Critique this performance velomobile idea

[Dauntless]

GM could have done the same thing 10+ years before Tesla existed, but the common excuse for not doing so was "market forces". . . The fact that it was a cult of personality who made it all happen is irrelevant. . . .

No, GM couldn't have even come close in the early to mid-90s. They didn't have the funding, tech, engineers, and demand (by way of subsidy) at that time, not to mention the risk of cannibalizing actually-profitable sales needed to keep the company solvent. Keep in mind, the closest contemporary, the Prius, sold at a $10k/vehicle loss for the first, what, 10 years?

GM was having little luck getting people who had said they wanted to lease an EV1 to actually pick one up. Self sabotague is a hoax cooked up by Plugin America, while it's documented that nobody wanted the 30 miles or less range electric cars of the time. The UCBerkeley study of the year 2000 concluded that Toyota would have to give a free RAV4 electric for free AND pay the driver $7,000 to get them to take the car. (Well, they wouldn't have HAD to pay me the $7k to take the free car, but if they INSISTED. . . .)

The conclusion was that Toyota would have been unable to sell 6,400, 2% of their total California sales at the time, to meet the CARB regulation mandate that was repealed for lack of interest.

And the cult of personality is about the ONLY thing that got Tesla through the early years. It sure wasn't business success. But it was so KEWL to have the expensive roadster that didn't work right but, ooooooh, the movie star electric car. It was THAT cult of personality that brought electric cars to where they are now.

https://www.wardsauto.com/news-analysis/california-study-says-mass-market-not-ready-electric-vehicles

 

[The Toecutter]

I'll respond to some earlier posts when I get the time, but I made a new topic to show off my build, with all the relevant info and specs:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=110298

I got the tail back on a bit more than 2 weeks ago.

2 weeks ago I took a trip to Alton, IL in it, going through Ferguson, MO and heading east down Chambers Rd doing the speed limit(varied between 30 and 35 mph), then once I got to Highway 367, did 45 mph down Highway 367 the rest of the way to Alton, then took State Highway 143 some side streets to my destination at 30-40 mph. On the way home, I then took the River Trail and Confluence Trail to Venice, IL, got on Route 3, crossed over the Mississippi River at the McKinley Bridge, and took Natural Bridge Rd back home. I used 9.1 wh/mi for the entire 51 mile ride! This thing is really damned efficient!

I think with some aerodynamic work and a large 1.5 kWh battery pack, a 200 mile range is very doable. As far as acceleration/top speed go, it can become as car-like as I have the budget for. A 72V 21AH pack of NCR18650GA cells keeping my current controller should be good for 0-30 mph around 5 seconds, 0-60 mph around 14 seconds and a top speed of 70 mph, in theory, changing no other major system components. We'll see. The Phaserunner would be at its 96A limit and it would definitely need a heatsink! A more powerful controller would allow it to be a bit faster. 150A max phase current and a low/no sag pack to drive it would allow 0-30 mph in 4 seconds, 0-60 mph in 10 seconds!