What a Look (Defiant)

[George S.]

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/11/12/defiant-ev3-three-wheel-translogic-188/

Lots of stuff to chew over. Interesting design. The equity crowdfund thing might push this stuff along. Batteries are getting cheaper, so range can only increase.

 

[Cameron Newland]

That is perhaps the ugliest vehicle I've ever seen. I'd be surprised if they were able to sell a single unit.

I am quite thankful to hear about another light(-ish) electric vehicle project, though. Keep 'em comin'!

 

[George S.]

The 175 wh per mile is around half what the Volts and Leafs do. If you could do something like mass production with something like this, the guts not the 30's shell, it might be $15k.

Bullet points would be 1) autocycle 2) equity crowdfund

22.3 kw dc motor
30 hp / 70 ft/lb
0-60 in 10 seconds
80-100 miles range
75 mph top speed
14.4 kWh LiFePo4 battery pack
1800 pounds

$25,000
9 Hour charge on house current

Classed as motorcycle or autocycle (less regulated for safety)

 

[Paul E.]

Anybody considering buying this should first watch a few of those episodes of Mr. Bean where the Reliant Robin appears.

 

[J.R.]

Anybody considering buying this should first watch a few of those episodes of Mr. Bean where the Reliant Robin appears.

Agree!!

Motorized three wheelers work better with 2-front and 1-rear...

 

[MLB]

That was one top heavy design. There's nothing inherently better with a tadpole configuation. In fact they are usually more dangerous as they must understeer at speed. Here's mine. I've had multiple tadpoles and a couple of deltas and the deltas handle better all the time.

 

[Jim123]

J.R. that is one of the funniest videos I have ever seen. Population down in Sheffield due to 3 wheel deaths.

 

[Brian(J)]

The 175 wh per mile is around half what the Volts and Leafs do. If you could do something like mass production with something like this, the guts not the 30's shell, it might be $15k.

Bullet points would be 1) autocycle 2) equity crowdfund

22.3 kw dc motor
30 hp / 70 ft/lb
0-60 in 10 seconds
80-100 miles range
75 mph top speed
14.4 kWh LiFePo4 battery pack
1800 pounds

$25,000
9 Hour charge on house current

Classed as motorcycle or autocycle (less regulated for safety)

The article refers to EV's that 'look like a phone booth on wheels' I suspect that refers to the BMW i3, we have a black and white one (panda edition) we refer to as our giant bathtub toy. We love it. I'm not sure the wh per mile is all that important as the cost to run any EV is so low that spending anything or giving up anything for an extra 25% efficiency is hard to pencil. EPA says i3 costs $.81 for 25 miles, biggest Tesla $1.14 for 25 miles. I ordered the car for myself but my wife ened up with it, I prefer my Dash E3. We paid $35K all in (rebates!).

 

[Nirmala]

There are

That was one top heavy design. There's nothing inherently better with a tadpole configuation. In fact they are usually more dangerous as they must understeer at speed. Here's mine. I've had multiple tadpoles and a couple of deltas and the deltas handle better all the time.

There are a handful of delta trikes that actually lean into the turn, so they offer the best of both worlds:
http://www.varnahandcycles.com/cycles.htm#c06 (this one can be ordered with Bionx kit installed)
http://www.ebay.com
and coming soon:
http://cruzbike.com/trike.html

 

[George S.]

The article refers to EV's that 'look like a phone booth on wheels' I suspect that refers to the BMW i3, we have a black and white one (panda edition) we refer to as our giant bathtub toy. We love it. I'm not sure the wh per mile is all that important as the cost to run any EV is so low that spending anything or giving up anything for an extra 25% efficiency is hard to pencil. EPA says i3 costs $.81 for 25 miles, biggest Tesla $1.14 for 25 miles. I ordered the car for myself but my wife ened up with it, I prefer my Dash E3. We paid $35K all in (rebates!).

The i3 is a nice car. BMW seems to rate it at around 220 wh per mile, but I wouldn't trust either number without a rigid test procedure.

http://www.bmw.com/com/en/newvehicles/i/i3/2013/showroom/technical_data.html

The watt hour number goes mostly to range, for me, and the cost of the pack. Recently, companies like GM and Nissan have been saying they can get to around $150 per kWh on their packs. That would help. They want a 200 mile range, which means about a 60 kWh battery pack. You can see the numbers that every manufacturer is juggling.

Clearly, the Defiant is a three wheeler to fit in the Autocycle category, and maybe to go slim and light. You avoid most of the safety regs, apparently. Their costs are just too high, given the dated battery chemistry. But somebody could do this, make a lot, use the lower priced batteries, and maybe come in around $15,000. Some sort of small city car rented by the hour makes the most sense. It's hard to know what the self-guided car will mean.

 

[Nirmala]

The Lit C1 is also an interesting vehicle, but the price on it has also creeped up to $24,000 although there may be tax incentives to bring the cost down:
http://litmotors.com