Could VIA Motors be the next generation of tow vehicles?

[MegaWonder]

There are several videos on this company's youtube channel. Just thinking... Charge up at the campsite and or run your rv from its on board power souce option.
100mpge (gas equivelent?) 400 miles to the tank (unloaded I think). Have not found any of the crucial specs yet.

https://vimeo.com/136007732

[Bumpyroad]

how do these electric vehicles get heated up in the winter?
reminds me of the old VW bug days, freeze to death.
bumpy

[BenK]

Thanks for the info and links...

Almost exactly what my architecture is, but am going to up the ICE
and change the gearing considerably...just some of my what if noodlings..

Twin screw forced induction with my design inter-cooler (actually a copy
of a super car's), but designed to sit in place of the current intake
runners to my 7.4L.

Buddy (owns speed shop) and his engine builder thinks very doable
and guessing +600Ft/lb continuous...depending on how well the
inter-cooler works

An OD between the 4L80E and Transfer case to get an 8 speed setup

Batteries...am working with some folks on sodium-ion. Projected to be
less than 30% of the cost of Lith-ion. About the same power density
and size. Maybe smaller as it matures and cost should also drop once
it reached commodity levels...plus much more recyclable than Lithium,
which has a limited supply vs salt...plus salt is NOT as potentially
explosive and a fire hazard as Lithium

Rusty after decades away from my design days in Industrial Motor Controls,
but our inverters were some of the first regenerative braking during
those days...

This is the electric motor or it's little brother I want. Knew they
were also working on it's little brother when I found them consulting
on a military job...About the size of a basketball and 100% duty
cycle at 1,500 HP

Electrodynamics 1,500HP traction motor
electrodybnamnics1,500hp 1,500hp tractionmotor

Tractionmotor

Motor diameter: 25 inch
Length: 10.5 inch excluding shaft

Speed RPM.......Continuous HP......DC Bus Voltage

4500...........1500................1200

2400...........750.................600

1200...........375.................300

600............187.................150


All I need now is to win the Lottery... :B

[rjstractor]

It would have been great for me when I had my landscaping business- lots of stop and go, short distances only towing 2000 pounds. I would have made it through most of my days using little or no gas at all. But like Turtle said, the same truck in an RV application would make little sense. High speeds, heavy, tall loads and long hills would kill the efficiency of that vehicle.

[John___Angela]

MegaWonder wrote:

John & Angela wrote:
Very cool. The technology is in its infancy but will improve as time goes on. We recently replaced one of our internal combustion cars to a full Electric. It is really hard to go back to driving anything with a tail pipe after you have driven an electric. Quiet, amazing performance and other than windshield washer fluid, very little maintenance. Literally drive back and forth to work for pennies a day now. The driving tips he gave were right on the money and aggressive driving gobbles up kilowatts quick.

Love that built in power supply on that truck. It will make power outages a lot less of a
crisis.

Thanks for posting.

We added a 100% electric vehicle to our household as well. Definitely the most cost effective vehicle we have ever had. Our particular EV is not as advanced in technology as the latest EVs out there and does have its short commings such as cold weather range/charging capacity, and no quick charge feature...but with said, it is our 100 mile round trip daily commuter. The savings of no gas, no expensive maintance (no oil/filter changes, fuel filters, transmission flushes, no timing belts, no egr or o2 sensors,exhaust, cat converter concerns, etc. Etc.) This alone helps put diesel fuel in our truck. 🙂 LOL 1 year 24k miles. Only maint so far has been rotating tires, inspect brakes (virtually no brake wear due to re-generator braking) and windshield wiper fluid.

Think the batteries are getting better and are getting less expensive every year. Will have to see how the VIA vehicles make out in few years.

Ours can only do Level 2 charging too so you can't be in a rush. Having said that, a busy day for Angelas car including commute is about 55 KM. Less than half of her range. So I can't see needing to charge up other than at home most of the time. She seems to burn through 3 to 5 Kilowatts per day and occasionally 15 or 16 if she goes to the neighbouring town for a costco trip (110 KM round trip or so). (We use a Kill-a-watt meter on our level one charger at home) Kinda fun to see what its costing us. We pay around 11 cents per kilowatt hour here.

[John___Angela]

shepstone wrote:
40-45 miles??? I'm assuming that is an empty truck as well. Seems counter productive .Correct if I am wrong but I don't think that battery technology is good enough yet to electrify a truck.

I think thats a valid point but I would think there are a lot of people driving around with a truck that less than 10 percent of the time have anything in them. 40 miles would cover the range needs for a lot of people with their truck most of the time. And remember, there are charge station in lots of places and more all the time.

