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New Electric Car Company Head Count
October 27th, 2007 | Posted in: Competitors
Michael Kanellos of CNET published a list of electric car making companies he knows of (LINK). Here is the list:
- Tesla Motors
- Wrightspeed
- Fisker Automotive
- Zap
- Miles Automotive
- Zenn
- AC Propulsion
- Phoenix Motorcars
- Aptera
- Porteon
- Lightning
- Reva
- Ultramotor
- Myers Motors
- Th!nk
- Venture Vehicles
To these were added by her commenters:
- Brammo
- Silence PT2
- Universal Electric Vehicles
- Commuter Cars
- Hybrid Technologies
- Bricklin’s Visionary Vehicles
Intentionally the major carmakers weren’t mentioned. If you know of more feel free to mention them in the comments. Also note we have started a new section on our GM-Volt forum about Chevy Volt competitors. If you find one of these companies/cars interesting feel free to start a thread about them or any other EV/PHEV (LINK).
Of course, not that any of these companies actually have production models yet, but if or when they do, will any really have the wherewithal to compete with GM and it’s Volt?
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Posted by: Lyle
30 Responses to “New Electric Car Company Head Count”
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October 27th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Sell a volt and we’ll see.
October 27th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
And it’s Mike Kanellos… Mr. Michael Kanellos
October 27th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Thanks, fixed.
October 27th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I’ll honestly believe these competitors when I see their technology and a strategic plan to bring it to market.
Apart from Toyota and the Volvo ReCharge concept, Audi entered its own plug-in concept recently: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/10/audi-introduces.html
October 27th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Out of all these companies, are there any that are really trying to sell EVs to the masses? To sell cars in the 10s or even 100s thousands cars? To be honest, I have heard of some of these companies, but have never seen any of
their cars on the road. With the exception of Tesla, are they just talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk but produce nothing that the masses would be interested in?
October 27th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
You bring up a good point. Phoenix is another, they’ve got all these range specs but nothing on the road, prohibitively expensive, and are targeting fleet sales. Not exactly a consumer vehicle.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Out of the companies that we have heard of, they sell their ‘decent’ cars at a price most people can’t afford.
The Tesla is what..100,000? only %2 of the population can afford that..
And the Zap-X?…that’s 60,000…another car which hardly anyone can afford.
If these companies are even remotely serious about selling decent electric vehicles to the masses, they have to lower the prices.
It seems that the only people who CAN afford the decent electric cars are also the only ones who can afford hummers, and the people who WANT to purchase one to save money, are unable to because they can’t afford it.
October 27th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
You missed the freeway speed Micro-vett Doblo among EVs…it is available in Europe:
http://www.micro-vett.it/english/dobloing.html
October 27th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
To sell many in the US, they’d have to -
-have good range, probably 100+ miles on a charge
-charge quickly, 6-8hours MAX
-be priced competitively
-LOOK good
-not be too dang small
-have good battery life (100,000+ miles)
October 28th, 2007 at 1:29 am
This is for Mark….the Tesla business plan is to start out with a hot electric car that can beat established brands like ferrari and show the world that electric cars are not ‘pokie’. The plan continues with a $50,000 car in 2010 and a $30,000 car after that (for a larger audience).
Just thought I would chime in. Tesla also has impeccable taste so these will likely be great to look at as well as drive.
October 28th, 2007 at 7:57 am
To sell any in the US, they have to -
-get it past the NHTSA. Which is why so many end up short a wheel.
October 28th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
After eyeballing the Fisker plug-in sports car (priced around the same as the Tesla),
I’m ready to write Tesla Corporation’s obituary. Tesla once prided itself on being an “amateur” automaker, uncompromised. What they’ve mostly proven to be, courtesy of Martin Eberhard, is an amateurish carmaker that’s had to eat their poorly selected words and hire some former Detroit auto execs to get their car to market. They still aren’t there yet. Now comes Fisker with a car that not only looks better, but like all plug-ins, has crosscounty and cross country capabilities, something one would expect for those discriminating non-citybound millionaire jetsetters they are recruiting as customers. If I were an investor type, I would start shorting any Tesla stock I could find, if it were a public corporation. If I had signed up and put down a deposit for a Tesla, I would kiss it goodbye and get on the Fisker waiting list.
TESLA Corporation : welcome to the free market economy. I have the distinct feeling you won’t be a member for a whole lot longer. Tesla may very well show up in business school textbooks of the future as a
good example of the inability of some would
be worldchangers to see past the end of their noses. That millionaire software tycoon who created Tesla will find that designing and building cars is a whole lot more complicated than computer software
pograms.
October 28th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Ouch
October 28th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
To compete with the Volt? No. Not at this time in AMERICA. But they are placing themselves in market spaces that have little overlap.
The Volt needs to sell 60K in year one and quickly grow to hundreds of thousands sold per year to be considered successful. It needs to be priced to the everyman’s price point and perform like other cars.
A smallish company’s EV would be a huge success selling a few tens of thousands a year, or less even.
That allows for the elite sports car niche and the exclusively commuting car. It allows for an EV company using an fast-charging high capacity high endurance battery to build EVs for high milage fleet use (cabs, garbage trucks, delivery trucks, buses, government vehicles, etc.) where the one quick central charge per shift is enough to power the shift work and the high milage makes the battery cost worth the expense. It allows for the narrow appeal of “early-adopters” and those who recognize that the trip across the country is going to be in an airplane, in the other car, or for that rare occasion even a rental and that choosing a car for their daily use is a wiser choice.
