Electrifying News!

Mitsubishi's i MiEV Electric Car is Ahead of Schedule
A couple months ago, we got our hands on Mitsubishi's roadmap for its i MiEV electric car. The plan was to lease a few units to fleet customers first in 2009 and then launch it in 2010 (with a focus on Japan, but also in North-America and Europe), but reality is turning out better than even the optimists thought.

Japanese Launch: Summer 2009
The new plan is to launch the retail version of the i MiEV electric car in Japan in the summer of 2009. The reasons are "smoother-than-expected" preparations for mass-production and, as we can imagine, the increased demand generated by skyrocketing oil prices. There's really nothing like an economic incentive to focus the mind.

i MiEV Electric Car Specifications
The i MiEV is powered by a compact 47 kW electric motor (133 lb-ft of torque) and a 330V, 16 kWh lithium-ion battery pack from Lithium Energy Japan (LEJ). LEJ is a joint venture of GS Yuasa Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC). Top speed of the i MiEV is 130 kph (81 mph), with a range of up to 160 km (100 miles) in the Japanese 10-15 cycle driving conditions.

Mitsubishi Motors intends to set the price for the i MiEV at around 4 million yen. But government subsidies for low-emission vehicles are likely to reduce the actual retail price to an estimated 3 million yen [US$28,000].

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/mitsubishi-i-miev-electric-car-launch-japan-2009.php

30 Electric Cars Companies Ready To Take Over The Road

(Lots of cool images)
It’s official: Green car madness has taken over. After seeing more electric and hybrid vehicle startups than we could keep track of, we finally decided to start keeping count.

We’ve compiled a list, below, of 27 (update: the list has reached 30; thanks for the comments) startups, listed according to their release date, with additional information on fuel type, range, top speed and price. Most haven’t yet taken venture funding, but where applicable, we’ve listed financial backing.

While we’ve got some overall favorites (Miles, Tesla, Think) and a few favorite oddballs (Aptera, Commuter Cars, Eliica), we’ve for the most part withheld judgement. Still, if you have any of your own predictions about which companies will succeed or — far more likely — fail, we’d encourage you to make them known in the comments.

A note on our method: While most manufacturers are planning more than one model, we chose the one that seemed either most commercially viable or closest to release, depending on our own (discretionary) formula. We didn’t included well-known consumer models like the Toyota Prius or Chevy Volt, or startups like AC Propulsion that only do battery conversions for consumer vehicles. We also rounded the price to the nearest thousand.

All details are taken from the companies, so we haven’t independently confirmed things like range and top speed details. In case we missed any, mention them below and we’ll add them to the list.

American Electric Vehicle — Kurrent
Update: Defunct, according to a comment below, although they seem to still be for sale. We’re looking into it.
AEV advises its potential drivers to “Slow down,” which seems like wise advice, given the golf cart-inspired design. Still, it’s ridiculously cheap.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $10K
Range / top speed: 40 miles / 25mph
Release date: Available now

Commuter Cars — Tango T600
The Tango is even odder than three-wheeled designs, in some ways: It’s less than half the width of a normal car, and two can fit in a single lane. It also accelerates like a bat out of hell. Future versions are planned to be much cheaper, and have longer ranges.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $108K
Range / top speed: 80 miles / 150mph
Funding: Less than $1 million in angel backing; open to venture funding.
Release date: Available now

Dynasty Electric Car Corp. — IT Sedan
This Canadian company actually sells five different models, although they all look relatively identical, minus or plus a few pieces of frame.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $19,000
Range / top speed: 30 miles / 24mph
Release date: Available now

ElBil Norge — Kewet Buddy
Somewhat reminiscent of the Think (see below), the Buddy is currently only available in the same country, Norway.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $28K
Range / top speed: / 56mph
Release date: Available now

Fly Bo — 6000 / 2
This vehicle, which bears a strong resemblance to the Smart Car, is produced in China. Spark (see below) distributes it in the United States.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $10K
Range / top speed: 60 miles / 35mph (w/ limiter)
Release date: Available now

Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) — e2
GEM is actually a division of Chrysler, the company has the look and feel (not to mention, apparently, the limited funding) of a startup. Its vehicles resemble golf carts, and are likely used for many of the same functions.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $7K
Range / top speed: 35 miles / 25mph
Release date: Available now

Modec — Electric Van
These aren’t actually cars, or even consumer transportation. These electric van / trucks resemble the delivery vehicles you might see bringing vegetables to your local grocery.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $41K
Range / top speed: 100 miles / 50mph
Release date: Available now

