The TANGO - the World's Fastest Urban Car!

Auckland New Zealand may be the first city to implement the most cost-effective solution to commuter transportation problems and the fiscal problems associated with them.

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:12:00 +0000

Auckland New Zealand may be the first city to realize that it can be 10 times less expensive and 10 times faster to purchase and lease Tangos to commuters rather than spend tens of $billions of taxpayer funds on more freeways and other transportation infrastructure. Please read the discussion document written by Toa Greening, Auckland City Council member.
http://www.projectmicrocar.co.nz/
or
Click Here to Download 15-page PDF
http://www.commutercars.com/downloads/Project_Microcar_v1.0.pdf
It's kind of like this Tibetan story of two guys walking along on rocky ground, before shoes had been invented. One said" Wouldn't it be nice if we could cover the world with leather." The other said, "Why don't we just cover our feet."

Lanesplitting

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:47:00 +0000

I heard yesterday that lanesplitting was in the news in California. I tried to find it online, but only found that the CHP was defining what is considered safe lanesplitting. Click here for: California Highway Patrol Web Page on Lanesplitting
I, of course, feel that it's only safe if done in a Tango, which is narrower than many motorcycles, and can react more quickly, as proved in the Consumer Reports emergency lane change test during the Automotive X-prize competition.
Imagine the reduction in traffic and parking congestion if single-occupant commuters started using the right tool for the job! The Tango fits in half a lane with more clearance than a truck has in a full lane.

2013-01-16 KXLY TV Tango News Story

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:55:00 +0000

KXLY TV aired a new story on the Tango yesterday. It's probably one of the best at conveying the true purpose of the Tango. Click here to see video.

Tango in Opening Scene of Robot & Frank Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:33:00 +0000

What a pleasant surprise to see the Tango in the opening scene of this trailer for the upcoming movie Robot & Frank. It looks like a great movie. I can't wait to see it. Actors Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler, and James Marsden star in the film.
Click Here to see trailer.
Robot and Frank debuts in August.

In September Looper is due to come out, starring Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and Emily Blunt. It has 4 Tangos in it.

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:52:00 +0000

First Tango to be Sold Outside of the U.S.

I was recently invited to speak at the TransTrans Summit Conference in New York. Unfortunately, I was too busy here getting a Tango ready to ship to Exeter in the UK, that I didn't have time to make it. I'm thus taking this opportunity to tell the story that I would have told in the speech.

I once read a Tibetan story about two fellows walking along before the time shoes were invented. The sharp rocks were hurting their feet. One said to the other: "Would't it be nice if we could cover the world with leather?" The other replied: "Why don't we just cover our feet."

Our traffic situation is a lot like this. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, there are about 140-million workers in the US. Of them, 106-million are single occupant drivers averaging about 20 miles round trip to work, in a car with 4 or more empty seats, that is literally 4 times too big for the job to be done.

Rather than think about building more roads and parking lots, why not consider a more sensible approach, by offering cars that are appropriate for this job—ones that can fit comfortably in 1/2 of a lane.

Most families have more than one car. I'm not advocating for anyone to give up the privilege of having a family car that can be used for all kinds of trips, that actually require the capacity or range. However, since this car rarely gets used to capacity as compared to the daily commute, why does a family need more than one of these large cars?

I liken it to a carpenter that has two or more sledge hammers, but no claw hammer, yet uses the sledge hammers for driving finish nails 90% of the time.

Motorcycles and bicycles are a solution to congestion of course, however, it is quite evident that people in general would rather sit in traffic in a comfortable and reasonably safe and protected environment rather than be subjected to the dangers and climate exposure on a bike. They also like to have a locker that travels with them with whatever things that think they may need close to them. They don't have that with a bike, motorcycle, or public transit. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that only 0.8% of all workers in the U.S. use bicycles and motorcycles combined, for getting to and from work. This chart is available on our web page/downloads at http://www.commutercars.com/, or http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/2010/html/table_01_38.html

The Tango, a car that is the size of a motorcycle, seats two 6'6" adults comfortably in tandem, with 4 times more side impact protection than a Volvo, beats a Dodge Viper in the 1/4-mile, is 5" narrower than a Gold Wing motorcycle, the same rollover threshold as a 911 Porsche, certified racecar roll cage, and short enough to park perpendicularly to the curb (4 in a typical parallel parking space), already exists. It is a $200k car at present, made of carbon fiber, stainless steel, and a chrome-moly roll cage, just to show off its potential. It is only this expensive because there are only 12 of them in the world and hand building cars is a huge undertaking for such a unique vehicle where most parts have to be custom made rather than borrowed from existing cars. If built in the same volume as other cars, there is no reason that it wouldn't compete favorably in price. It is all electric, and the battery ballasts it, which helped make it the fastest car recorded by Consumer Reports through the emergency lane change maneuver (moose test) at the Automotive X-Prize competition.