After those fleet vehicles have high penentrance, then wider roll-out of fast charge stations at say highway rest stops will begin and BEVs for the common man in America will become a reality in America.
But note, China is not only the most likely major manufacturing competitor, they are the biggest potential market as well. China wants energy independence as much as we do. They are trying to deal with pollution and even global warmings ramifications as well. The difference is that China has the capacity to just decide that EV will be the way to go and then so it will be. The cChinese companies that some of those names front for have a huge advantage there.
October 28th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
BTW Kent, my personal experience with some software is that “pogram” may be an apt phrase!
Tesla has done the world a favor even if they end up, as I also believe, being a grandglorious failure. They have changed the perception of EV from golfcart to powerful and sexy machine. Others (such as the importers/marketers of Chinese EVs like Miles and Zap) will reap the benefits. GM will benefit. Tesla however will be unlikely to benefit from those good works themselves.
October 28th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
There are a couple of lists already at:
http://www.evworld.com/evguide.cfm
and
http://www.evfinder.com/full_sized_evs.htm
October 28th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Kent, I hope you’re dead wrong about Tesla. I believe they’ve got the only prototype that can live up to its expectations. Time will tell.
October 29th, 2007 at 7:57 am
http://www.feelgoodcars.com/
October 29th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
To his great discredit, Kent has been trolling Tesla for some time now. His lies and insults have diminished his credibility to zero in my eyes.
If every EV produced displaces one oil burner then the world comes out ahead. Bring em all on!
October 29th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Clarification… The ZAP Xebra is in production now as a city-car and truck design up to 40 MPH and recently was transferred to a more modern assembly line in China. It wasn’t designed for freeway speeds, but at a little over $10,000 it’s a great addition to a family, city or business fleet. ZAP has other higher performing vehicles under development, but are fortunate to have one of the few cost-effective electric cars and trucks on the market today with a sales and service network of automotive dealers.
October 30th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Audi just announced a plug-in hybrid that’s part BEV and part ICE… if the article is right the Li-ion will be big enough to be able to drive it 62 miles on battery alone.
http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/news/25-10-07_2
October 31st, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Hey, how about making that list with hyperlinks to the respective websites so we can check them out
November 24th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Chrysler’s has just announced a trio of EV concepts to be shown at Detroit auto show in Jan. 2008…
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200711201453/FREE/71120012
And at least one of them is a series hybrid (especially if the hydrogen fuel cell is replaced by an ICE)
January 16th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Volvo just showed their ReCharge concept (range extended series hybrid), which is like the one they’ve shown before, but this one with a 1.6L diesal ICE driving the range extending generator.
See http://www.autospectator.com/cars/volvo/0036720-volvo-recharge-concept-plug-hybrid-battery-only-range-60-miles
60 miles/charge on the battery at up to 100mph highway, 4 hub mounted wheel motors for real all wheel drive, 3 hour recharge, etc
No hint if/when this would turn into a production vehicle, which markets, or pricing.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Guess what? There are no electric cars on the market.
After hearing what happened at Tesla, I reviewed all the different “electric cars” on the market and there are none. Some of these companies are flat out lying. Nothing that is really available in a production scenario. Maybe some custom-built and conversions, but nothing rolling off an assembly line anytime soon.
It looks like Reva, ZAP, Zenn and maybe Miles have at least a sort of assembly line process, but these are not designed for freeway driving.
I remember in the 90s there were a lot of electric car startups and the automakers were showing around all sorts of concepts, but how many did they sell? All that’s left that I’ve seen are a couple hundred Toyota RAV4 EVs.
Consumers, buy electric. Don’t wait for the car companies, don’t wait at all. They want you to wait while you keep burning gas. Buy them and drive them and you will send a signal that you are ready. The cars will get better over time, but not if no one buys them today.
January 19th, 2008 at 1:32 am
Nathan (#25)…
I think you mean there are no commercial EV’s on the US market? Also there are Neighborhood EV’s on the US market where they are legal. If not already on the market, I think we’ll soon see some EV motorcycles (and scooters).
Regarding the ’90s, you do realize none of the automakers sold their EV’s, they were all leased, so the answer is they sold zero. The couple hundred Rav4-EV’s (wish I had one myself!!!) were only saved because of public pressure (though someone on this site says it was for other reasons but I forget what they said it was).
Myself, now that GM says the Volt could cost up to $40k instead of “comfortably under $30k” they had previously thought they could sell it for, once the weather warms up, I may go back to looking for a very good condition everything but engine vehicle (possibly a Chevy S-10 as they look easier) for a good price, and put the $10k (using the popular golf cart flood lead acid batteries, other types obviously more expensive) or so and my labor into converting it into an EV.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:30 am
A couple of items…
1st the cover of the April 2008 issue is an image of Volvo’s ReCharge concept car. The 2 page spread (pages 50/51) on it gives the 1st hint at when we could possibly see it in production… it says "Not until 2015, most likely". So is no competition if it’s really that far out.
Also I liked this story about "Electric carriage made its debut in 1832"… see http://tinyurl.com/2×7qum
March 14th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
For those who don’t subscribe to Popular Science, most of the article is now online at:
http://www.popsci.com/node/19958
Also you can now add Nissan to the list, see http://tinyurl.com/3bfbw7
They plan to be selling to fleets in California in 2010! And generally available by 2012!
March 19th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Ok, add Mercedes-Benz with a series hybrid (aka "range extended EV"). Stated to be due out by 2011 or as early as 2010…. 105 mile range per charge. May be in an S-Class that we see it 1st.More info at http://benzinsider.com/2008/03/mercedes-benz-developing-100-electric-car/
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:00 pm
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