Myers Motors — NmG (No more Gas)
Another three-wheeled design, with room for only one passenger. Odd-looking and doesn’t go far, but you can order one today, if you like.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $35K
Range / top speed: 30 miles / 75mph
Release date: Available now

Reva — G-Wiz
Despite its distinction as the most-produced electric vehicle around, having been in production since 2001, the Indian-produced Reva isn’t available yet in the United States. It’s considered extremely unsafe at high speeds, so it may never make it over.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: £8K ($16K in US dollars)
Range / top speed: 70 miles (for 2008 model) / 45mph
Release date: Available now

Smith Electric Vehicles — Edison
The Edison, a large van designed for local deliveries, is Smith’s smallest model, meaning drivers don’t need a special license to operate it. The company, based in the United Kingdom also makes several much larger delivery trucks.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: Unconfirmed
Range / top speed: 150 miles / 50mph
Release date: Available now

Twike — The Twike
Some effort seems to have been put towards making this vehicle look like an insect. Of course, the look worked for the Volkswagen Beetle, and it may be working for Twike; the company sold out its 2007 line last year. It’s based in Switzerland, but sells in several other countries, including the United States.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $27,500
Range / top speed: 80 miles / 53mph
Release date: Available now

Venturi — Fetish
Another high-end electric sports car, the Fetish is manufactured in Monaco. High labor costs, anyone? The company is also developing two more models, the Ecletic and Astrolab.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: €297K (about $435K dollars)
Range / top speed: 155 miles / 100mph
Release date: Available now

Zap! Electric Cars — Xebra Sedan
Update: While Zap! cars really do exist, the company appears to have made itself out to be much more than it is. Check out the Wired.com expose piece on Zap, and think twice before ordering one (or signing up to be a dealer).
We chose to list the Xebra because the two higher-powered versions Zap is working on, the Zap-X and the Alias, don’t have firm release dates. Zap also has numerous retail locations in the United States, and sells cars made by other manufacturers.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $11K
Range / top speed:
Release date: Available now


Zenn Motors — Zenn NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle)
As with some other available electric vehicles currently available, this vehicle is strictly for short ranges and slow speeds.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $12K - $15K
Range / top speed: 35 miles / 25mph
Funding: This company is publicly traded on the TSX.
Release date: Available now

Lightning Car Company — Lightning GT
The United Kingdom’s answer to Tesla. This will likely remain a boutique vehicle, but the company has plans for cheaper mass-produced models later.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: £150K ($293K in US dollars)
Range / top speed: 250 miles / TBA (but fast)
Release date: First half 2008

Spark Electric Vehicles — Comet
Update: Like Zap (see above), it seems Spark is either a scam company or simply incapable of carrying out its plans. Michael Papp, the brain behind Spark, has been arrested and faces trial for taking payments for vehicles he failed to deliver.
Spark has nine models, most made by Fly Bo (listed above). Here, we list the one they designed and manufactured themselves in the United States (most of their vehicles are much slower and cheaper than this one). They distribute their vehicles in Colorado, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $33K
Range / top speed: 200 miles / 90mph
Release date: First half of 2008

Tesla Motors — The Roadster
The most-publicized, most-hyped electric car company around. Tesla’s high-performance electric vehicle is reportedly a blast to drive, but various production problems have set the release date back.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $98K
Range / top speed: 221 miles / 125mph
Funding: Backed by Bay Area Equity Fund, Compass Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Technology Partners, VantagePoint Cleantech Partners, and VantagePoint Venture Partners, as well as various angel investors (including Elon Musk).
Release date: First quarter 2008

Think — City
A pre-existing company whose older cars are still driven in Norway, this European manufacturer will release its new model in Europe this year, and in the United States a year or two after. Business 2.0 had an extensive story on the company.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $34K in Norway, $15K - $17K in US (projected)
Range / top speed: 112 miles / 62mph
Funding: Backed by DFJ Element, British Hazel Capital, Canica, Capricorn Investment Group, CG Holding, RockPort Capital Partners and Wintergreen Advisers, as well as various angels.
Release date: First half 2008 in Europe, but not until 2009 or later in the US

Phoenix Motorcars — Sport Utility Truck / SUV
No cars here, just trucks and SUVs. The company will have an extended-range battery option for 250 miles later in 2008.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $45K
Range / top speed: 130 miles / 95mph
Release date: Mid-2008

Moteur Developpment International — The Air Car
These tiny, odd little vehicles are powered entirely by compressed air. You won’t be likely to see one Stateside just yet, but India’s Tata Motors has plans to begin production on them this year.
Fuel type: Air!
Price: TBA
Range / top speed: 120 miles / 70mph
Release date: 2008 (month TBA)

