For the past couple of year companies looking to move from concept Electric vehicles to actual production stage are getting the focus of VCs. Couple of weeks back Reva Electric Car Company, based out of Banglore, India, received $20 million investment from Draper Fisher Jurveston (DFJ) and Global Environment Fund (GEF). Reva founded by Chetan Maini back in June 2001 is currently available in India, UK, and Malta.
Reva might not be the fastest or comfy cars(actually it is not even near that) around but does offer substantial savings. Reva which looks like VW Golf cut into half, costs 1 cent per mile in operating cost while consuming 9 units of electricity for a full charge. You can go around 80 Kms in a single charge, with the battery level indicating low charge when you have 15 Km of charge remaining. Reva also claims to cost 40% less in maintenance costs since you don’t have engine, clutch or gears, or a carburetor, radiator, exhaust etc to worry about. The real drag is the pickup. Reva goes from 0-50 Kph in 18.3 seconds, which makes sure it wont see the light of day in US. Even by Indian standards the car is overpriced and low featured at INR 280k or $6300 with a seating space for 2 people, who might find their heads hitting the roof.
Moving to international scene, Mitsubishi is planning to rollout it own electric vehicle Mitsubishi Colt EV(Japanese – via wikipedia) by 2010. Colt will be powered by in-wheel motors and lithium-ion batteries. Mitsubishi claims that “the in-wheel motor makes it possible to regulate drive torque and braking force independently at each wheel without the need for any transmission, drive shaft or other complex mechanical components.” The next generation Mitsubishi vehicle which will have a range of 150 KM can clock a maximum speed of 150 Km/hr and will have seating space for 5 people. Colt is expected to be priced at around $19000. It is not sure how much the vehicle actually cost per mile to operate.
Meanwhile a Britain based company PML has successfully been able to implement this technology on BMW’s Mini Cooper. PML Mini QED with its small gasoline engine and four 160 horsepower electric motors in each wheel can run for 80 mpg. The electric car accelerates from 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds and has a top speed of 150 mph. Wheel mounted batteries can charged by rear mounted ICE/generators or you can plug it into regular electricity mains. It is pretty obvious that if you get the PML equipment installed on your Mini, the warranty from BMW is void.
Back on the US front we have Tesla Motors building its Tesla Roadster. Tesla has $60 million in funding from its 3 rounds and investors include VantagePoint Venture Partners, and Elon Musk, founder of PayPal. Tesla which has already sold out its high-performance high-priced EV for next year is now accepting orders for 2008 models. Tesla Roadster with its 2 speed transmission and lithium ion batteries can go 250 miles per charge and accelerate from 0-60 mph in 4 secs. In other terms Tesla Roadster will cost 1cent per mile or equivalent to 135 mpg. Tesla pricing starts at a whopping $92000, and you can higher for more features. Checkout the Tesla whitepaper for more information and comparison charts.
We also have WrightSpeed, a startup owned by Ian Wright, a former employee of Tesla, who have built their EV prototype called X1. X1 goes from 0-60 mph in 3 seconds, with 170 mpg equivalent. X1 has a top speed of 112 mph and range of more than 100 miles per charge. WrightSpeed till date has received $8 million in funding, and is looking move onto building a production car.
As someone commented about EVs: “The only thing cheaper is walking!”. Actually it is made even more cheaper by federal and state taxes available for buying green cars.
Links:
Reva
PML
Tesla Motors
WrightSpeed
December 22, 2006 at 3:21 am |
Your readers might find this article interesting. Check out ‘The Electric Car Revisited’. Oh, and be sure to watch the X-1 movie – you’ll see an electric car blow a top Ferrari and Porche into the dust:
http://www.celsias.com/blog/2006/12/21/the-electric-car-revisited/
January 16, 2007 at 8:11 am |
Hi,
Thank you for featuring a link to the PML Flightlink Ltd. website. Might I suggest that your English speaking readers would benefit more from the English version of their site (http://www.pmlflightlink.com/)?.
Many thanks
R. Ehrle
January 16, 2007 at 9:40 am |
Rolf,
Strangely at the time writing the article and even now, the site(http://www.pmlflightlink.com/) does not come up(The requested URL could not be retrieved). But that does not happen from another location i tried. Anyway i have updated the link.
April 9, 2007 at 10:05 am |
[...] Related:Electric Vehicle investments roundup [...]
April 9, 2007 at 4:14 pm |
Ian Wright, CEO of Wrightspeed, and the X1 electric prototype were recently featured at a BAIA (Business Association Italy America). After the event I had the pleasure to interview Ian asking him a few questions about the new high performance sport car he is planning to build. The complete interview is available on BAIA blog.
Franco Folini
August 13, 2007 at 9:00 am |
[...] Earlier this year Tesla had raised $45M in Series D round of funding. Prior to that Tesla had raised $60 million from it’s Series A, B, and C rounds. Also earlier this year Tesla did a deal with Norway based Th!nk Car company to sell 43 million dollars worth of its Li-ion battery systems. [...]
July 17, 2008 at 8:32 pm |
A fundamental change in our driving habits is now required.
The Automobile Industry is going to be in the same position as the Airline Industry in the next few months. Unless we get away from gas combustion vehicles, including Hybrids, the automobile industry (as we know it) will die.We need to make drastic moves. America needs to move to ELECTRIC. The vehicles are not as fast, not always as fun to drive, but the move will save Americans money (Billions) and help bring change to our automotive companies. Let’s “Be Green”!!!!!!!!!!!! BG Automotive Group Ltd. has a car that will travel 80-100 miles per charge for $15,995. Finally a car that most Americans can afford. Did you know that 80% of all drivers, drive less than 50 miles per day? This new car will cost an equivalent of $0.20-0.25 cents/gallon (depending on electricity rates in your area). Why send $700 Billion per year to OPEC (now buying up U.S. companies) when we can use this money for our schools, health care, social security for all Americans, etc, etc, etc. We can make the difference if WE change.
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