Clever Car -- the future of automobiles

Want to spend less at the pump? Lose weight, say researchers.

"The study's conclusions are based on those weight figures and Americans' 2003 driving habits, involving roughly 223 million cars and light trucks countrywide.

It will appear in the October-December issue of The Engineering Economist, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Society of Engineering Education and the Institute of Industrial Engineers."

source

This also applies to the weight of the vehicle. The less the vehicle weighs the less fuel it will consume.

 

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This vehicle concerns me

1st - What if it gets hit, it'll fling around like a jack rabbit
2nd - It's 13,000 bucks! Someone with a good truck could just come by and steal the damn thing cuz it's so small!!!
3rd - What mechanic alive would even know how to begin repairs on something like that?!

 

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I once saw a full-size sedan get T-boned in the middle of an intersection by another full-sized sedan that ran a stop sign. It did a '360' and came to a stop up on the sidewalk 10 feet from woman with a baby stroller.

Nobody seriously hurt. Just a little stunned.

I think if a car is designed to protect the occupant, e.g. crush zones but without crushing the occupant, 4-point safety harness, helmets, air bags; then even if a small car gets tossed in a collision the injuries might not be life threatening. Safety is mostly about design rather than size, but obviously you gotta be careful no matter what you drive.

Also, cars get stolen all the time. I think even a Clever Car would be too heavy for someone to just pick up and walk away with.

And most mechanics these days are pretty highly trained. So I wouldn't be worried about that.

 

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offer to buy

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Zip postal code: 1483754563
E-mail: manager@aqbuild.com
Tellefax: 0098-21-44170598

 

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Check this thing out! For sale soon in the US.
http://www.vectrix.com/

68 miles on a 2 hour charge, 75 miles on a full charge, regenerative braking, high performance, $11,000

 

Nice, but any scooter will save money, get thru city traffic better, reduce CO2 pollution and many cost much less.

 

True, but they create greenhouse gasses, and the two-stroke ones are particularly polluting.

 

Yes, those are nice, but the maxi-scooter is nicer for highway driving. You would have to compare it to one of these:

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why do you say that? I ask for two reasons:

(1) the electricity you recharge the vectrix with very likely came from burning coal at less than 40% conversion. Then at least 5% was lost on the way to your house in wires and transformers but the total coal lost was greater than 65% because to get that 5% in electric power to loss, required 5/0.4 = 12.5% more coal. More than 60 + 12.5 =72.5%% of the coal lost before it gets to charge your battery. The battery charge/discharge cycle is probably less than 75% efficient and with 5% lost heating the electric motor of the vectrix the coal burnt (in energy terms) is at least 72.5/0.8 = 90.6% lost. In reality there is also the self discharge loss when battery is not in used (during the night etc.) so to keep it simple, lets say about 5% of the energy in the coal gets to power the wheels of the vectrix. The simple cheap vespa etc. gets at least 20% of the energy in the gasoline to the wheels. By this analysis, the vectrix will add about 4 times more CO2 to the air than the Vespa (and I have not even considered the fact that the Vespa is smaller and lighter so takes much less energy per mile of travel.)

(2) The visible smoke that comes out of the exhaust pipe is not necessarily "pollution" (unless you have some freshly washed white sheets etc. near by.) It is mainly fine carbon particles that can help make clouds form, and they may reduce global warming.

I am reminded of time long ago when I saw a lady in ignorance, but meaning well, drive up to the recycle deposit in her Cadillac, get out, put four or five soft drink bottles in the bin and then drove away, feeling very good about "helping the environment."

I am sure that even if I have some minor mistakes above, the vectrix is NOT good for the environment compared to the much cheaper Vespa (Also the manufacture of the Vectrix surely does much more damage than making a Vespa, but I will not go into that nor mention the toxic metals pollution that the dead batteries will make in the dump/ground water? someday.)

PS BTW, when poor student I had a Vespa and during one summer drove it on high way about 10 miles to work each day (A friend at Cornell with car helped get it to Stamford Conn, where the summer job was.)

