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A Manhattan-based big thinker has innovative ideas about the future of plug-in hybrid electric cars.
In a Duane Street office marked by Back-to-the- Futuresque logo- emblazoned pillars, Malcolm Bricklin, entrepreneur and car man, had four model cars displayed on a massive table (surrounded by giant chairs whose backs are famous New York skyscrapers, including the World Trade Center at the head): two small models of the Bricklin SV-1, a sports car with gull-wing doors -- think De Lorean -- manufactured in the 1970s in small numbers; and two 1/4-size models of the Bricklin EVX/LS Luxury Sedan (below).
The EVX/LS is the car he's entering for the Automotive X Prize, the contest that promises "major publicity and a big sack of cash" to anybody who can come up with a 100 mile per gallon car that can be mass-produced in a way that is financially viable. That's tough to do when, as Bricklin points out, the innards of electric cars change as frequently as new technology comes out.
That's also why he's struck a deal with Electrovaya, a Canadian battery company that he thinks can keep up with the changes. Furthermore, it's why he wants to open 250 electric car dealerships in a few years, selling cars he manufactures in addition to those manufactured by other forward thinkers willing to build their cars around his batteries. The idea is that if they all have the same guts, and if dealerships featuring those guts are simultaneously launched all around the country in large numbers, they can make electric cars viable and cheap.
Perhaps the most striking thing about hearing Bricklin talk at length about his plans for plug-in hybrid electric cars is that he doesn't talk about the environment until prompted. "Am I an environmentalist?" he asks rhetorically. "I have run my life as though I am, but it's not what drives me." He's a car man. Has been for some time.
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Hopefully this guy makes an electric car that'll fare better than the EV1. I knew about GM killing trolley lines in the early part of the century, but I was pissed whenever I saw how they shelved the EV1 in Who Killed the Electric Car. For those who haven't seen it, its a great documentary. I don't necessarily consider myself an environmentalist, but its a shame that we don't have electric cars on the road right now.
That is a pretty car! If I could ever deign to drive a car, I might drive that one!
That is a pretty car! If I could ever deign to drive a car, I might drive that one!
This is the same man that brought thre Yugo to America. He might get lucky this time.
Why is he patting a condom dispenser on it's head?
Malcolm Bricklin's team is only one of 50 teams who have already signed up to compete for the Automotive X Prize, and the prize hasn't even officially launched yet!
You can read more about Bricklin's "Visionary Vehicles" team and the EV/XLS, or check out X Prize Cars for info on many of the other AXP teams.