Boring Electric Car Gets 100 Miles Per Charge; Goes 85 MPH; Still Due 2010
Most of the new California electric car start-ups were started by the auto-design equivalent of fashionistas - auto afficionados who love cars for their gorgeous design, the thrill of the torque and the 0-60 in whatever seconds. So they build beautiful electric cars able to attain speeds that only those of us who can afford the speeding tickets could ever afford.
So it is ironic that Miles; the one electric car startup started by someone with some exposure to actual fashionistas - Miles Rubin had been a Ralph Lauren executive - for a long time didn’t even bother with fancy mockups of their prosaic electric car to be, but for the last few years made just one image available, that looked as if it was snipped from an old Life Magazine.
They allowed the image to drift about desultorily in the blogosphere for several years, not bothering to control the branding. Even the name - Javlon, and now, XS500; was just temporary: they will name it this year.
- » See also: Is the Renault-Nissan Alliance Going in Two Different Electric Car Directions?
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Instead of investing in a gorgeous new design, Miles had just picked a workable, practical five-seater sedan already in production in China, and adapted it into an electric vehicle, designed it to stay below $40,000 before subsidies (which would be $7,500 off, under the current legislation - and likely more with the new probably filibuster-proof Senate majority) and just kept going with developing it.
Then they limited the top speed to a sensible 85 MPH in order to keep the range to a practical 100 mile round-trip per charge.
Miles’ new CEO shares the former design executive’s disinterest in design. Czinger hopes the same car will still be sold in five years, and merely plans to update the look occasionally:
“Fundamentally, we’ll have put in enough engineering in this car and this chassis that with continual technology upgrades - this is going to be attractive to people for many years.”
Unlike the major auto companies that need to sell 150,000 to break even, the break even is at just 5,000 cars a year, and they have production for 9,000 the first year. Like the other small EV start-ups, it doesn’t need fleets of flighty jets for management, or teams of fancy law firms to prevent legislated climate-related business-model changes, or millions for advertising and branding.
The prototype passed crash tests successfully (Autobloggreen) at 40 mph.
Over the next six months, more crash tests to meet both European ECE and American NHTSA rules; four prototypes will go through durability and reliability testing. Then the software will be tuned for full electronic stability control. Once that is complete, Miles plans a fleet test at the end of 2009.
It’s not for Fashionistas.
It’s just an electric car. One that can get you to work - on a freeway - allowing 100 miles every day to pick up both kids and their best friends from soccer after work, go get the groceries and go to yoga, go pick up a friend at the airport and get everyone home again to recharge again overnight for another 100 miles tomorrow.
EVs need to be practical and can offer a solution to a lot of problems. All that is required is a practical, cheap to drive, compact vehicle that gets you from A to B with minimum fuss and practically no requirement of any maintenance.
Going Electric also can bring the fuel price down, and the saving costs can cover infrastructure costs. We need a comprehensive thinking, instead of simple calculation; clean air and health care cost cut, man-made natural disaster decline and life/premises savings, energy security and war cost cut and more. For the 8 years, the U.S. has neglected up-to-date energy plan, therefore there is a need to expedite Going Electric. The current recession can be easily explained to think about the past costs of importd fuel, I think.
“All that is required is a practical, cheap to drive, compact vehicle that gets you from A to B with minimum fuss” Seconded, and may I add “with 4 wheels”?
I testdrove ZAP’s Xebra, and really wanted 4 wheels!
Actually,I just went and looked at the Alias - with the single wheel in the back - that’s kind of cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OggVaKW52us
That video looks like it is shot at Go Green Motors in Berkeley? I think I will go testdrive it!
The time is changing from IT to ET. Internet might be a matter of effiency, though, the energy challenge can be a matter of life and death, I think. In particular, the huge fuel-consuming nations such as China and India may have to rush to produce and introduce EV to save the world economy and planet, I guess.
Well hopefully they will become a viable manufacturer and will be able to streamline production to lower the cost of the vehicle to the $20,000 range where most people can afford one.
Not trying to overstate this…the introduction to of EVs should be seen as a National Security Issue. The Auto industry is having a major effect on our economic and physcal well-being. We need to go into a WW-II mode of production to make this a viable solution.
The world’s first affordable 5-door electric family car —— Jiayuan EV
It’s nice to see an EV company with their feet planted on the ground. I could never understand why companies building $100k+ vehicles ever got start up capital. The first rule of business investing is start with a product that has a large potential market. There aren’t enough rich people to go around and they can have short attention spans.
Finally an EV that has mass appeal, and doesn’t look like a golf cart or tricycle. This has a chance of catching on to the green “movement”. They’ll have stiff competition from hybrids. If I had to make a prediction, hybrids will be the big winners for the next 10-20 years. Maybe by then batteries, fuel cells or capacitors will be the equal of liquid fuels.
Miles is miles ahead of most automakers. I’d buy one of these practical and affordable cars when thyey are available. Just wait until oil subsidies stop and demand increases. We will pay $7-8 a gallon just like all of Europe and many other countries before the recession dropped demand.
Miles is very practical. The meek shall inherit the (auto) world.