these vehicles have has been around for a long time. The problem is that the price of gas didn't stay high enough for demand to keep increasing. Lots of similar work on super efficient vehicles happened in the 1970s, and then after the price of oil went back down a whole bunch of startups collapsed and projects were abandoned.

If you believe in conspiracy theories, the oil companies will repeat the 1970s. They'll wait a few years, then flood the market with cheap oil until all these companies investing in super efficient vehicles go bankrupt or start working on something else, and then the oil companies will return to the high prices.

It's terrible for poor Americans, but I'm hoping the price of oil stays where it is or goes higher. Then these alternative cars will actually gain ground.

[EDIT] On the other hand, according to their website it will have front airbags:
http://aptera.com/ask.php

[eaton53]

I read about these little startup things all the time... none of them ever get anywhere.

[PRO_USA1776]

If you believe in conspiracy theories, the oil companies will repeat the 1970s. They'll wait a few years, then flood the market with cheap oil until all these companies investing in super efficient vehicles go bankrupt or start working on something else, and then the oil companies will return to the high prices.

I personally don't believe in conspiracy theories, however I say put a $100.00 a barrel tax on oil produced outside the US and use the revenue to pay for adavanced battery and alternate fuel research!

[regfootball]

these guys are capitalizing on the green thing, just starting up a company and growing it enough so a bigger company buys them out and lines their pockets. in the meantime, i would not buy a car from a startup because they have no history doing it and most likely it would be deficient in many areas including safety and reliability that we have come to expect as routine from the people who experts in carmaking.

[PocoToro]

The Starship Enterprise would like it's shuttle pod back

[Michael_S]

Originally Posted by PRO_USA1776

I personally don't believe in conspiracy theories, however I say put a $100.00 a barrel tax on oil produced outside the US and use the revenue to pay for adavanced battery and alternate fuel research!

The problem with that is that if we tax oil imports too much, oil companies outside the US will just sell their oil somewhere else.

That's the benefit and the drawback of global capitalism. If you can make more profit selling your product somewhere else, that's what you do.

[PA Dweller]

Originally Posted by PocoToro

The Starship Enterprise would like it's shuttle pod back

Yea it looks terrible.

[Vette Ninja]

And I thought that it'd be embarrassing to be seen in a Prius.
Now I know that there are worse things.

[RedVee8]

I'd like something like that, but i'd prefer it to look something like an enclosed Beach Buggy, or enclosed Nota Fang.......
Thinking outloud , even a Bolwell Ikara (but enclosed) or Lotus Elise look and size ...

[GM-Joe]

I don't see how that jalopy could meet any safety standards.

[ColinOpseth]

Side profile is OK. Rear looks like a pteradactyl and the front looks like poop. And no, not teradactyl as in the sex move. Although if you let your mind wander...http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=re...E_8Sc4ZZ3Lx4lw