AMP Motorsports of Cincinnati, OH is offering an all electric conversion of the Saturn Sky using Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries for 25K + cost of the vehicle. Below are the FAQ's. Looks promising.
Nice. And it looks like they've put the motors right at the wheels, which is how it SHOULD be done. Transmission? We don't need no stinkin' transmission (cough, tesla, cough)... A little spendy, but better than Tesla, that's for sure.
This appears to be closer to the Eliica, with the horsepower numbers and top speed. Seemed like a great idea that the inventors were having a hard time selling to the automakers. Does anyone know what has happened to the Eliica?
Be very suspicious of this company. The price is much too low for the performance they are claiming. It should cost double that.
Suspicion aside, it would be nice if a manufacturer provided an 'option package' to third parties that consisted of the vehicle WITHOUT the engine, transmission, differential. Might be a nice jump start to others. (Silly me, I forgot that car manufacturers are not in the business of promoting innovation). In terms of the Sky conversion, I assume some of their 'savings' is a sell-back of the engine/etc. I doubt they just trash them.
I assume that conversion shops generally sell the engines they take out of cars. But I also assume that the value is fairly low. I believe that Zenn buys their cars in Europe without the engine, and then builds and installs the EV components in Canada. It would be a good way for an EV company to get started and to save on development and testing of the car itself. The problem is that a small company, without a lot of capital, cannot build in large volume. So it's hard for them to meet the demand if they produce a good car. Tesla started with the $98,000 Roadster precisely because a high-priced high-performance sports car is a market that a small company can hope to compete in. Zenn, by building a NEV, is also in a small-volume market. And the Xebra, by virtue of its relatively slow speed and short range (though faster than the Zenn and capable of battery expansion for more range than the Zenn) is also in a low-volume market. We need a company willing and able to build EVs in Prius numbers. The recent Nissan announcement is the most hopeful thing yet.
I saw the founder of AMP interviewed on BBC America last night. He was in Washington DC looking to get a $20 million loan though he never said what that $20 million was for. AMP claims they have a backlog of orders and are converting cars at a rate of 3 per week. However, the only proof that a company exists was a REALLY bad video of a Sky driving down a country road. On the AMP website they say they are looking for people to put up $500 to get on the list for their first run of 300 cars with delivery in "early 2009". There are no videos or photos of converted cars or components on the website. Looks VERY suspicious to me but I want to believe.
Ignoring the aspect of helping out your competitors, there are a lot of logistical reasons why this is very difficult. There are many sensors and wires that need the engine there to make sense. The engine frequently gets lifted into the chassis with the front suspension subassembly preattached. Also, at the end of most (all?) lines the cars get driven off and then parked somewhere. Working through these and lots of other issues would be extremely hard (and expensive) for an assembly line. Besides the production changes I'd imagine there would have to be design changes so the car's systems could handle both options. So, in a nutshell, for any major manufacturer to consider this they'd need some assurances of fairly good volume to make it worthwhile.
