Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, AFVI Expo, NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle)
AFVI 2008: Dymac EVs enter the market with low-complexity, lower-cost models
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The Neighborhood Electric Vehicle market is not exactly huge, and there are already some established players involved: Miles, Zenn, GEM. So, what's Dymac going to do to enter this space? The answer is, well, simple.
Dymac had something like a coming out event at the AFVI Expo in Las Vegas this week, according to Tim Melland, regional distributor for Dymac Northwest. There are already around 200 of these very basic all-electric trucks, vans and shuttles in operation, but the company wanted to make an appearance at AFVI to broaden their visibility. These are bare-bones EVs. If you thought a Miles Electric Vehicle was the bare minimum of what people would settle with in an electric vehicle, you're not thinking like Dymac, which thinks that things like regenerative breaking add too much complexity and cost to the vehicle. As Melland told me, if you've taken shop class, you can fix whatever goes wrong with a Dymac vehicle and, because of the way the components are installed, it shouldn't take more than an hour to upgrade any of them. Want new batteries or want to try out a fancy new electric motor in your car? Not a problem. The simpler system means that Dymac vehicles are around $5,000 less than comparative Miles EVs (the Miles ZX40ST is $18,400)
Oh, and yes, those are solar panels on the top of the truck there. Melland said that if you start with a full battery, drive the truck ten miles and then let it sit in the sun for an hour, the battery will be back to full charge. Without any solar input, Dymac trucks have a 30 mile range.
Listen here (7 min):
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joe 2:52PM (5/14/2008)
BMW wants their front end back.
I like the solar panels. It makes using the truck less complicated by not always needing plugged in.
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RB 3:07PM (5/14/2008)
Beautiful, my kind of engineering. Love little red also.
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mrbell321 3:39PM (5/14/2008)
I like simplicity, but regenerative braking is pretty simple. If I were building the simplest EV possible(with rechargeable batteries), I'd be hard pressed to find a reason to give it up.
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pacman 3:50PM (5/14/2008)
Nice, work but The little truck is ugly as hell. Function over form I guess. The front looks ok but the rest is really stupid looking. Fit this tech into the Smart car and we are getting someplace. Does simple equate the incusion of the tapedeck stereo?
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pacman 3:56PM (5/14/2008)
Ok I just reviewed the company web page. This thing only goes 25mph. Nothing new, no progress made with this. Just another glorified golf cart, not a practical EV.
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Kevin Nugent 7:15PM (5/14/2008)
But where are they going with a 30 mile range?? How about we just stick to modecs
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Andrew G 7:58PM (5/14/2008)
Any word on where the body, motor, or controller are made?
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Chris M 8:31PM (5/14/2008)
They think regenerative braking is too expensive, but add solar panels? Seems to me that solar panels would be less cost effective than regenerative braking.
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Wave54 8:36PM (5/14/2008)
* But where are they going with a 30 mile range?? *
Once again, these aren't intended to be road-going vehicles. There are thousands of applications where gas and diesel trucks are used where this vehicle would do nicely and 30 miles would be plenty.
Think farms and nurseries, factory complexes, hospital campuses, schools and universities, resorts, theme parks, corporate parks, regional airports. These would be great for lawn care, maintenance, shuttling people around on a campus, etc.
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Nebrascal 9:38AM (5/15/2008)
Was that a cassette player in the van? Is there something about the greater efficiency of audio cassettes that I'm not aware of? Or are these photos old?
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