[Mesuge]

Don't want to launch a spoiler here but,
the official story is a bit misleading they took $20.000 high tech
chassis racing kit car called Attack imported from Slovakia, $25.000
AC Propulsion kit from Cocconi, VW diesel engine, veggie diesel kit,
high quality capacitor stack and just put it together.

Obviously some of these items and parts were
discounted or donated but production car of these spec would be
extremely expensive. Although the parallel hybrid system is sound and
proven for 100years (young Porsche did that too) they just used the
top equipment available..

It was designed by their teachers as educational promotion for these
poor kids from Philly ghettos which is not bad at all but just don't
take the official TV story at face value it's scifi!

The best punch is that this story ran almost a year ago with all
these details and now the media somehow recycled it as a
more positive story, kids did it alone! etc.. One could hear the
executives yelling down the chain of command, "I need more
positive stories not the carnege in Iraq, dig out something fast!"

[The_Toecutter]

I bet a mass produced version could be sold for around $25,000-30,000, however. That kit has virtually hand built parts.

AC Propulsion quoted its AC150 drive going for about $10,000 in volume of 10,000 units a year. Hand built, it's $40,000.

A mass produced DoT approved glider might be around $6-8k to build. Throw in the VW engine, mass produce the capacitors(or replace with a small high power battery pack), throw in a few thousand as profit and recovering development costs and there you have it.

Of course, you are right. If someone wanted to duplicate this car in their garage today, with everything hand made, they're looking at $75,000-100,000!

[Mesuge]

Although, this story had one very positive side effect I SAW Cocconi's propulsion system on pictures at these kid's website. I've never seen it before I was perplexed how small his AC engine actually is..

They even made a shot of the inverter without top cover! Wow..
Looked to me very much like any opened AC inverter before but some pros could certainly spot some specific design features..

I was hoping for this diy project saga to pop up some affordable AC system. But in case I'll go down the AC path I'd perhaps rather take the Zapi 96V&12kW engine combo for just $3.500 because of the manuf. reliability and EU DOT certificates..

Arthur's DIY AC inverter project: link
Btw. you can drop him an email he is glad for any occasional moral boost..

[The_Toecutter]

I've talked to Arthur Matteson before. He really knows what the fuck he's doing! I have high hopes for his project.

Personally though, I'm more into performance. Less than 130 horsepower motor/controller combination for over $4k won't do for me in a 2,500 pound conversion unless it has range to compensate. Since I can't any longer get the batteries for that(Evercell NiZn), that's moot. 200 horses, and now we're talking. A DC setup, Zilla 1k and 9" WarP motor will get me around 170 horsepower for ~$4k for motor/controller combo, provided the battery pack is sufficiently powerful to max these out. This 170 horsepower motor/controller combination could be compared to shoving a Rover V8 into that car as far as acceleration performance.

Cocconi's propulsion system only weighs 175 pounds or so. I wasn't surprised by its size. This is amazing, considering it's motor, controller, and a 20 kW charger all rolled into one small package. Basically, from a 240V line, you can charge an efficient EV with a 18 kWh pack and ~120 miles range in an hour. 200 horsepower from this drive is equivalent to about 280 horsepower in a gas powered V6 or V8 IC engine.

They sure chose their components well on this Attack build. Awesome piece of work.

[berechia]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('truthteller', '0') to 60 in 4s and great mileage? Slashdot article: link

[berechia]

remember, corn was so cheap we fed it into pelet stoves, and people started using it... now look at it.

electricity wil quadruple and pentuple if even a few electric cars are built.

[wakeupman]

I am sorry, I just couldn't keep quiet any longer and had to join up to give my boiling expression an outlet, I read your Heinburg NEWSWORTHY article on electric cars and I have to warn Heinburg to mend his ways or he is going to do major damage to America should ignoranter people listen to him.

Richard Heinburg, you must go to school so you can learn to use a calculator. And please stop trying to destroy America with your electric cars! And STOP TRYING TO GET MY ELECTRICTY CUT OFF! OK?!?

That is what will happen if you build electric cars! Stop and think for one second, ok, try it once!
The average american uses 1.5 KWH of electricity in a 24 hour period.
A family of four uses 6 KWH of electricity in a 24 hour period.
An electric car uses 60 KWH in 24 hours to charge it.

Suddenly, you want to magically multiply all the families in america by TEN? and think you will have elctricity to do this? DO YOU KNOW WHAT MY ELECTRIC BILL IS GOING TO BE WHEN FAMILIES START TO BUY ELECTRIC CARS?!?!?!?

People will die, sir. It is retarded to use good electricity to push 2000 pounds of steel to the grocery store to buy milk especially if you have to burn COAL to do it!

So you use the elite retarded idea of WINDMILLS to push 2000 pounds of steel to the grocery store and back when you could have taken the bus or walked? WINDMILLS AND TECHNOLOGY WILL KEEP US IN THE LIFE OF HAPPY MOTORING!

One question, sir, who is paying you? Do you own a coal burning power plant or something? Are you a coal miners daughter or something? What are you trying to DO HERE?

Why buy million dollar windmills they will push 15 cars an hour!
How stupid is that?You are worse the the Bush's at least they burn cleaner gasoline! You would spend 60, 000 dollars to put up a 1000 panel soar aray at 60 watts each for EACH PERSON WHO OWNS AN ELECTRIC CAR?@?!?!?#?$?%?^?!??

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK, Hello in there! McFly? Electricity WILL NOT WORK, all it will do is to increase may dammed electric bill by 10 times, so the poor cant use power and I can use their share to run my stupid car to the store to get a gallon of milk.

I think you need to go to hell. Wake up, This lifestyle is STUPID and we CANNOT switch to electricity so stop talking about that and go get a job and do something usefulll!!! OK?!? knock off tryong to destory America, kill thousands of poor people and make my electric bill unmanageable, ok? Now, get a real job.

[mklkatreeandleaf]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wakeupman', 'W')ake up, This lifestyle is STUPID and we CANNOT switch to electricity so stop talking about that and go get a job and do something usefulll!!!

[MrBill]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mklkatreeandleaf', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wakeupman', 'W')ake up, This lifestyle is STUPID and we CANNOT switch to electricity so stop talking about that and go get a job and do something usefulll!!!

[niknak]

Correct! Live and let live, but don't take my power.

[Crazy_Dad]

My 4 year old boy came up with this joke. Background is my kids try and tell jokes that are usually just woefull. I cringe and go "Great joke mate"! Because I love them.

Anyway - strap in.

What do you call a Chicken with a bomb on it's head?

Answer - A duck!

It took me a while - but I couldn't stop laughing.

EDIT: Spelling - and so proud