Now for the big picture. I understand the "Big Dig" Boston Tunnel is costing over $20-billion. If I recall correctly it transports 200,000 cars per day. I was told by the Director of CalTrans that the San Francisco Bay bridge accommodates about 250,000 cars per day, that's 125,000 cars going both directions. So, that sounds about right. Imagine another way of solving the problem. Building 100,000 cars may seem extremely capital intensive, but not compared to building freeways, parking, and tunnels to accommodate all of the empty seats that people currently carry with them. The Nissan Leaf electric car received $2-billion in government loans from DOE. It's my understanding that a typical new model is a $1.5 to $2-billion investment. In order for that kind of investment to pay off, roughly 100,000 car per year sales is required to amortize the expense. At present, Nissan has sold just over 10,000 Leafs, so if they didn't sell any more of them, that would be $200k per car. They really did bet the farm on that.

I'm certain that the Tango could be built and sold profitably for $10,000 each if the $2-billion for design and tooling were invested. This would not include the battery, which should be leased and paid for monthly the same as one's gasoline bill. Various options would be available so that one only pays for a battery capacity in accordance with one's needs.

Let's compare with the Boston Tunnel. $20-billion for the Tunnel plus decades of work and added traffic congestion due to the construction, vs $3-billion for 100,000 Tangos that could be given away for free, saving taxpayers $17-billion dollars and could be produced in 2 years. Not only would it completely solve the problem that justified the Big Dig, but it would also save over 75,000 parking spots and solve the congestion problems all over the city, not to mention that a city with 100,000 electric cars taking on most of the commuter transportation load would have the world's greatest "green" credential. Don't worry about the electric load. It would be exactly as if 100,000 families each turned on one 8" square ceramic heater for 2 hours and 40 minutes at some time during the night. The grid handles many times that on a cold day.

If we can't convince governments or auto manufacturers of this simple logic, maybe we have to wait until the grade school kids come of age to make the change. They all "get it."

Meanwhile, we can offer 200% to 300% faster commute times in California, Europe, and Asia where lane splitting (driving a motorbike or Tango between lanes of stopped or slow-moving traffic) is legal.

Even a $50M investment would allow us to sell 200 kilowatt (150hp) Tangos for $44k at 2,500 per year, or with $150M, 15,000 per year could be sold profitably for $29k each.

If you want to solve a problem rather than keep spending money on congestion, please spread the word. There must be someone out there with enough common sense to make this happen.

Disruptive technology is a funny thing though. Steve Jobs was asked once by a reporter what kind of market survey he did for the Macintosh. Steve scoffed and said: "What kind of market analysis do you think Alexander Graham Bell did before inventing the telephone?" Interestingly, when the first telephone was presented to the U.S. President Rutherford Hayes, he said "What a wonderful invention, but who would ever want to use it?"

Tango Chinese News Story: Now with Translation

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Mon, 09 May 2011 18:52:00 +0000

Click here for video

No need to sit in this frustrating mess: If you have a Tango you can enjoy the freedom of driving past all of these cars. That's infinitely more fun than sitting in traffic.

Commuter Cars’ “Tango”—The Urban Driving Electric Supercar

Filmed and edited by Enming Liu for Voice of America’s “Cultural Odyssey”

For a YouTube version that skips the host's introduction, please click this link:

YouTube Tango News Story

MP4 Version for iPhone / iPad can be downloaded from our web site using this link:

MP4 Version for iPhone and iPad

The complete news story as aired in China can be seen searched for on this link:

Voice of America The Urban Driving Electric Supercar

Host Peggy Chang's intro is short, and then the action starts.

