I just heard of this company, they apparently made their initial showing at the Bioneers conference a couple months ago. They've designed a three wheeler electric reverse trike thingy they plan to begin selling soon as a DIY kit, or through technicians who will do assembly. It looks way cool.
Company: Switch Vehicles - http://switchvehicles.com/
Started by Jim McGreen (the original founder of ZAP nearly 20 years ago) and Peter Oliver (founder of electric vehicle conversion shop, Make Mine Electric). This is a pretty good pedigree to do this vehicle.
I wrote up some details here:- http://blog.greentransportation.info/2011/11/jim-mcgreens-new-company-switch.html
Cost starts at $15,000 and there's an interesting business model behind it
Oh, come on. The rear tire is too small for the weight of all that steel (I assume) tubing, so it smokes the tire. I wouldn't want to try any fast cornering in that thing... It kind of reminds me of a YouTube vid I saw of some kid screaming the tires all the way into second gear in a Volvo P1800E...on wet cobblestones. ;-)
"As it is configured in this clip, it way more torgue than needed. So we have changed the rear gear ratio to lower the torgue but produce give higher top speed.
CW is that 3-wheelers usually have a traction advantage (normally 33% of weight on driving wheel, vs 25% on 4-wheeler without positraction).
Also see our clip showing good handling in the wet sparking lot."
Mark Perlmutter
Co-founder Switch Vehicles, Inc.
"An electric vehicle for every American home."
That traction advantage is in straight-line acceleration. Once you get into cornering, you have to overcome a *disadvantage*, usually by making the rear tire large and soft. And consider this: when that single rear tire hits a bump or pothole while cornering, 100% of your rear tire(s) is losing traction. It's the reason cars can corner faster on rough roads than motorcycles. That's not to a say a good-handling vehicle with this configuration isn't possible, just that showing it burning rubber and cornering in a parking lot isn't very informative. A test track of some sort is needed.
The main probelm I would say is that the rear wheel is almost completely unloaded - it only carries it's own weight, part of the motor and some light-weight steel tubing. Not enough to produce sufficient traction yet. I do realize though that putting too much weight back there will very negatively affect cornering safety as it will increase the danger of tipping over.
However, utilizeing the surplus power to enable higher speed is a wise countermeasure too, at least on dry roads. In winter though the traction would be sorely missed anyway...
How dou your intend to certify the vehicle? Homologate as what? If it is a do-it-yoruself kit thing, the answer to this question is even more interesting. What does it take to make such a vehcile road legal?
My rides:
2017 Zero S ZF6.5 11kW, erider Thunder 5kW
For homologation - there is a different company that's already done this - the BugE - plus there's all those replica cars that come as a kit you assemble - hence, the legal framework must already exist, it's just a matter of these guys fitting themselves into the right legal slots.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki