'FOMM EV manufacturing hub in Thailand planned'
http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/local-news/874776/roll-out-the-electric-cars Roll out the electric cars 24 Feb 2016 [images http://www.bangkokpost.com/media/content/20160224/c1_874776_160224064214_620x413.jpg Virach Sornlertlamvanich in the world's smallest four-seater electric car prototype which can run 150km when fully charged http://www.bangkokpost.com/media/content/dcx/2016/02/24/1575740.jpg The interior of the car http://www.bangkokpost.com/media/content/dcx/2016/02/24/1575744.jpg A SITT research team works on the vehicle ] Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT)'s Centre for Research and Development Collaboration (CRDC) is out to prove that technology can help save energy and lead to a healthy environment. The newly set-up CRDC is working with FOMM Corporation, a Japanese company, running a research and development on an electric vehicle. According to project leader Virach Sornlertlamvanich, CRDC was founded to bring together private sector technologies and skills of SIIT's lecturers and students doing research. Instead of having the research projects left on the shelf, they should be applied for the use of society by matching with the industrial sector. Under the concept of CRDC, the electric vehicle prototype project is the first one proposed by Virach, who found that the new technology of electric vehicles fits the talents of SIIT's human resource in the School of Information, Computer and Telecommunications Technology (ICT) and perfectly responds to a need of drivers. "Inside the electric vehicle, there are so many technologies, including hardware, software, mechanics, electricity, motor, battery, IT systems and navigation system," said the project leader. The research team at SIIT and FOMM is working on the big data, data mining and sensors. Two primary sets of data are about driver behaviour and the vehicle itself. Driver behaviour is kept and recorded by a real-time video camera embedded in the car, and the data of vehicle is about the car speed, co-ordinates, acceleration and temperature of the environment, all these are key factors for the vehicle efficiency. On the software part, the data can be further used for developing the responsive applications such as an application to alert the driver once the driving speed is faster than permitted, and the application to display and warn about power consumption. Virach added that Japan is now taking a great step in electric vehicles and this collaboration is part of FOMM's plan to have Thailand as the hub for manufacturing compact electric cars to sell in this region. An electric vehicle is still a new concept. It gets power from rechargeable batteries installed in the car. For consumers, Virach said they can save a lot of money as they don't need to buy fuel ever again, and an electric vehicle is far cheaper to run even though electricity is not free. "Compared with fuel, the electric car can run 300kpl and when fully charged it can run 150km," he said, noting that the batteries are designed to allow smartphones to monitor the remaining power. Electric vehicles are expected to become a familiar and ideal tool for short-range transportation. FOMM, which stands for First One Mile Mobility, said the car is especially ideal for giving the close-range mobility needed to move that "First One Mile", for example from home to the bus-station or from home to the car-share parking spot. Unlike the combustion engine car, the electric car is completely eco-friendly, does not emit toxic gases or smoke into the environment, and also reduces noise pollution. However, the infrastructure is a weak point because the vehicles operate on battery only and therefore, the availability of battery charging stations is important. FOMM recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangchak Petroleum to embark on a study of a battery cloud system. The said district will undertake the battery cloud system and general maintenance services at Bangchak's stations network. Batteries for its electric vehicles can be charged at home or be replaced at service stations. The target market for electric cars are in the cities, including Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Hat Yai in Songkhla province, tourist attractions and manufacturing campuses. The project leader explained that in Japan, electric vehicles have already been tested in tourist attractions by hiring them out. It's possible for a business model of car sharing in Thailand as a Japanese company is now studying pool parking spots offering the electric car for hourly renting. "For those who want to travel in town, they can park their cars and rent the electric car for an hour," Virach added. FOMM recently set up a company in Thailand, called FOMM Asia, to take care of the research and development, manufacturing, marketing and sales, and is looking for partners in a manufacturing joint venture. At present, many local companies are interested in the electric vehicle, however, they are not confident as the legislation for compact electric cars has been not officially enforced. By the end of this year, FOMM's compact electric cars are scheduled to be sold on the market for approximately 300,000 baht. [© Post Publishing PCL] ... http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=FOMM&sort=date More FOMM EV news items on the evdl archive For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-THB300k-8-4k-SIIT-FOMM-EV-concept-R-D-r-150km-tp4680717.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.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)