Host Peggy Chang (in studio):

In many large Chinese and American cities, traffic congestion is an increasingly big problem. Whether you’re on Beijing’s 3^rd-ring Road or Washington DC’s I-495, traffic grinds to a standstill every day at rush hour. Every year, Americans waste $115 billion worth of work time and gas being caught up in these traffic jams. Faced with this problem, one man came up with the brilliant idea of making drastically narrower cars. If two cars could fit in a lane where only one could previously fit, roadways would effectively have their capacity doubled. And if everyone drove cars like that, wouldn’t the world’s traffic problems be instantly solved? In this next piece, Cultural Odyssey reporter Enming Liu introduces a vehicle that aims to do just that—the charming Tango electric car.

(the start of Enming’s piece)

According to Texas A&M University, every year Americans waste $115 billion worth of gas and work time being caught up on congested roadways. And it’s not only an American problem. The problems of wasted resources and environmental harm, caused by congested traffic, plague virtually every major city in the world.

So, how can this problem be solved? Here to offer a solution, is the Tango, an electric car, just one seat wide.

Rick Woodbury, President, Commuter Cars:

“It’s the only car in the world that fits in half a lane on the freeway with more clearance than a truck has in a full lane. With this one, you can move over, you can get between the lanes of cars because it’s narrower than a lot of motorcycles.”

His name is Rick Woodbury, and he is the inventor of the 39-inch wide Tango electric car. He’s also the CEO of Commuter Cars Corporation.

Rick Woodbury:

“Commuter Cars is a company that plans to build lots of commuter cars. This is the purpose of the car.”

There was nothing random about the birth of the Tango and Commuter Cars. In fact, it has a direct connection with Mr. Woodbury’s personal experience commuting to and from work everyday.

Rick Woodbury:

The reason this car exists, is that I was stuck in traffic in 1982 going to work everyday. While stuck in traffic I looked around, and noticed that there was only one person in every car around me. I thought, ‘This is an incredible waste of real estate, and a waste of people’s time.’”

The cute, nimble Tango seems like a motorcycle with an added roof on the top. At first glance, very few people would think it looks like a speed car.

Rick Woodbury:

“Right now it’s a super car. It’s unequivocally the fastest car through traffic. But it’s one of the fastest cars you can buy—even on a drag strip. It’s extremely fast and powerful.”

Under the Tango’s floorboard are two motors that combined produce 600,000 Watts of power, the equivalent of 805 horsepower. Even more amazing, the motors produce 2,500 foot-pounds of torque. That’s the same amount of torque produced by five Dodge Vipers. Thomas Greither, the owner of a health foods business, is a Tango driver.

Thomas Greither, President, Flora, Inc.:

“I have owned a Bentley before, a Maserati—I have owned a lot of nice cars, but I have never owned a car which got so much attention. It’s the most fun car I have ever owned to drive. The acceleration from 0 to 60 is less than 4 seconds. It can beat most Ferraris and Porsches.”

Rick Woodbury:

“We probably can get down to an 11-second quarter-mile, which is a half second slower than a Bugatti Veyron—which costs $1.2 million. We’re talking not just a little bit fast; we’re talking extremely fast.”

The Tango is powered by 1,000 lithium batteries located under the seat. On a full charge, the Tango can travel 120 miles. And the car’s vast power capacity has its origin in China.

Rick Woodbury:

“This is a module of Headway cells. These are made in China.”

The 1,000 lithium batteries under the seat also perform another function—that is, keeping the Tango’s center of gravity very low to the ground, allowing the car to keep it’s balance around turns at high speeds. As a matter of fact, this is the question most often asked by those who see a Tango on the street.

Thomas Greither:

“I think the number one question is that they think the car will fall over around corners. What people don’t realize is there is a whole pack of batteries underneath it, and all the weight is on the bottom. So, it’s quite stable around corners. That’s the number one question people ask.”

City parking is an even bigger advantage of the Tango. Because of it’s short and narrow body, the Tango can fit into the tiny spots between normal parking spaces. Tom Boyd is an Oncologist and Tango owner.

Tom Boyd, Oncologist, Northstar Lodge Cancer Center:

“I can park in the spaces that aren’t really spaces—you know, that diagonal area that isn’t really big enough to fit a car. This is only a fourth of the size of most vehicles. So, you can squeeze into a very tiny cubicle and do very well, sort of essentially create your own parking spaces.”