 

I think you're incorrect. Electric engines are very efficient, and the batteries can be recharged from a solar array on your roof. Even if you get your power from the grid, upgrades in the sources of electricity to the grid can be easily made. In some states, you have the option of getting a percentage of your power from renewable sources like wind, hydroelectric, and solar. If you get your power from a coal fired plant, it's still better, since the US has alot of coal. Think about all the energy required to recover that oil and ship it to the gas stations. Any methods of capturing greenhouse gasses will be better applied to a power plant, since it is a central source.

The vectrix also does not require oil, or the same kind of maintenance as a combustion engine.

 

Good points SG, the grid is powered mostly by nuclear, natural gas and hydro electric where I live, but I can never understand why some people believe that ONE coal plant is worst than the equivalent number of internal combustion engines???

I'd love one of those electric scooters.
Quiet, clean, and far cheaper to run than gas.

 

On a performance note, electric motors make 100% of their torque at all speeds, so they can be very fast. Also if all your driving is in an urban area, the exhaust is far away at the power plant, not going into the lungs of pedestrians and joggers.

 

They also dont idle...

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It's probably already perfected, and the auto companies are suppressing it.

 

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SUMMARY: Kiss Detroit/US leadership goodby.

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I learned of the Chery by announcement that it would be sold in Brazil in about 2009 back in 2006 (and posted notice in these forums,but forget where so no link). Here is the latest on it:

" ... The Chery A1 is a cute little car. It's a four-door hatchback, with a 1.3-liter engine, dual air bags and antilock brakes. The two-tone interior, with air-conditioning, power windows and a CD player, is surprisingly appealing for a car that sells for just over $7,000 in China.

It may not quite live up to American standards. The engine needs refinement, and some parts don't fit as well as they should--not to mention concerns about the safety of anything made in China these days. But it's just the type of low-cost small car Chrysler needs if it hopes to grow both here and overseas.
...
Chrysler, which lost $2 billion in the first quarter, can't afford the $1 billion or more it would take to develop a new generation of minicars. Nor does it have the small, efficient engines it would need to power them. ...Chrysler's small-car solution, instead, lies with Chery Automobile, a Chinese carmaker with bold ambitions of its own. Chery has been building cars for just eight years but is already China's fourth-largest auto manufacturer, with sales of 300,000 vehicles in 50 countries last year, and plans to sell 1 million cars a year by 2010.
...
Starting next year Chery will build up to 100,000 vehicles, similar to the A1, that will be sold under the Dodge brand in emerging markets. By 2009 Chrysler and Chery plan to co-develop another small car, perhaps the Dodge Hornet, which would be good enough for the U.S. market.
...
Chrysler must also worry about its engineering know-how walking out the door. As with most Chinese manufacturers that learned the business by tearing down cars and reengineering the parts, Chery has run into a few skirmishes over intellectual property rights. In 2003 its QQ minicar debuted six months before a nearly identical car built by General Motors in Korea, the Chevrolet Spark. GM sued Chery in China, accusing the company of copying its design. GM lost.
...
"Chrysler took a silver plate and gave it to them," says Erkut Uludag, a partner in the Detroit office of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, referring to the latest deal. By collaborating with an established American carmaker, says Uludag, Chery will quickly learn lessons that otherwise would have taken years, like how to nurture a brand in the U.S. or build a dealer network.
...
General Motors' next Buick will be co-developed with Chinese engineers. It's only a matter of time before Buicks are exported from China as well.
...
Chrysler started doing business with Chery four years ago, when it was building just 90,000 cars per year. Back then Chery bought engines from Chrysler's Brazilian operations. Today Chery makes its own engines--20 different ones, ranging from a tiny 0.8-liter up to a 6-cylinder now undergoing testing--with the help of avl, an Austrian engineering firm. Chery sprang to prominence recently amid a well-publicized plan by entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin to export 250,000 Chery-built luxury cars to the United States. Chery eventually dumped Bricklin in favor of Chrysler
...
By the end of August Chery will celebrate making its one millionth car. Its complex is more vertically integrated than most U.S. factories--stamping body panels and building engines and transmissions, along with cars, all on one site. This year it will produce 400,000 cars in two shifts. Yet its plants aren't especially up to date. While the paint shop is as modern as any U.S. factory's, workers wearing respirators (but no eye protection) still use small paintbrushes, rather than automated tools, to slather sealant on critical weld spots.
...
Managers tout the Chery Production System, or CPS, which is modeled after the vaunted Toyota Production System, but Chery's operations seem less efficient. Workers scamper over the car's frame--and each other--to attach seats, instrument panels and wiring harnesses. Even supplies are handled inefficiently, with rows and rows of auto parts stacked up along the assembly line, awaiting installation.
... "
{Billy T Note: Observe that US is not the leader or ideal to copy anymore. -More evidence that US is in decline competitively, but strongest evidence is US steel industry, mostly vintage WWII. It needed US government aid about three years ago to avoid bankrupcy, but now China is buying all the steel that can be produced by anyone.}
CONDENSED FROM:
http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0903/044.html?partner=globalnews_newsletter

