Bright Idea Plug-In Hybrid Van
By: John Voelcker
Green Car Reports
How times change.......
Startup Bright Automotive announced last week that, once the company completes its funding, its advanced plug-in hybrid Idea delivery van would be assembled under contract by AM General.
That’s the outfit that built the Humvee and Hummer, and spawned the now-defunct HUMMER brand, including the HUMMER H1 and HUMMER H2–which AM General also assembled.
Bright wants to put its Idea van into production by 2014, for sale to commercial and government fleets, and its projected sales volumes make contract manufacturing feasible.
GM invested in Bright more than a year ago through its GM Ventures unit, and the company also has several other private investors.
But Bright still awaits a verdict from the Department of Energy on its application for low-interest loans under the DoE’s advanced technology vehicle manufacturing program–which previously granted loans to Ford, Nissan, and Tesla, and then Fisker.
The Bright Idea delivery van is built to be exceptionally lightweight, and an electric motor powers the rear wheels–providing a very low load floor inside the van body.
It offers up to 40 miles of electric range from a 13-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, after which a front-mounted four-cylinder engine drives the front wheels through a conventional transmission–an arrangement known as a “through-the-road hybrid.”
Running on the engine, the Bright Idea is projected to return 36 miles per gallon, and provide a total range of about 400 miles.
But over a blended daily route of 80 miles, the last 40 miles would use roughly 1.1 gallons of gasoline, making the effective overall gas mileage an impressive 70 mpg. A 60-mile route would boost that number above 100 mpg.
That’s far higher fuel economy than any light-duty delivery vans today. The 2012 Ford Transit Connect small delivery van, which uses a 2.5-liter gasoline engine, is rated by the EPA Mat 22 mpg city, 25 mpg highway.
And running costs are the main interest of fleet managers, who make far more rational purchase decisions based on overall total cost of ownership than do retail car buyers.
Those fleet buyers will pay more up front if there’s a payoff in lower running costs down the road. That’s the promise of the Bright van, whose cost to recharge overnight for those first 40 miles of electric range is just a small fraction of the cost-per-mile of running on gasoline.
Granted, Bright Automotive has many miles to go before its Idea van will roll into distributors for commercial sale.
But we rather like the idea that the plant in Mishawaka, Indiana, that formerly saw HUMMER H1s rolling off the lines may one day build plug-in hybrids with fuel efficiency perhaps 10 times as good as those HUMMERs.
There’s karma in there somewhere.
..thanks, Keni.
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about a company,
formerly called General Motors Corp.
(we must all not forget that they were bankrupt and have been saved
with US American tax money)..
They had their peak in hydrogen cars ling time ago.
The same as they had their peak in E-vehicles also long time ago.
Please check here for yourself, what they exhibited at the famous Hannover Fair
in Germany with approx 500.000 commercial trade how visitors from all over the world,
and approx 5.000 exhibitors from all over the word
in the year 2003:
http://www.hydrogenambassadors.com/hm03/exhibitors/gm.php
That was now 8,5 years ago. And today there are still at point Zero,
both with H and E vehicles.
Not very much, to be really proud of!
Posted by Arno A.
36 MPH... My 2007 Kia Rio gets 40 after 125,000+ miles.
ReplyDeletePosted by Bob
Although plug in and hybrids are attractive, one must consider how the electricity is generated. The preponderance of electricity is still made via burning fossil fuels. It is so frustrating. Viable alternatives of producing electricity must be found.
ReplyDeletePosted by Pamela
If I convert the energy input correctly it means that you need 0,325 kWh for one mile on electric and about 1 kWh on gas operation. It shows the terrible inefficiency of internal combustion engines. I understand the range extender idea especially for this type of cars, but would it not be consequent to throw out the mechanic parts of the conventional front drive and load up on batteries instead? There is still space for a 15 kW genset that can refill the batteries if they are empty. (And at a consumption of 0,325 kWh per mile and an average distance of 46 miles/h this is a consumption of 15 kWh/hour).
ReplyDeleteAs long as these logic steps are not taken the only interpretation can be: they have not fully understood and/or just want to dress up their old ideas a bit.
Posted by Guenther
We have a high efficiency, inexpensive, multifuel, scalable turbine to replace reciprocal engines in autos, trucks, and other transportation. Based on aerodynamics, e.g., in Cooper/ or Tata Nano will achieve 150MPG on 139,000 btu diesel. sannerwind@gmail.com
ReplyDeletePosted by Jay
These are a great idea. With reference to GM, I think that before all the big name companies are allowed to declare bankruptcy they should be force to sell all the ideas that they bought the rights to keep the products off the market. Same with big oil companies. It tis time for the products that threatened the oil consumption to hit the market.
ReplyDeletePosted by Janice