Into just how small of a space can the Tango fit? As an April fools joke one year, an employee of Internet search giant Google parked his Tango in the exceedingly small office of the company’s Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, showing in just how small a space the Tango can fit. No wonder Rick Woodbury has such wonderful things to say about his invention:

Rick Woodbury:

“It’s the only car in the world that can solve these huge traffic problems. I heard about and saw photographs of traffic jams in China, and I don’t know how many of those cars had one person in them. I bet if those people with just one or two people [in the car] were in Tangos, you wouldn’t have that traffic jam. That 11-day gridlock wouldn’t have been there.”

The very first Tango owner is none other than Hollywood actor George Clooney. In fact, all current Tango owners are not your average Joe. Because only 11 Tangos have ever been produced, the low production drives the price tag up to $150,000—a price that most people couldn’t afford.

Rick Woodbury:

“Please understand this $150,000 price is only because of its low production. As soon as we get into production, we want to sell these cars for under $10,000.”

Currently, Rick Woodbury is still searching for enough investment to bring the Tango into large-scale production. At the same time, he and Commuter Cars are committed to constantly improving the Tango, increasing its range to 240 miles on one full charge, for example. An electric super car boasting these many amazing qualities—if the price really does get under $10,000, who wouldn’t want to buy one?

Voice of America Cultural Odyssey reporter Enming Liu reporting from Spokane, Washington.

Biggest Barrier to Electric Vehicles?

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:54:00 +0000

I saw a post on an EV battery forum, asking: "What is the biggest barrier to EVs."

My opinion may not be popular, however, I believe that it's founded on excellent logic.

I believe the biggest barrier for EVs is usefulness. When EVs are better than gasoline cars in enough ways to benefit the person paying the bill for them, they will outsell them. Some scenarios are that lithium battery cost mile drops by 75%, or gasoline cost quadruples, then the range and recharge time will be overshadowed by pure cost incentive despite the inconvenience. People choose a mode of transportation primarily based on:

1. Speed from point to point.

2. Convenience to schedule, and

3. Convenience to carry goods and to keep them secure when not on one's person.

4. If using a car or motorcycle, then ease of parking becomes an issue

A major investment in a car, except in extremely dense cities like New York, meets these objectives best. However, when making such a large investment, it goes without saying that one would want to be able to use it, at least occasionally, for long-distance trips. This one item is a huge deterrent for pure electric vehicles. Companies that are promoting pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids seem to ignore, that as far as we can tell, battery replacement and electricity combined cost at least as much as gasoline on a cost per mile basis.

However, there is an immediate solution. It's the Tango. As 90% of all trips fall within its range, the Tango is the only car in the world, to my knowledge, that does a better job for commuters and errand goers than any other car in history, despite the fact that it's pure electric. It is the only car that can lanesplit and park like a motorcycle, giving 200% to 300% speed advantage in heavy traffic in California, Europe, and Asia, where lanesplitting is legal. When there are enough of them, along with motorcycles, they can increase lane capacity from 2,000 vehicles per hour to 4,400 vehicles per hour, according to a UC Berkeley/Booz-Allen-Hamilton study. Using a full sized car for commuting is like using a sledge hammer to drive finish nails. It's the wrong tool for the job, yet, 106-million single-occupant drivers out of the 140-million workers in the U.S. do just that. By the same token, a long haul electric semi truck would be like using a claw hammer to drive railroad spikes—also the wrong tool for the job.

Just as transistors could not possibly have replaced vacuum tubes in TVs in the 50s, batteries cannot replace gasoline and diesel now. However, just as transistors did the job perfectly in transistor radios and hearing aids in the 50s, so batteries do the job perfectly in a Tango today. People didn't buy transistor radios in the 50s because they had transistors in them. They bought them because of the job that the radio did. Today, the mass market will not buy cars because they are electric, but rather for the job that they can do. The Tango is faster, safer, more convenient, and more fun to drive in any urban situation, where most driver's have the most frustration. If a manufacturer really wants to sell a lot of EVs over the next 30 years, they should be talking to me, as I have world-wide patents on the only practical mass-market-appealing EV in existence—in my humble opinion of course. :^)

Renderings of Complete Roll Cage and Door Bars

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:53:00 +0000

Vadim, creator of the Tango commercial, has just graphically assembled the whole roll cage with door bars. Because the door bars were integrated into the doors, they could not be photographed with the cage. This rendering shows the integrated door bar system, as it is over 4 times greater than any production car that we know of.

