Alternative Energy Policies a Boon For Inflatable Electric Car

Brian Stretch writes with a story about the Mini Utility Vehicle prototype from XP Vehicles, an electric car that is partly inflatable. The recent struggles of the auto industry and a political climate that supports the development of alternative energy vehicles have given the car a better chance at actually hitting the market. Quoting: "Building a car takes many years and tens to hundreds of millions of dollars traditionally. XP is able to cut a lot of the costs and timeframe because its car has 70 percent less parts than a regular car, and the company is using novel materials that require simpler factory devices, and production and manufacturing processes that lower the cost to deploy. ... The seat is inflatable, the dashboard is inflatable, and the internal structure and carrying racks are inflatable, or a mesh suspension. Instead of requiring six-axis robots, XP uses radio frequency welders that look like giant waffle irons. The factory equipment is much less expensive and the car simply has less parts that could fail. The motors are built into the rear wheels in most XP prototypes. The first cars to reach the market will have two rear hub motors and a motor controller, that's it."

I wish them the best in their endeavour

[mendred]

From reading the article, it looks as if the company has put in a lot of thought and effort into making a product that not only is technically advanced but also have developed a marketing strategy and are tailoring their product for a segment- The point about removable chargeable batteries was something that had kept crossing my mind everytime i had seen an article on electric cars and I am glad someone has gotten around to implementing it (I am unsure if anyone else has..if so please feel free to correct me!) . They appear to be getting their basics right and in addition are trying to put in some real innovation (inflatable parts).I hope they get their funding problems sorted. I for one would be rooting for them!

Re:I wish them the best in their endeavour

[AuMatar]

I think that no one is going to trust an inflatable car. I do like the idea of removable batteries though. I've had it myself in the past- removable batteries sold at gas stations solves the refueling and infrastructure problems with minimal investment/retooling costs. Just drop off your old battery and pick up a new one. Charging doesn't even need to be done at the station, if the power requirements are too high- ship them to a recharger and back. But something like this needs to happen- if you can't take a pure electric car on vacation or recharge it on the road when you forget to plug in for a day or two they'll never take off. Not to mention anyone living in an apartment complex doesn't have an electric outlet by their car.

Utah is the investment scam capital of US

[linuxguy]

State of Utah has more than its fair share of investment scams:

Here is one of several articles I have seen on the topic:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20070107/ai_n17107556/ [findarticles.com]

And after story about the inflatable car, I got the impression that these people were looking to scam investors, and/or the federal govt.

Re:I wish them the best in their endeavour

[AuMatar]

Yes, they aren't *that* heavy. Only 50 pounds or so. But that doesn't matter- you'd be bringing your car with you when you pick it up. So you make it so they slide in and out onto a special cart, and the only lifting you need to do is onto the cart. If you're too infirm to do so, the clerk can do it. That's an easily solvable problem.

Re:Parent is making a reference - This is a Hoax?

[Anonymous Coward]

From their website [myxpcar.com]. If you don't feel like reading the answer, it's "we haven't got one to show you".

Q. Where can I see one of your cars?

A. It takes many years and tens of millions of dollars to create a domestic automobile for the retail market. Our competitors, are, in many cases, showing "mock-ups" of cars they hope to raise funding for. When we have spent the time and the money on a real car, we will show that car to our customers. We may allow some documentation of our mock-ups but we will not represent those efforts as engineered, market ready vehicles.

Now really think about it...

[cyrano.mac]

The comments here have shown me one thing: it's all in the mind of the buyer. Cars like this don't turn over on a roundabout, neither will they be blown away by the wind. But they won't sell, cause customers (at least in the US) seem to have a different mindset. Most of the commenters seem to want a heavy, typical American concept which consumes a lot, of course. Now maybe it's a hoax, maybe not. But they'd better look at Euro, Asian and African markets for a concept like this. Over here, we've had a number of electric vehicles on the road since 20 yrs. or so. Most of them based on existing small cars. Most of these projects were fairly succes full given their niche market, because people don't mind driving a really small car. Tata (India) will be present in the US market real soon. First with a small car with a classic engine, later on with an air powered car. They have the size, money and production facilities to make this work. Others are coming too. But will they be able to change US' customers mindset?

Re:Now really think about it...

[downix]

You know, this fallacy really needs to die. I saw a front end collision between a Smart car and an F450, yeah that super-big thing, all decked out with rims and everything. The F450 wound up on top of the smart car. And what about the Smart Car driver? He opened his door, and walked out. The F450 driver, hospital with major injury despite wering a seatbelt.

That was the day I realized that the "big cars are safe cars" idea was a complete fraud.

Re:I wish them the best in their endeavour

[Lonewolf666]

If you have a "refueling station" where you can swap the battery for a full one, fine.
But TFA explicitly talks about taking the battery to your apartment for charging. And since we're talking about a battery pack to drive a vehicle (not just start the internal combustion engine), the battery will be a LOT bigger and heavier than a traditional car battery.
Even with modern battery technology (some Li-ion variant) I guess the battery will be at least a 100 kg (about 220 pounds) part.

Re:Now really think about it...

[drinkypoo]

That was the day I realized that the "big cars are safe cars" idea was a complete fraud.

Big cars are not automatically safe, nor are small cars automatically unsafe. The Smart is an excellent example of a well-engineered small car. There are numerous counterexamples, however; furthermore, they are far more numerous. I have a big unsafe car (1992 F250 4x4 Diesel... although if I took a front-end from one of those in a Smart I'd be worried about ending up with an International-Navistar Diesel V8 in my mouth) and a big safe car (1982 MBZ 300SD) and prefer to have some mass and some extended crumple zones. At least both of 'em are well-used and can run on biodiesel, and do occasionally.

I maintain that people are worried, and justly, about being just about vaporized in a collision. I don't think that you can't make safe small cars, but I think it's easier to make safe large cars. Certainly most of the safest-ranked vehicles around seem to be mid to full-size sedans.