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The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

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Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#11

Post by brainless »

This is something I realized recently. I am in India and the number of small manufacturers who are making electric people movers is very high.

These are not high speed vehicles, they are below 40 KM/h speed as I see them, but the big shift is that hundreds of small companies around India are producing and maintaining small electric vehicles, mostly locally. The drivers charge them at home at night or during longer lunch breaks.

Surely one can say India has had these many companies making the foot Richshaw or body parts or other commercial ICE vehicles. But there is a big difference that lighter people moving EVs bring to the roads or intra-city transport. They are silent, do not pollute on the roads and most importantly, I think these companies will continue to integrate better motors and parts to build many people/goods moving EVs in the next decade.

What I conclude is that EV revolution is going to be way more democratized than we realize.

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#12

Post by 3131s »

rhodozelia wrote: post #6

These vehicles are more like golf carts than cars. Top speed of 56km/hr. No safety features. What is interesting is that the batteries, converters, and motors are so cheap that they offer a golf cart with a vehicle body for $2500.

What's interesting is that society continues to make the deadly mistake of being hauled around by over-powered, over-sized, gas-guzzling monstrosities while obviously better solutions exist.

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#13

Post by zip1234 »

rhodozelia wrote: post #6

These vehicles are more like golf carts than cars. Top speed of 56km/hr. No safety features. What is interesting is that the batteries, converters, and motors are so cheap that they offer a golf cart with a vehicle body for $2500.

Cities probably should be filled with max 56kph tiny vehicles rather than max 249kph vehicles. Space is limited and standard cars take up a lot of it.

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#14

Post by zozin »

These might work in a regulatory black hole in China, but they won't anywhere in the West. Smart has had a small electric car for sale for nearly a decade and you never see them around.

Maybe when the alternative is a scooter an electric golf cart is a step-up, but the electric scooter market isn't exactly throthy in the West.

Electric cars aren't that popular because the range is still mediocre for entry level ($25-$30K) cars, the charging rate is simply too much of a stepdown vs. topping up on gas, and there's no good crossover/small SUV offering.

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#15

Post by brainless »

brainless wrote: post #11

This is something I realized recently. I am in India and the number of small manufacturers who are making electric people movers is very high. These are not high speed vehicles, they are below 40 KM/h speed as I see them, but the big shift is that hundreds of small companies around India are producing and maintaining small electric vehicles, mostly locally. The drivers charge them at home at night or during longer lu…

The critical part that is playing its role as I understand is that DC motors and batteries are plenty available from decent manufacturers.

Very soon, as I see articles around the web, there will be much better quality motors and batteries available across the country from brands say Yamaha or LG. Making the shell of a vehicle is not hard. ICEs have a ridiculously higher parts count compared to EVs. And not all EVs have to go above 60 KM/h.

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#16

Post by zdragnar »

endisneigh wrote: post #10

Given that many of these only have three wheels and to my knowledge regulation on “cars” only applies if the vehicle has four wheels- I wonder why these aren’t available in the USA at the same time.

I assume that 3 wheel cars have a bad stigma attached to them dating back to the Reliant Robin- at least the single-wheel-in-front variety.

Since most of these cars have low top speeds, they also face a usefulness problem. Parking is too expensive in dense cities for super cheap cars to have a large market, and they are too slow to be useful in suburbs or the countryside.

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#17

Post by babesh »

xiphias2 wrote: post #9
uncoder0 wrote: post #2

Those don't look too safe. I can't imagine you'd survive being hit by anything bigger than a mini in any of those boxes. Of course people are buying unsafe alternatives for a fraction of a price... disclaimer: not a tesla fanboy... I don't think they have the right hardware for FSD and that Musk is a bit too wrongheaded to admit that.

The alternative is usually a motorcycle, and they look a bit safer, though not as fun.

I think these are just the electric versions of tuktuks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw

The next innovation would be to bring down the cost of lithium ion batteries. Most of these are powered by lead acid batteries because they are cheaper.

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#19

Post by xiphias2 »

babesh wrote: post #17
xiphias2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative is usually a motorcycle, and they look a bit safer, though not as fun.

I think these are just the electric versions of tuktuks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw The next innovation would be to bring down the cost of lithium ion batteries. Most of these are powered by lead acid batteries because they are cheaper.

,,Most of these are powered by lead acid batteries''

That's sad, I was shocked to see how much more often people change batteries in their cars in latin America, but I guess this is normal in countries with high cost of credit :(

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