Video production: Tim Walter Associates Limited
Here’s the latest episode of our Wind Car series, clearly we’re running behind the original plan, with episode 7 of 6… 
But hey ho, I don’t suppose the wheel was invented in a day – to mix metaphors a little.
We hit a big milestone in this episode with the first turning of the wheels and John Vidal from the Guardian joining us.
The car still looks a bit of a mess in some ways, a bit like road kill (no offence to the A-team) but the engineering fundamentals are in place now. Current best guess is first drive at the end of April…
Meanwhile we still lack a name. Had two new suggestions this week.
Hurakan – Mayan god of wind and storm and stuff. Quite like that.
And this very interesting one – evince
Meaning to show or demonstrate clearly, to make a point.
There’s a French version of the word apparently – evincer – meaning to conquer entirely, to prevail over, to prove exhaustively.
That has some resonance for me – what do you guys think?
Cheers.
Hey,
what about AEOLUS, God of wind..?or is that to pretentious.
Cheers
Rob
I love “Hurakan” but I guess “Evince” must be quite high on your list Dale! I think it needs to be fairly macho just because it’s good to get away from the G-wiz and EV1 image of electric cars. The “Lightning” has done a good job of this and they’ll be your competition soon.
By the way is your idea to go commercial with this or is it a one off? Hope I can buy one someday.
Best of luck.
I’m a fan of the Patrick O’Brian books (Russell Crowe’s Master and Commander film).
How about some wind words from the age of sail?
- topgallant or gallant
- mainsail
- spanker!
Could also go for “grog” or flogging but I think the brand people would object!
Michael
Evince sounds good. Quite like a Lotus name too, Exige, Eclat, Elite and Elan. That may be good or not as it would not be your car then.
Evincer sounds stronger and more matcho.
Hurakan – hurricane. Still good, maybe a bit long though.
I can’t wait to see the car roll under it’s own power and to see it’s performance. 150 miles and a quick charge. I’d love to see that.
What about rotor?
Gives a connection between wind power and electric motor.
If you can mass produce the motor / battery pack assembly you can add it to existing cars and make an instant plugin hybrid.
Downsize the engine at the front of the car as you would only need it for cruising. (A typical 100hp engine will only be putting out about 20hp under cruise) It would be possible to replace the typical engine with a new much smaller engine just to run on long distance travel.
~90% of car journeys are less than 10 miles or so which is perfect for electric vehicles already.
Some interesting developments on lightweight engines.
http://www.ecomotors.com/videos/introduction-opoc%E2%84%A2-powertrain
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/09/free-piston-engine-could-be-twice-as.html
evince is spot-on for this car. Some of the other suggested names sound a little pretentious (in my opinion).
Hurakan! That’ll do nicely
evincer has a negative connotation, it’s more about “evict” something
Like the other one though!!
Cheers
“Hurakan” sounds great, but I’m not sure about the E-Vince – sounds like a robotic version of your good self… How about something with wind in it, like “Windcell”, “Windrunner”, “Windspeed”…
I dont like evincer. Just wouldn’t work for a car. Im still a fan of Zero.
Gallant (as in brave) would be quite cool as it stands in the way of all the big gas guzzlers out there. Sort of along the same lines as previous suggestions like Valiant etc (but i think theres a film about pidgeons called Valiant already…)
Well, I don’t know if these names have been suggested, but how about:
Turbin (pronounced Turbine) or Turbine, like a wind turbine
or
Blade, as in “It cuts through the wind” or “It’s powered by wind turbines, which have blades.
Hi there! Dale… you are doing a great job what other better platform to work with than a Lotus: feather light, good at cornering, compact, etc.
About the name: let the car be ready, drive it, feel it. then after that sweet ride… the name is gonna pop up right away!
E-go is short, snappy, fits in many ways.
I was going to suggest ‘Henry’ (as in inductance, ampere & volt have I think already been used) but some may think that sucks
the name game is not going to end anytime soon is it? Hurakan sounds good. The meaning of evince seems pretty good, but the sound of the word doesn’t seem to conjure up anything for me…
By the way, for some reason, Hurakan reminded me of “Hadouken” (uttered by Ryu and Ken in the game Street Fighter 2 when they threw fireballs). They also uttered other phrases when they performed the hurricane kick and dragon punch, but I can’t remember one and can’t spell the other…
And “Henry” reminds me of the vacuum cleaner with the smiley face painted on it.
I like “Blade” though…
Woo! Got a vote for Blade!
Thanks Jeffrey
AEOLUS sounds a bit rude. Go for Zero!
Hi Dale,
Fantastic to see you making a domestic wind car. I designed a wind car myself a few years ago and wanted to build it here in Norfolk, had difficulty convincing the motor heads mechanics I knew as they are so head strung on oil. But when one day you will get round to building it. Love your ambition and love the way you spend my electric bill wisely.
You can use my first name for your car as it is electric generated by wind, my name Eloise means lightning and I live down the road from where the car is being made.
I must admit that the Hurakan did remind me of the Hadouken. Ahhh the good old days!
HADOUKEN!!!
I’ve found more on Hadouken and the other moves here and here.
So they are:
Shinkū Hadōken – Vacuum Surge Fist
Shinkū Tatsumaki-Senpū Kyaku – Vacuum Tornado Whirlwind Kick (how’s that for a name?) and
Shin Shōryū-ken – True Rising Dragon Fist
I’ll give you a second vote for Blade, Eli. Even though I’ve voted for Hurakan and suggested Zeco! But Blade does sound good.
Many thanks Justin!
I’m certainly not against Hurakan myself. Zeco certainly sounds unique, though it took me a second to figure out exactly how the dual nature of it worked. I thought it was a play on Zero Carbonista at first, but I realized that made no sense because it was Zeco and not Zeca (not as cool or as good of a name). I like the way Zeco denotes both the Zero Emissions and Eco Friendly aspects (even though it is a little redundant).