Porteon — Porteon
Reportedly to be sold alongside houses in small Mexican communities. Like other companies, this one plans to roll out higher-speed models later, but they haven’t gotten back to us yet with more details, including the official name.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $7K - $9K
Range / top speed: TBA / 25mph
Release date: 2008 (month TBA)

Universal Electric Vehicles — Spyder
UEV’s Spyder has a sporty design, but the company itself doesn’t seem as slick and polished as some of the competitors. We’re not sure whether that means anything, though.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $70K
Range / top speed: 150 miles / 100+mph
Release date: 2008 (month TBA)

Aptera — Typ-1e / Type-1h
The Aptera Typ-1 is a three-wheeler (two front, one back) available in two configurations. We’ve covered the vehicle here.
Fuel type: All-electric or hybrid, depending on configuration
Price: $27K electric, $30K hybrid
Range / top speed: 120 miles electric, 600 miles hybrid; top speed TBA
Funding: Backed by Idealab and an angel investor, the CEO of Esenjay Petroleum, Michael Johnson.
Release date: Late 2008

Obvio — 828e
Sold in the United States by Zap, the diminutive but high-powered Obvio could almost race a Tesla. It’s designed and manufactured by a Brazilian company that is also working on a cheap combustion engine version.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $49k
Range / top speed: 240 miles / 120 mph
Release date: Late 2008 or early 2009

Fisker Automotive — “Eco-Chic” (Working name TBA)
Fisker will be showing off the first productions models of its cars on January 13th, at the Detroit Auto Show. Created by a world-renowned auto designer, these will compete in Tesla’s high-end market niche.
Fuel type: Hybrid
Price: $80K
Range / top speed: 620 miles / TBA
Backing: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has invested more than $10 million in Fisker.
Release date: Mid-2009

Venture Vehicles — VentureOne e50 / Q100 / EV
We previously suggested that some might call this vehicle a “glorified scooter.” The company does have supporters, though, who gave us plenty of heat — for a chuckle, check out the comment thread below our story. The three models listed are actually one car with different configurations.
Fuel type: Two hybrids, the e50 and Q100, and the all-electric EV
Price: $20K - 25K
Range / top speed: e50, Q100 and EV respectively: 350 miles / 100mph; 300 miles / 120mph; 120 miles / 75mph
Backing: Backed by NGEN Partners.
Release date: Second quarter 2009

Miles Electric Vehicles — XS500
Founded in 2004, this company already makes and sells two low-speed electric vehicles which are manufactured in China. We chose to list details for its upcoming highway-speed model, which should have a mass market appeal, if the price is low enough.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: TBA
Range / top speed: 120 miles / 80mph
Release date: 2009 (month TBA)

Bonus: Concept cars

We’ve picked out a few companies that represent next-generation thinking in EVs. As noted below, there are many more.

Eliica (The Electric Lithium-Ion Car)
A concept car created by Keio University in Japan, the Eliica has an odd eight-wheeled design and has come close to breaking speed records for combustion-engine cars. The team plans to sell a couple hundred eventually.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: $255K
Range / top speed: TBA / 230mph

Velozzi
An X-Prize contestant, Velozzi is most notable for claiming that their car will have a 0-60mph acceleration of under 3 seconds. Other details are pretty thin, though.
Fuel type: Hybrid
Price: TBA
Range / top speed: TBA / 200mph

Wrightspeed — X-1
Wrightspeed admits that its scarily fast prototype is unsafe, and will never be mass-produced. The company is planning a commercial model with the same high performance, but hasn’t given any real details yet.
Fuel type: All-electric
Price: Probably high
Range / top speed: <100 miles / 112mph w/ electronic limiter (but it’s still in first gear when it hits that speed)

There’s also the Automotive X-Prize competitor list, which had grown to 45 teams at last count — a few of which are included on this list, but many not. Most are concept cars.


http://venturebeat.com/2008/01/10/27-electric-cars-companies-ready-to-take-over-the-road/

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.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/19/smbusiness/electric_cars.fsb/

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.

For the first time since the early 20th century, America is seeing a flowering of entrepreneurship in the auto industry. Today at least 11 new electric car companies, each working on a wide range of technologies, have launched or plan to launch models. Several of the startups are clustered around Silicon Valley, drawing on the brainpower and pocketbooks of high-tech engineers and venture capitalists. These upstarts are not modest. They believe they can do what major automakers have failed to do: bring an electric car to the mass market.