Tango Commercial: Animation Video

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:51:00 +0000

Vadim Stupin, a recent graduate of film school in Germany, graciously created a Tango commercial pro bono.

I hope that you enjoy it!
Click Here to View Commercial

Now available in MP4 so that you can see it on iPhones or iPads.
Click Here to Download MP4 from our Website

AOL Translogic News Story on Tango—Awesome Footage

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:28:00 +0000

AOL Translogic's Bradley Hasemeyer experiencing the series/parallel shift for the first time. He explains it in the video.

AOL Translogic has just published their news story on the Tango. It is most informative.

Proof of Tango's Motor Torque

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 23:43:00 +0000

For many years I've been saying that the Tango has over 1,000 ft lbs of motor torque—500 ft-lbs each. In a recent drag strip event, we proved that the Tango has over 2,500 ft-lbs of torque at the motors—over 5 times the torque of a Viper V-10 engine at peak output. This is proven by the fact that the Tango weighs 3,500 lbs with the driver, distributed 43%-57% front to rear, and a 75" wheelbase. Therefore, it requires 9,500 ft-lbs of torque at the rear wheels to lift the front wheels off of the ground, as demonstrated in the video below. The drive ratio is 3.86:1 from motors to rear axles. It took a very sticky track to accomplish this with street tires. It was prepped with a goo that was stickier than the floor in a 7-11 next to the Slurpee machine—hard to keep your shoes on.

YouTube Video of Tango Launching

Tango Painted by Romero Britto

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:23:00 +0000

The first red prototype has been painted by Romero Britto. It is currently in the San Diego Auto Museum

Two Tangos at Los Angeles Auto Show

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 04:18:00 +0000

Tangos are on display at the Los Angeles Convention Center through Thanksgiving weekend.

New Tango Brochure

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 01:01:00 +0000

Please click here to download the new 6-page Tango brochure

We're printing 50,000 brochures for the Los Angeles Auto Show where Tango(s) will be on display from November 18 through 28th. I'm taking the orange Tango to Miami next week by trailer from Spokane for the screenings of "What is the Electric Car." I will then transport it to the LA Show.

If you're on the fence about purchasing a Tango, please be sure to read the last page, which sheds light on many possible considerations.

Tango resale tab added to web page

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:41:00 +0000

The Tango just listed under re-sales has only 289 miles and is available immediately. It is fully-assembled and registered in California. This is perfect for anyone who does not want to wait to have a custom Tango built, which is between 4 to 6 months wait. It will be delivered with LiFePO4 battery and a freeway range of 120 miles.

YouTube Video of Tango Flying Through Chicane During Automotive X-Prize Finals

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:01:00 +0000

Just received this video (click on this link) taken by Michael Woon, of the Tango going through the chicane at Michigan International Speedway during finals. During this run, the Tango achieved both 100 miles and 100 MPG equivalent with approximately 10% state of charge at the end. This, despite rather aggressive driving, but not as tough as the stop and go in the urban and city cycles. And, of course, this time without running the air conditioning.

Tango Climbs Mt. Shasta

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 02:39:00 +0000

Thomas Greither, takes a friend up to the end of the road on Mt. Shasta in his Tango. Both are over 6-ft. tall. This photo is at 9,000-ft of elevation. It the first electric car that we know of that's climbed Mt. Shasta. It did this with ease and the round trip only used 35% of the charge. His Tango is now equipped with 1,000 Headway energy cells, 10 in parallel and 100 in series. This gives him 32 kWhrs, which is about 120 miles of 60 mph relatively level freeway driving.

A year ago, when he only had lead-acid batteries, I followed him around Mt. Shasta and visited some lakes. I was driving the black Tango. It was a most memorable experience, as he drives very fast and the windy roads were a blast. We tried to go to top of Shasta that time, but the road was closed half way up.

Following are some photos from that adventure:

Tango: A Progressive Automotive X-Prize Finalist

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:55:00 +0000

The Tango was never designed to be the most fuel-efficient car in the world. To do that, safety and rollover threshold would be compromised. The fact that the 3,300-pound Tango made it to finals in the Automotive X-Prize competition is quite remarkable.

