Costs are somewhat protected right now, but it was less than 75k. And since it's a prototype and not a full company, yes, there really is no warranty (unlike the motorbike project, where there is).

Range is also a negotiable thing, to a point - this doesn't get as much as the Tesla (yet?) but it doesn't need to. He can commute to and from work, and then some, and charge up. Considering charge times take in the minutes with the right setup, that's plenty. It's a pretty small group of people that are driving more than 200 miles everyday without stopping for a charge.

The other nice thing is that since we already have the gas station infrastructure in place, it can be converted to charging stations. With the right setup, you can charge this kind of car in mere minutes (think 15 minutes). All this means is that while the 200 mile range is nice, it's unneeded and a waste of money.

I certainly grant that Green Vehicles aimed too high, but that was their error. There are already 3 wheel vehicles around, why not use one of those? What about starting with one of the new Can-Am Spyder and turning that into an electric?

The question here isn't whether or not the entire car concept sucks - it doesn't. 100 years have proven that car transportation works pretty well to get from place to place. The only issue is how to propel it. Trying to start "ground up" on that is pretty silly.

I'm not claiming that my buddy has made a brand new car. I'm claiming that for under $500k, he has made a road worthy prototype, nothing more. Clearly he needs more work and investment if it's going to become the next Tesla (or better, hopefully!).

The thing people forget is that we have 100 years of car design - why throw that out the window? Certainly there are cheaper cars he could have picked to start from. Regardless, it's a prototype, nothing more.

And I certainly knew he did the conversion, duh. Though how much of it is a conversion and how much is a new design starts to blur when you remove half the stuff inside. He didn't design the chemical composition in the battery packs either, would those count as conversion? At some point, every company buys parts from another to make their product when it comes to consumer stuff. In his case, he bought a car "shell" and used that to hold everything else.

Ok the Porche comment was a bit much I guess, but you get the idea.

But why bother designing an entire auto? Yes he started with a stock car, but there's nothing wrong with that. The question here isn't whether or not you can design something ground up, it's whether you can make a good electric car. Same deal for his electric bike - motorbike design is decades old, don't mess with that section, just do the electric parts.

The OP was trying to make a prototype for under $500k - that's what this is, nothing more. I'm only saying that they failed miserably in that task, and should not have. I don't claim that this car is the end-all of electric car designs, or that it is going to be the next big company. But to not have a prototype means they squandered the money, since it clearly could have been done.

It's not impossible. My co-worker has produced, for far less than $500,000 a fully functional, 100% legit, electric-only vehicle. He uses it to commute to work, or at least he did, until he quit to pursue creating more with his new company. And oh by the way, he drives it on public roads because it's DMV certified. And it will also beat a porche at a drag race. Fun, eh?

http://evdrive.com/

If they couldn't turn $500k into a prototype, then they did not have the required skills to create the prototype in the first place.