It will improve over time.

[MegaWonder]

shepstone wrote:
40-45 miles??? I'm assuming that is an empty truck as well. Seems counter productive .Correct if I am wrong but I don't think that battery technology is good enough yet to electrify a truck.

I thought i heard on one of the videos it had a 400 mile range per tank of gas. First runs on electric then gas engine generator kicks in and charges the battery as you drive down the road. Maybe its 40miles on 100% electric until it starts sipping gas for generator.. Wish they had an easy fact/spec sheet available for their vehicles. Very interesting though.


http://www.viamotors.com/vehicles/electric-truck/

[shepstone]

40-45 miles??? I'm assuming that is an empty truck as well. Seems counter productive .Correct if I am wrong but I don't think that battery technology is good enough yet to electrify a truck.

[MegaWonder]

John & Angela wrote:
Very cool. The technology is in its infancy but will improve as time goes on. We recently replaced one of our internal combustion cars to a full Electric. It is really hard to go back to driving anything with a tail pipe after you have driven an electric. Quiet, amazing performance and other than windshield washer fluid, very little maintenance. Literally drive back and forth to work for pennies a day now. The driving tips he gave were right on the money and aggressive driving gobbles up kilowatts quick.

Love that built in power supply on that truck. It will make power outages a lot less of a
crisis.

Thanks for posting.

We added a 100% electric vehicle to our household as well. Definitely the most cost effective vehicle we have ever had. Our particular EV is not as advanced in technology as the latest EVs out there and does have its short commings such as cold weather range/charging capacity, and no quick charge feature...but with said, it is our 100 mile round trip daily commuter. The savings of no gas, no expensive maintance (no oil/filter changes, fuel filters, transmission flushes, no timing belts, no egr or o2 sensors,exhaust, cat converter concerns, etc. Etc.) This alone helps put diesel fuel in our truck. 🙂 LOL 1 year 24k miles. Only maint so far has been rotating tires, inspect brakes (virtually no brake wear due to regenerator braking) and windshield wiper fluid.

Think the batteries are getting better and are getting less expensive every year. Will have to see how the VIA vehicles make out in few years.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

MegaWonder wrote:
There are several videos on this company's youtube channel. Just thinking... Charge up at the campsite and or run your rv from its on board power souce option.
100mpge (gas equivelent?) 400 miles to the tank (unloaded I think). Have not found any of the crucial specs yet.

https://vimeo.com/136007732

It will never happen. At least not in this universe. Batteries just don't hold enough power. It takes a LOT of power to tow. It takes HUGE amounts of power to tow up hill.

They are only getting 40 miles out of an empty truck. It only takes around 40 or so HP to drive a truck like that down a flat road at 60 mph. Start towing a mid size trailer and now your talking 100 to 125 HP to do the same thing. Some reading about energy density. This is where diesel or even gasoline are kings of energy density.

These trucks would be nice for someone with a delivery service or a lawn care business or to pick up a 6 pack but that's about all.

[Tystevens]

I like it.

[John___Angela]

Very cool. The technology is in its infancy but will improve as time goes on. We recently replaced one of our internal combustion cars to a full Electric. It is really hard to go back to driving anything with a tail pipe after you have driven an electric. Quiet, amazing performance and other than windshield washer fluid, very little maintenance. Literally drive back and forth to work for pennies a day now. The driving tips he gave were right on the money and aggressive driving gobbles up kilowatts quick.

Love that built in power supply on that truck. It will make power outages a lot less of a crisis.

Thanks for posting.

[MegaWonder]

Chevy/GM connection I would think Don Lutz former ceo GM..advocate of the Chevy Volt..now head of VIA motors.

[Lessmore]

gbopp wrote:
Interesting. When I first saw the picture and the VIA emblem, I thought it was a Chinese knock-off of a Chevy Silverado. 🙂

Yeah, I wondered about the Chevy truck and van stuff, too.

I'm wondering is there a GM connection with Via. I only watched bits and pieces of the video, so maybe they explained.

I dunno....

[MegaWonder]

Might qualify for green EZpass 10% savings on Turnpike and bridge Tolls during off peak times.
Web site Q&As state it qualifies for federal tax credit up to $7500 like the EV zero emission vehicles. Possibly qualifies other state incentives. (Currently in NJ, there is no sales tax on EV vehicles leased or purchased.
Probably massive maintance savings as well. Curious of the payload and towing specs.

[Big_Katuna]

Their target is $70K per vehicle. Not bad considering fuel savings.