Lots to like about this effort, and the video is easy to watch, and provocative in good ways. Bill D mentions unsprung weight. If you aren't a performance nut you can manage clunky handling. Most drivers can't discern good handling from uninspired. People drive land yachts like Prius in large numbers. Bet those 4 motors aren't heavier that 4 steel truck wheels.
The business plan is very interesting. I do see cars as a service as attractive to many people. They propose rolling it all up fuel, service, etc., into a regular payment. I like that. Of course H2 isn't ready for prime time, but the business plan doesn't depend on the energy storage method. I like the use of capacitors for acceleration and braking. Many details are missing, but it is still neat to see, and its on the road not a CAD dream. On May 15, 2016 6:00 AM, "Jay Summet via EV" <[email protected]> wrote: I found this video about the Riversimple car very interesting, both from a technology and business model sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utmkddBFUg0 The car has 4 hub motors, specifically because they want all braking to be electric. They have a large bank of capacitors to absorb 50 kW of braking that are also used to power accelerations. For people who don't like hub motors, the video shows that they can work in an actual driving test mule, and their justification for using them make sense (lots of excess electric braking power, ease of packaging to reduce aerodynamic drag, etc). More interesting than the technology was the business model they are proposing. Instead of selling the car, they "lease" it via a service contract (X$ a month and $N cents per mile). This way, the cost of manufacturing the car can be higher, as long as the total cost of operation is less than a gas car. It also makes longevity, reliability, and low total cost of ownership a motivator for the company, aligning their interests with those of the customer. (Disclaimer: The whole system is powered by an 8kW fuel cell, but I could also see a small sized lithium battery serving as the main motive force, as they only need to draw 8kW at a time from it. Acceleration is very good due to the capacitor bank, but top speed is limited to 60 MPH average (with limited bursts above this using the capacitor) due to the 11 HP equivalent (8KW) supply.) Jay _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20160515/c583612f/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
