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To startup, or not to startup…

I’ve been quite distracted over the past 2 months, because after asking for an enthusiast’s help on building the motor, I was introduced to a couple of business men and the whole idea got blown out of proportion… I started thinking about a conversion business, or a conversion kit franchise, and a few other modes of making lots of money. Soon I forgot about motor modeling and HEV systems, all I could see was the business models, investor relationships, and patent lawyers crawling up my €$$.

No more.

I’m going to do what makes me happy: build the perfect car for me. If, after I do it, someone approaches me with commercial intentions, then it’s another issue entirely, and I’ll be happy to talk to them. But I don’t think that will happen, because the time-to-market is all wrong for me. I started this project on a dare: “I’m going to build what the car makers should have built already! I dare them to the finish line!“. Well, the finish line seems to be the year 2010, and they will probably win. As far as I am concerned, I feel vindicated! I’m happy to see that there will be serial hybrids coming into the market in 2 years.

So, on one hand, some new cars will have serial hybrid transmissions, and on the other hand the full-electric market seems to be taking off quite seriously, much before the hybrids. And as an added bonus, the old car conversion to electric is also kicking alive among the EV enthusiasts over here in Europe.

People are going in the right direction, and I’m glad to see I was just another one in a very large number of people who observed the tendency and started to move forward.

I may have lost the (market) battle, but we are all going to win the (energy) war. :)

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This entry was posted on June 16, 2008 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Motivation, Opinion. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.

5 Comments on “To startup, or not to startup…”

  1. Njay Says:

    June 17, 2008 at 1:06 am

    Soooo… what’s next?

    Reply
  2. Vasco Névoa Says:

    June 17, 2008 at 7:06 am

    Building the motor, of course!!! :)

    To do that, I have to stop playing around with the simulation scripts and decide on a design.

    That’s not easy, but I’ll try to accelerate it…

    Basicaly, I’ll have to put a price tag on each design and see which ones are realistic to build and which aren’t.

    Ironless cores are easy to build, but the generated torque is too low.
    This leaves me with metallic cores, which should be built with Electrical Steel (SiFe), which is a challenge I have to address shortly (finding someone who will provide the material).
    The designs are always simple enough to avoid professional machining, and I should be able to do the cutting, drilling, bolting and welding at home.
    Finally, the design should have a reasonable magnet price… the high-torque I’ve been searching for results in motors that have around 3000 small magnets… 8)

    In conclusion, I have to start making design decisions, and get into the prototyping phase.

    It’s time to contact suppliers and “makers”. :)

    Reply
  3. www Says:

    June 18, 2008 at 11:06 am

    Sooo…. you got “chicken” :)
    ehehehe…

    Still, i think you done the right choice (for you, of course).
    Although, the fact that it was “easy” to find business people willing to invest in this area is good news…. there must be a corps somewhere around here (business people are like voltures, flying around feeding on dead meat, ie, someone will build something which they find interesting, and then they show their ugly grins, ready for the feast)

    So if “green cars” have become interesting enough to attract these people, then, we just might be in time to still save the planet :) (the things we do for money)

    Go for the construction… get ready for ALOT of hassle. The very little things, are the ones which will kill your motivation. Still, i dont think you can avoid this path, so the sooner you start, the better.
    Make some preparation for the work, plan as much as possible, identify variables in the building process and what impacts they may have on the construction. Be as detailed as possible but dont waste too much time on it: no matter how perfect your building plan is, it will change. You need it, to have a reference, so you dont get lost in the way.
    So, be “nike”:
    JUST DO IT

    Reply
  4. h0tr0d Says:

    June 18, 2008 at 11:51 am

    Want to beat them? Easy!

    Make a 1000Nm, 3000rpmmáx, 95% efficient, 10kg máx motor for 100 “bucks”

    Reply

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