Following is the official data from the efficiency event. Note that although the Tango was less than 1% short of the required MPGe to go to Argonne for the Validation Stage, it needed 104 MPGe, because of the emissions requirement. They use a national grid average to calculate the emissions from creating the electricity for the grid. It's obviously very unfair when considering solar charging, but even if the California or Washington grids were used because of the predominance of hydro and natural gas, it would not be an issue. It's all of the electricity generated from coal that skews it against EVs.

Following is a breakdown of the Tango's efficiency for each cycle independently.

89.07 MPGe. (387.269 Wh/mi.)

This was a combined Urban, City, and Highway cycle.

The Urban Cycle was 74.34 MPGe (464.75 Wh/mi.)

It was 16 miles of start and stop many times per lap at lower speeds.

The City cycle was 58.86 MPGe (586 Wh/mi.)

This was 30 miles of acceleration to 50 mph and brake twice per lap, and then 40 mph in-between. It's a 2-mile oval.

As you can see, the starts and stops w/o regen and a 3,300-lb car really hurt efficiency. The motorcycles that competed in our class were getting 180 to 200 MPGe, but only weigh 1,300 lbs. The way the rules were written, there was no way to beat them.

The Highway Cycle was 112.21 MPGe (307 Wh/mi.)

This was 90 miles of 50 mph, but stopping once every 5 laps (10 miles).

All of the above Wh/mi calculations are reading from the meter on the wall, and includes all inefficiencies including losses at charging and at the cells.

During the Urban Cycle, I had to run the A/C constantly. The rules were that if the cabin temp exceeded 95°, a full penalty lap would be added. In the driver's meeting, they pleaded with us to follow the rules and not allow cabin temp to rise above that limit. The other teams in our class did not run A/C. One or two used buckets of ice to keep their cabins cool. Many of the teams went to the competition with cars built especially to win the competition, so the purpose of the competition, to provide vehicles that people want to drive, was virtually ignored in many cases

Durability was an event at Shakedown. It was 40 miles of the roughest track you can imagine. I was within 2 seconds per lap of the fastest car which was a Factory-5 electric race car. I had a blast driving lap after lap pushing the limit at every turn, and then rewarded by never having to stop. I lapped all the other cars in my group several times.

In the finals Range Test, I ran out of juice at 99 miles. I was half way around the final lap when I ran out. I heard that the temperature was recorded at 120° on the lawn that afternoon. I ran with A/C on full blast, but it seemed to lose efficiency. The evaporator might have frozen up. In any event, drawing 8 amps for nearly 2 hours ate up 5 kWhrs or 20 miles of range. I thought that I had plenty of margin, but miscalculated. Being eliminated because of efficiency, I didn't have a lot to lose, and thought that I could at least run the 100 miles without cabin temp penalty. So 49 1/2 laps is all she wrote with the A/C compressor running at 6,500 rpm.

The final event was a tie-breaker for all of the teams that made it through the qualification runs. It was run at any speed between 45 and 70 mph, but had a very tight chicane midway around the track. They let me run with the other eliminated cars in a demonstration run. Driving at 60 to 65 mph, I lapped every other car at least 3 times in my group during the 100 miles, which I finished with 10% of charge remaining. Luckily, it was not so hot so I never ran the A/C.

I got exactly 100 MPGe on that run of 100 miles using 34 kWhrs, or 340 Wh/Mi at the meter and had 10% state of charge left at the end.

Those of us that were eliminated also got to run the acceleration, braking, and emergency lane change events as a demonstration class. The Tango passed these with huge margins.

David Champion, Director of Consumer Reports Automotive Testing said that I had the fastest time of any of the cars in the X-Prize competition by running the emergency lane change at 51 mph. The test had to be completed at 45 mph to pass. I passed the test on the first try at knockout, but forgot that there was a camera attached on the side at the finals and took out a cone (and the camera) on the first run. The second was at 51 mph.

The CO2 numbers for the national grid today have little to do with CA where many times more EVs will be sold than elsewhere in the country, and doesn't account for the fact that the grid gets cleaner every year with added wind, solar, and even improvements to coal burning plants.

All in all, the Automotive X-Prize competition was a very worthwhile event. I look forward to the awards ceremony at the White House on September 16, where I'll be with the Tango, the winners of the 3 prizes, and the other finalists.

Tango passes X-Prize Knockout. Consumer Reports, regarding emergency-avoidance maneuver: "And the sleek, fast, orange Tango passed on the first try."

