[USA]Bright Volt-Lite (Spy)

[JOKEJOE]

Those who have followed the Volt story long enough will remember that the consulting firm Rocky Mountain Institute has spun off its own start-up car company called Bright Automotive. The CEO of this fledgling automaker is John Waters, an engineer who it turns out used to work for GM on the EV-1.

Waters came out a year and a half or so ago criticizing the Volt’s design and engineering, mostly concerned about it being to heavy and therefore less economical. At that time he said “[The Volt] is a 4,000-pound vehicle. The drag coefficient is around .30. They [GM] forgot everything they learned on the EV1 so for me, it is a very discouraging concept, the fact that it is inefficient.”

Now he’s gone so far as to design a car that one might call the Volt-lite.

At this point we don’t know much about the car as hasn’t been revealed yet. That is set for May at the Electric Vehicle Symposium in Norway.

The car is expected to have a 30 mile-electric range, and powered either by lithium-ion or possibly even nickel-metal hydride batteries. There will be a 1.6 liter 4-cylinder range extender on-board that allows 400 miles of driving on a full tank of gas.

RMI is known for encouraging lightweight vehicles and has a relationship with the carbon fiber industry. “We’re not limited by leveraging steel relationships,” say Waters, referring to the Volt’s heavy steel frame. This car will be built around a lighter cheaper battery pack.

Bright hopes to build 30,000 cars it its first year and up to 50,000 cars per year by 2013.

A major problem at this point is not surprisingly financing. Bright had begun acquiring venture capital when the economy crashed, and per Waters still need $400 million in either VC funding or Department of Energy grants by June 12th in order to meet its launch date of fourth quarter 2012.

A major competitor or just another drop in the oil bucket? We may be waiting quite a while to find out.

[Rohypnol]

mi ricorda molto un incrocio tra i prototipi renault e la vw noah:

peccato siano del '95...