PS Chery motors may eventually only sell in China as India's Tata motors is now building factory to produce an all plastic body, glued together (as some airplanes are now - as cheaper to make and stronger than rivets), four-wheel, never-rust , never-repaint, automatic continuous transmission gears system, four passenger, top speed around 50 or 60 mph, and at least 60mpg (perhpas 90mpg as it is light weight) car to sell around the world for about half the price of the Chery! Phase I of factory is designed for 100,000 units per year, but walled site is huge and expansion to 10 million units per years will easily fit. I know these details as I invested in Tata some years ago, but some are confired now at:
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/08/05/india-autos-cheapest-oped-cz_zog_0813indiaauto.html
Where Chery and other makers of the future car are also discused. ("future of auto" is part of this thread's name.)

 

This is a pretty old thread. For better data you should check out this newer thread, which compares the Clever Car performance with a bunch of other vehicles:

http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=1508527&postcount=45

I'm not trying to predict what everyone is going to be driving in the future. Different people will make their unique choices. And regardless of fuel economy people will often make choices based on lifetime cost, or utility, or monthly cost, or even just appearance. For example, an individual probably would not buy a bus due to poor fuel economy and cost, but the same individual might buy monthly bus passes if they are cheaper than monthly purchase financing of a car. On the other hand, public transit is often subsidized by taxes, in the absense of which they might be the same cost or even more expensive than cars. No one really knows.

IMO sustainable transportation is essential to future prosperity. Without it we cannot move people, goods, or services around. If we have to reduce gasoline consumption by 75 percent to achieve sustainability, then we should employ every engineering solution available to achieve it, while at the same time allowing people to choose which vehicle they use. If reducing drag coefficient to 0.20 and weight by 50 percent achieves that goal, without sacrificing utility or passenger capacity, or making financing prohibitively expensive, then we should do that. Otherwise, if there is an energy crisis we'll be balls to the wall without a solution available. And then we can't move goods and services or people around, and the world stops.

 

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 7 : Even as home grown automobile manufacturer Tata Motors is all set to launch its ambitious Rs 1 lakh car next year, market leader Maruti Suzuki has assured its shareholders that the car from Tatas would not be a competition to it and it would stick to its own strategy than reacting to competitors plans. ...Responding to queries from its shareholders at the annual general meeting here managing director Jagdish Khattar said the company would continue to focus on its own plans. ...Fiscal 2006-07 has been the best year for the company both in terms of sales performance and financial results. Net sales of the company increased by 21.6 per cent and net profit grew by 31.4 per cent over the previous year...."

I posted this to also show how the market for cars and demand for gasoline is growing, US like it or not. (They are the largest car maker in India - Growth % not large because of a small base.) China's is growing even faster.

Above condensed from:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/215142.html