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:39:00 +0000

I'm just returning now from a successful completion of the X-Prize Knockout event. Staying in Bismarck ND tonight, I should be back in Spokane Tomorrow. I'll be taking the Tango back to Finals at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) on July 18 through 30th.

During the Shakedown event last month, Consumer Reports captured the Tango in the 0 - 60 acceleration and braking events, but didn't get the the emergency-avoidance (moose test or double lane change, as it's often called), before I had finished it. During Knockout, to the best of my knowledge, the Tango was the only car that passed the test on the first try. This time Consumer Reports had a camera fastened to my windshield. I haven't seen the video yet, but hope to soon. Here is the article just posted today with their photo above. Consumer Reports

Gratitude!

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:34:00 +0000

We are still contenders in the Automotive X-Prize competition due to no small contribution from other teams and volunteers. We've now completed the first week of the Knockout stage which consisted of economy runs which require 67 MPGe (Miles Per Gallon Equivalent) and a range, in our class, of 67 miles at 60 mph. We completed these easily, of course, however, the urban and city driving cycles brought the Tango down to 86.8 MPGe due to lack of regen which we sacrificed in order to have the extreme torque of two series-wound traction motors. The Tango, being one of the heaviest vehicles in the competition, weighing in at nearly 3,300 lbs, (the same weight as a Subaru Outback) has a huge handicap for stop and go and a smaller handicap of rolling resistance. The Tango does have the benefit of half of a normal car's frontal area which helps with reduction of aerodynamic drag at higher speeds.

The real problem for the Tango in this competition was being prepared with all of the data logging instrumentation and other requirements for passing the tech inspection. In addition, despite the fact that the Tango has nearly 200 lbs of lead ballast in the bottom of the battery box, because that was added voluntarily, the rules still required another 38 lbs of ballast to be added to make up for some of the production equipment not included (anti-lock brakes, air bags, etc), and the weight differential between my weight and 200 lbs. This was added to the front trailer hitch receiver in the form of a block of steel 3" x 4" x 11", just 4" off the ground in the front.

Before leaving for Michigan for the X-Prize Knockout event, my wife Alice and I had just completed a week long installation of a battery management system in Thomas Greither's Tango. This took place at Pacific EV in Seattle where we only got 2 to 4 hours of sleep a couple of the nights. Following the successful installation and delivery of the Tango with 32 kWhrs of Headway cells (120 mile range at 60 mph), we had very little time to install the new 10"-deep stainless battery box in the X-Prize Tango. Tim Foster of Patriot Motors in Spokane volunteered his help with the installation which made it possible for me to make the solo drive to Michigan International Speedway in time not to be disqualified last Sunday. We are the only Automotive X-Prize team with only one member.

Upon arrival, with less than 2 hours of sleep for the whole drive towing the Tango and tool boxes, it was quite discouraging to feel so unprepared to have all of the new battery management system (BMS) modifications installed and the whole data acquisition system still in a box with the instructions still unread, plus a new 50 page booklet of rules, that it seemed there would be no way to make it through tech inspection, which would mean expulsion.

I mentioned my discouragement to several of the X-Prize staff, and to my amazement, several teams sent their team members to help. I feel like I was almost adopted by the Li-ion motors who had engineers and technicians helping to get the Tango prepped as if it was their own team. In particular, Luc Pham focused on the data acquisition system, while Abiyu Negede drew up a schematic for the relay board for the BMS and then soldered it up. I checked it out the next day to find it flawless. I hooked it up and the Elite Power Solutions BMS worked perfectly by shutting down the current on the charger at high cell voltage precisely while shutting down the AC input to the charger on over temp. It also shuts down the motor controller on either a low voltage or high temperature alarm. Davis Nguyen and others of the team were always there to help push the Tango to the Track, (a requirement for all cars), and all constantly available and asking to help.

I owe the deepest debt of gratitude to all of them and other teams that also helped in any way. Brad with the FVT team helped immensely with the programming of the MoTeC dash to transmit to the data acquisition system. Their team is a direct competitor in our class, yet treated us as their own. The West Philly team was also helping by running errands to town for parts and even went to a steel company for me in Jackson, many miles away to bring back the ballast.

The X-Prize has been a great learning experience for all of us and seems that that is more important to all than who wins, despite the high stakes.

