EVDL Administrator via EV wrote:
Can you tell I'm skeptical? It's an interesting idea, guys, but I'm afraid you have a big challenge ahead.
A certain amount of this is trolling for publicity and investors. One marketing research technique is to write press releases for a fake product (computer generated images, invented specs) just to see what the response is. See what parts of it get taken seriously, and what gets lampooned. Then design your *real* product based on the responses.
Another aspect is that the big auto companies pretty much have a monopoly on normal cars. A small company simply can't compete (unless you have Elon Musk's billions to spend). So, they aim for some other market where they *do* stand a chance.
There probably *is* a market for a true "City Car". A modern-day equivalent of the Ford model T that's very small, very simple, very low cost, and specifically meant for low-speed driving. It's for people who don't want, don't need, or simply can't afford the luxury safety tanks that regular cars have become.
Lots of people (besides Henry Ford) have tried to do this. Most have failed. Often, they didn't get the details right. Their cars turned out to be badly built, unreliable, unfixable, unsafe, uncomfortable, and overall poor performers.
It turns out to be *hard* to keep things simple and inexpensive without also making them crude and badly made. Complicated solutions are straightforward; just keep adding things until it works. But this also makes them expensive, and lowers reliability, repairability, and life.
On the other hand, it's hard work to come up with simple, innovative, affordable solutions that also work well. Simple elegant solutions that seem obvious in hindsight often needed *years* of development and creativity to get them that way.
So, I wish them luck! But I hope they also do their homework, to learn what's been done before, what worked, what didn't, and what they're going to do differently to have a successful outcome.
-- Knowledge is better than belief. Belief is when someone else does your thinking. -- anonymous -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com _______________________________________________ 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)