If you haven’t seen this already, you should give it a look. It’s a Channel 4 News report on Bolivias massive and largely untouched Lithium deposits. Being one of the poorest countries in South America, they’re desperate to exploit their Lithium deposits and indeed the EV industry itself. However like much of South America they have suffered exploitation before at the hands of foreign capitalists, and so they’re naturally warey and keen to make sure Bolivia itself benefits from any industry. Which has put somewhat of a spanner in the works for Lithium. Check it out.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/unlocking+bolivias+lithium+wealth+/3074807
I think that what you are doing is first class and is the way that the car industry should be going. I look forward to the day when you actually drive it on the road and I hope that you go into production with it . KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Dale
You did query with me some time ago whether the Tesla Roadster was capable of 244 mile range. The following link will varify it can.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/04/01/tesla-roadster-races-387-km-240-miles-on-a-single-charge-in-fr/
Derek
And the Tesla S will go even further (depending on the battery pack chosen)! http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/03/26/tesla-model-s-50-000-ev-sedan-seats-seven-300-mile-range-0-6/
I’m excited for progress from both companies, and Aptera as well, anyway. Electric vehicle progress is electric vehicle progress, period. I just figure that I’ll be able to get a Tesla or Aptera faster than this car (whatever they end up naming it) because they’re coming from this side of the pond.
This may have been said already, forgive me if it has. I imaging that reducing the drag factor by increasing the aerodynamics is all important in squeezing out those last drops of efficiency. So why not do away with the external mirrors replacing them with one or two tail-gate cameras (maybe set into the light clusters) and a camera each side looking along the length of the car. These side cameras being built within the lines of the car i.e. maybe from the top of the front wheel arch.
Actually, it depends on the speed… at 100kph it is about 50% drag, 30% rolling resistance and the rest is powertrain inefficiencies (very roughly). At 80kph it is 40-40. So drag is only important at higher speeds (motorway driving). For lower speeds you need to reduce the weight of the vehicle (City driving). At any speed you need to reduce the rolling resistance (an extreme example of a vehicle with low rolling resistance is a train).
Could replace mirrors with cameras but not all countries allow this?
Dave
I second Dave Howey. I remember reading a few years back someone had replaced the wing mirrors with cameras for a concept car, but until doing that is legal all over the EU (I’m not even sure it was legal in the UK) it won’t happen in production.
The first wind powered car? How is that better than all of the Tesla roadster owners with solar panels on their roofs charging them? What makes a wind car better than a sun car?
I didn’t see anyone who called it better than the Tesla. I see one mention of it being a better platform to work with than a Lotus, but nothing about it being better than the Tesla.
My point is that building a car from scratch to do something that is already achievable is less efficient and thus less environmentally friendly. I am sure for the money it is costing to build this wind car he could have bought a Tesla, which seems to have more impressive specs anyways. What is cool about being wasteful?
I think your point would make more sense, to me at least, if it wasn’t for the fact that, either way, new materials are being used. It’s not like Tesla is ripping apart old Elises and putting their own parts in to create Roadsters. Everything is new. Also, they’re working on a new model too, the S. I don’t think they should stop completing the design and production just because the S doesn’t fully exist as an available model yet.
I hope you’re understanding my point. Not trying to start up anything. I just don’t think that the existence of one new technology should negate or disallow the attempt to create another, be it similar or extremely different.
Finally, and someone please correct me if I’m wrong on this, isn’t this car being designed from scratch for eventual mass production?
If it is for production that’s fine, but I was under the impression that it was just his personal car end of story. If this is the case, it is rather a waste. But if it is for production, then I am all for it.
I suppose we’ll have to see.
If it is just for him, it is a bit wasteful. But there must be a reason he would have a car specially designed from scratch. To have one specially designed just for yourself, when there are others available around the same time, and likely for a far lower price, makes little to no sense to me. And it is a big waste of money.
Hi Guys, just to clarify on this one point. The car is meant to be a demonstration of what can be done with technology available today – ie stuff that doesn’t need inventing for the next decade. Since we started the world of EV’s has really got fired up and all the big car makers are talking about making them now it seems. Good stuff but still it’s just talk. There’s a big job to be done getting Joe public thinking about transport in the future and what he/she might be driving. And there’s a mindset change that needs to come with that, especially with regards range. And we need to close the loop with regards fuel thoughts. Electricity is a medium, not a fuel source, hence our focus on the wind powered car concept. And the Hydrogen Economy (oxymoron IMO) is not a dead idea yet…
The plan has always been to use this car to turn heads and minds – it’s aimed squarely at the ‘Top Gear’ audience, no apologies for that. And a limited edition run of these cars has always been something we hoped might follow. So it’s not just for me, in any sense.
Cheers.
Dale,
Thanks for taking the time to let us know what the situation is regarding the ––– still unnamed car. Still hoping for Blade
.
I’m sure you know Eric and I were more debating the “production and selling” sense than the “making a point” sense. So, based on what you’ve said in reply to our debate, have you considered the possibility of an eco-auto branch of Ecotricity?
It’s not like I expect to see any of it end up here in Canada any time soon (as cool as that would be), but it would be interesting.
Hi Eli, it’s definitely something that we hold as a possibility, more likely for the making of demonstrator models and stuff than full on production. But the more we do on this one car the more likely it looks like we’ll make some more. And a tractor and bike I hope.
Cheers.
My vote’s on the tractor! Bike schmike! TRACTOR!
http://www.zoomilife.com/2009/06/26/the-wind-power-car-lives-breathes-and-burns-rubber/
I like it in white. That’s pretty sweet.