Washington Governor Gregoire Visits Commuter Cars

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:19:00 +0000

Governor Gregoire visited last Friday for most of an hour. She made some very bold statements about the potential of the Tango. Hopefully investors will understand its potential as well as she does. Following is a short video of her reaction

More on the Tango and other Automotive X-Prize Teams from Consumer Reports

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Tue, 04 May 2010 03:22:00 +0000

Consumer Reports conducted 3 tests for the Automotive X-Prize Shakedown event at Michigan International Speedway; zero to 60 acceleration, braking, and a double lane change. The Tango is included in this Consumer Reports' video showing acceleration, and blew some minds.

Consumer Reports Video

Unfortunately, the Tango went through the evasive maneuver so quickly that Consumer Reports didn't get to the other side of the track fast enough to video what I've heard was the fastest time through the double lane change. We did, however, get video of it. As you can see, this maneuver is rather unremarkable for the Tango.

Yuan Dao of Elite Power Solutions in Phoenix Arizona, supplier of the LiFePO4 cells and battery management system used in the Tango for these events, took these videos. The following is of the Tango on the 40 mile endurance run which it completed much quicker than any other car in the group.

Tango passes Automotive X-Prize Shakedown Event at Michigan International Speedway

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Sat, 01 May 2010 04:24:00 +0000

There were lots of issues to contend with up to the end, but got through with flying colors.

Consumer reports had something to say about our achievements:

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2010/04/automotive-x-prize-shakedown-continues-drama-ensues.html

We have a brand new LiFePO4 pack and had a cell failure. We had the pack out, which was rather easy, having a lift and using the removal kit that I brought along.

After bypassing the cell, I ran the endurance run today on the MIS test track. It was very rough road, over two miles of every kind of turn and elevation change. In our group, The Tango was the only one completing the full 40 miles without having to pit. I lapped a bunch of cars and never got passed. In fact, I had the second fastest time of all competing teams. I ran a fast lap of 2:05.2, only 3 seconds slower than the factory 5 car that ran a 2:02. They kept motioning me to slow down, but I was having way too much fun. I was drifting a turn right in front of the judges and using up every last inch of track. The track was wild--like an old torn-up country road. I was still developing my line up through the last lap--there were so many odd patches of road to contend with. The Tango handled them great though. I had the current set to half, at 1,000A to be nice to the battery, and didn't even accelerate close to that potential. I could easily have beat that Factory 5 car if I had pushed it.

Yesterday I was at a press conference in Lansing where I got to introduce the Tango to Michigan Governor Granholm. A lot of press was there, and they had the Tango right at the stage.

Some news on the event:

http://www.wlns.com/

Then go to Clean Car Competition under videos.

New Record Set: 122.5 miles @ 60 mph; 249.8 Wh/mi with 30.6 kWhrs

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:00:00 +0000

While doing a mileage run, I shot this photo of the Tango's shadow.

This nicely illustrates how easily it fits in half a lane.

The new Headway LiFePO4 pack is now delivering over 30 kWhrs under freeway driving conditions at 60 mph. This morning my wife Alice and I drove 122.5 miles on a charge on relatively level freeway (a couple hundred feet of elevation change). This worked out to 249.8 Wh/mile. The Progressive Automotive X-Prize requires 100 miles of range and an equivalent of 100 mpg. This is defined as MPGe. The conversion used is 32.82 kWhrs = 1 gallon of gasoline. This means that we need to achieve 328 Wh/mi or better to qualify. This is as measured at the wall receptacle, so charging and battery inefficiency must be considered. A couple of days ago, we drove 80.7 miles with a 252.75 Wh/mi reading from on-board instruments, while the kWhr meter on the wall read 24 kWhrs. That works out to 297 Wh/mi. That's an 85% efficiency. After equalizing the cells all night, the meter at the wall read 25 kWhrs or 310 Wh/mi, which is still well within the requirement--all this with an extra 200 lbs of lead ballast and a second passenger.

With 100 more volts and much less sag from the battery pack, the Tango is now much much faster than with the lead-acid batteries that have been used for all events in the past. We haven't run the 1/4 mile with the Headways yet, but look forward to writing that post.

Range Update on Headway LiFePO4 Battery Pack

noreply@blogger.com (Tango Electric Cars) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:02:00 +0000

Today we just drove the Tango 103 miles, mostly at 75 mph. Range is increasing slightly as another cycle is on the battery. Following is the status from the BMS at the end of the trip.