Electric cars, to be sure, are not new. About a century ago Thomas Edison joined forces with Henry Ford to develop an electric car that would be as affordable as the Model T. In those early days of the automobile, hundreds of manufacturers all over the country tried to compete making both electric and gasoline-powered cars. But economies of scale were not on their side, and small shops - some 415 of them in 1914, each of which produced a few handmade cars a year - eventually gave way to the Big Three.

Photo Gallery: Electric cars made by small firms
The internal-combustion engine could be refueled more conveniently than a battery could be recharged, especially on long trips, and that advantage all but killed electric auto technology. Over the years entrepreneurs would occasionally emerge with a new design to challenge the Big Three, yet all failed. The two most memorable flameouts: Preston Tucker in 1948 with his Tucker Torpedo and John De Lorean, with his silver gull-winged sports car in the 1970s - both of which used internal-combustion engines.

So why does today's new breed of small, renegade car company think it can succeed where so many other auto startups have failed? The entrepreneurs and investors behind the firms point to four factors: consumer desire for measures to address global warming, an abundance of investment capital, new breakthroughs in fiber composite body material, and the availability of cheap computing power and software that help simulate design challenges long before new cars hit the road.

By taking aim at many markets, the electric auto makers are multiplying their chances of success. Tesla Motors of San Carlos, Calif., will sell in early 2008 a speedy $98,000 electric roadster for the Hollywood and hedge fund set (George Clooney and the Google guys have mailed in their down payments).

Entrepreneur Ian Wright, based in Burlingame, Calif., is also aiming at the sports market with the Wrightspeed X1, which he hopes to sell in about two years for about $100,000. The X1 prototype's three-second acceleration from zero to 60 mph makes it one of the fastest autos in the world - second only to the French-made Bugatti Veyron, a 16-cylinder gas-gulping beast that is just half-a-second faster and goes for $1.25 million.

If the Tesla and Wrightspeed give you sticker shock, don't worry. Phoenix Motorcars of Ontario, Calif., is aiming at businesses, and in early 2008 plans to sell a $47,000 electric pickup truck that can be recharged in ten minutes. For those looking for an affordable commuter car, Aptera's gas hybrid will be available in 2008 for $27,000, with an all-electric version for $30,000 (you'll have to plug it into a regular household socket for a few hours after driving 100 miles).

A Toronto company called Zenn sells an electric car and is counting on a radical new kind of power pack from a Cedar Park, Texas, startup called EEStor to next build an Aptera rival. And in 2006 a Norwegian investment firm bought Think, an electric car company once owned by Ford. It plans to launch the Think City commuter car in Europe in 2008 and in the U.S. market in 2009.

Dean Kamen, the Manchester, N.H.-based inventor of the Segway scooter, is working with Think to adapt his Stirling engine to the car, which would extend its 110 mile range. GM has hired A123, a Watertown, Mass., startup to supply lithium batteries for its Volt hybrid, due to launch in 2010. Former SAP executive Shai Agassi has raised $200 million for Project Better Place, a firm that plans to build a network of stations to recharge all these electric cars.

Driving this global network of entrepreneurs is a very global problem. In the U.S., cars and trucks are responsible for some 20% of humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide. Switching from internal-combustion engines to electric-powered vehicles will seriously mitigate the effects of global warming.

Skeptics point out that the juice for electric cars must be generated by power plants, most of which are fired by natural gas or coal and spew their own carbon dioxide. But 30% of the electricity on the national grid comes from clean sources such as nuclear, solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. According to a study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, using electric vehicles actually results in as much as a 40% reduction in greenhouse gases, depending on the location.

Few of these new car companies are aiming to grow to the size of Toyota or GM. Most will be satisfied if they can become profitable niche players; others hope to sell or license their technology to the big guys. Says Bill Green, a partner at Vantage-Point Venture Partners, which has invested in Tesla Motors: "No one argues today that the Tesla will serve anything but a small subset of the market. But it has changed the conversation. It is a historic and dramatic increase in performance. The big car companies will look at Tesla and say, 'Hey, maybe I can use that technology in my cars.' "

The rise of the jetpack
Venture capital firms are betting big on that outcome too. Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, used part of the fortune he made selling his company to eBay (Charts, Fortune 500) to help bankroll Tesla Motors. Besides Vantagepoint, investors include Google (Charts, Fortune 500) founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Silicon Valley VC firm Draper Jurvetson. Tesla has raised more than $100 million. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer, along with other investors, has put $7 million into EEStor.

