The Future of Automobiles
A new class of vehicles has been designed to capture the synergies of ultra-light construction, low-drag design, electric-hybrid drive, and efficient accessories to achieve a 3 to 5-fold improvement in fuel economy. These vehicles achieve equal or better performance and safety, with the potential for similar affordability compared to today's vehicles.
A number of four passenger vehicles have been built that get more than 100 mpg, including GM's EV1, Precept and Ultralight, Opel's Eco Speedster, Honda's IMAS, Diahatsu's UFE and UFE2 (all seen at www.hypercars.com).
Hypercar's Revolution
GM's Ultralite
In spite of numerous announcements over the last fifteen years by various automotive companies regarding new vehicles that will be produced the reality is that, except for
Honda and Toyota, nothing much has changed in that time.
We at Milner Motors feel the time is right for producing this next class of more efficient vehicle. Fuel prices remain high, global warming continues, the technology exists to solve these problems, and this is all happening at a time when the public seems ready for new solutions.
Hypercar's RevolutionGM's UltraliteRMI articles
Several factors are moving the automotive industry towards significant increases in fuel economy. These include the recent increase in fuel prices, increasing dependence on foreign oil, and increasing concern over the effects that exhaust emissions have on global warming.
At the same time, technological advances are allowing for the creation of highly fuel-efficient automobiles. Composite construction allows a 50% reduction in body structure weight while providing improved crash protection, improved stiffness and less than half the number of body parts.
The Hybrid Industry Timeline
Hypercar's Revolution
In 2002 Hypercar designed the Revolution, a five-passenger SUV weighing 1,900 lbs and achieving close to 100 mpg. The vehicle weighs less than half the weight of a conventional vehicle. The vehicle also demonstrated adaptive suspension, computer-controlled LCD screens for instrumentation, digital steering and braking controls. One of the Hypercar's critical enabling technologies is to migrate vehicle components from separate mechanically controlled systems to integrated, digitally controlled systems. This yields benefits such as lower weight, higher energy efficiency and assembly improvements.
GM's Ultralite
In 1992, General Motors worked with Scaled Composites to create a concept car called the Ultralite. It carried four adults and was designed to meet current visibility, handling and emissions requirements. The vehicle structure including the doors front and rear bumpers and interior components weighed 420 lbs. The entire car weighed 1,400 lbs while providing crash protection superior to Federal requirements.
This new technology is further described in literature, including Design and Manufacture of an Affordable Advanced-Composite Automotive Body Structure by David R Cramer and David F Taggart, Copyright 2002 and available at http://www.rmi.org/.
We recommend the following RMI articles:
> Design and Manufacture of an Affordable Advanced-Composite Automotive Body Structure, 2002, (12 pages)
> HyperCars©, hydrogen, and the automotive transition, 2004, 36 (pages)
Using these principles for creating a new vehicle, we have the opportunity to:
> start from a clean sheet
> define clear and complete product requirements
> design as a whole system
> strongly emphasize platform light-weighting and efficiency
These are not voodoo ideas. This technology is ready to use now.
The Milner ElectriCar can, and in fact, will need to incorporate many of these efficiencies to succeed.