What has these investors excited is that technology is helping small companies rethink the dynamics of car design. Take the Aptera: This aerodynamic, low-slung commuter car has a composite body, made of carbon fiber, fiberglass, and Kevlar, that looks like the cockpit of a jet yet can fit two adult passengers and a child in a baby seat. It weighs 1,500 pounds, compared with the U.S. industry average of 3,455 pounds. Because it has only three wheels, the Aptera will be classified as a motorcycle in most states. But it's beefier than it looks. One inch shorter than a Toyota Prius, the Aptera can still fit a surfboard in the trunk after folding down the passenger seat. The vehicle has passed slalom tests for stability and handling.

Odd, delightful features abound. A solar-assisted air-conditioning system will run on sunny days even when the car is turned off, keeping the interior cool for the driver's return. The covered wheels hang on the ends of protruding axles, leading one auto industry wag to remark that the vehicle looks like "Batman's girlfriend's car." Fambro makes no apologies: "Most auto designs put styling first and function second," he says. "The way cars are designed, half the energy they need is just to push the air out of the way."

Fambro's aim was to change the styling to reduce the drag of the car as much as possible. He succeeded: The Aptera will have a drag one-third that of a today's average car and less than half that of the Prius, the industry champion of low wind resistance.

Fambro created his groundbreaking design on a budget. It would have cost him $10,000 a day to test the car's aerodynamics in a wind tunnel, so Fambro found some software - the same that NASA uses to test the drag of its space vehicles - for just $50,000.

Not your average GPS
The simulation lets him make a change in the style of the car and see the effect on drag very quickly. One result: The car has no side-view mirrors. Instead the driver has 180-degree rear visibility on a videoscreen with the help of cameras mounted on the back of the car. "Ten years ago we couldn't do that kind of testing. And five years ago we couldn't afford it," says Fambro.

His engineers can also use the computer to simulate 50,000 miles of driving, including over potholes, and test the stress on the vehicle parts. (A prototype of the car has been pushed to its limits on an actual test track.) Because the body is made of a composite, capital costs are low compared with those required to build a typical steel car. It can take as much as $1 billion to set up the facilities for the die stamping, welding, and assembly of a new vehicle, but Aptera can make composite parts with a tolerance of 0.001 of an inch quickly and cheaply. "It's an entirely new way of making structural products," says Fambro. He estimates that today's computing power is so fast that he can do with three employees "what a big company such as Boeing ten years ago took a few hundred people to do."

It's one thing to build a prototype; it's another to manufacture complex products in large numbers on time and on budget. Toyota (Charts), with some of the best auto engineers in the world, took years to work the kinks out of the Prius. Aptera must also build or piggyback onto a dealer network to sell and service the cars. That takes capital, skilled manpower, and time. Aptera's all-electric model should at least be very easy to maintain. It has no transmission, and its electric motor has only one moving part, compared with about 400 for regular engines. Its mechanics may need software degrees, but at least they'll have clean hands.

Even if Fambro succeeds in building an affordable, energy-efficient commuter car, the impact on the market, at least in the short run, will be minimal. He hopes to sell around 3,000 to 4,000 Apteras in the first year of production, marketing mostly to buyers in California, Arizona, and Nevada, and then ramp up to about 10,000 cars a year soon after that. Meanwhile, GM (Charts, Fortune 500) alone churns out about 300,000 cars a month. Fambro says he plans to build Aptera into a major car company, but like many entrepreneurs, he is willing to be flexible. "If Toyota or Hyundai offered to buy us," he says slyly, "we would certainly consider it."

Biologically-inspired teardrop electric car design

So, is this the most aerodynamic car you've seen all day? For one student, Elle Kalm, it's the cleanest air-slicing vehicle that's feasibly possible, at least according to Kalm's recently-published paper.

The paper, which was published in August, is a Master's thesis on the design of an aerodynamic green car. The product of two schools, Luleå University in Sweden and Tsui Design and Research in Emeryville, California, the thesis' goal was to design an incredibly aerodynamic vehicle that would be powered by batteries, with "all concerns on consumer demand and to follow Eugene Tsui's design." Tsui is an architect who not only draws inspiration from nature, but attempts to incorporate natural methods into his design, something he calls "Evolutionary Architecture."

As you can see in the rendering, the teardrop-shaped vehicle doesn't have mirrors (it would use cameras instead) and Kalm opted for three wheels over four. While the thesis is not nearly as detailed as one might like in describing how decisions were made, we can read how the students (in some instances, Kalm worked with others) considered pretty much every aspect of the car's design: doors, headlights, body materials, and more. In short, it's an example of how the next generation of designers is getting ready to design a sixth-generation Prius for us.