Comments on: Bright Automotive to enter electric-car derby

Stealthy start-up is bringing the mantra of fuel efficiency to plug-in electric-vehicle design by focusing on lighter materials and aerodynamics.

[mowog3k]

This is getting tedious.

Everybody starts out teleling us how theye are better, faster, smarter than Detroit. Solectria did it, Tesla did it. Yada yada yada.

Then they wind up hiring detroit veterans to bail them out when they run aground.

The problem is obvious if you think about it... auto consumers expect to buy a product which runs flawlessly in all weather, year round for at least 100,000 miles with zero defects. ZERO DEFECTS!

Try building a couple million of those every year, supporting warranties and maintaining ten years of spare parts availability for every model you sell using experimental building materials and techniques and see how fast you go bankrupt.

I'll believe their hype as soon as their 100,000 vehicle is sold and they are still profitable. Until then it is just more hype by people looking for venture capital.

You should put as much critical comment into your reporting on guys like these as you do into evaluating the latest handheld device.

[ppgreat]

I like this company's solution a little better: www.indypowersystems.com

Don't take on anyone. Just blend existing tech into something that you could be driving within the year.

[ferretboy88]

Don't forget that is has to be safe or after the first crash trial lawyers will be out for blood. It has to be able to have a soccer Mom drive 20 mph over the speed limit in the middle of winter and crash and walk away.

[dcpyatt]

What Bright Automotive is planning is not an 'plug-in electric vehicle' nor an 'electric vehicle', but rather a plug-in serial hybrid vehicle. A true 'plug-in electric vehicle' charges solely from a plug or regenerative braking. An 'electric vehicle' does not carry a gasoline generator.

However, I welcome any new entries into this market sector... the future definitely includes electrics.

DaveP in Ohio, a current multi plug-in electric vehicle owner and plug-in technology experimenter and promoter.

1980 Comuta-Car
1975 CitiCar

[ferretboy88]

If you have to strip mine for the battery parts, plug in the car(which uses power from coal or nuke plants etc) how is that helping? They better work on the solar power. The panels they have now are only using 5% of the suns power.

[kristine1001]

It helps because electric vehicles can charge at night, using capacity that existing power plants generate, but don't use. So, that's the first step - moving mobility from oil use to consuming from a pre-existing underutilized energy source. Then, as the electric grid transfers to more generation from renewable sources like solar and wind, mobility becomes sustainable and reduces its impact on the environment. From a pure efficiency perspective alone, it is also more energy efficient to move a vehicle with electricity than it is to move it with gasoline. So, you are partly right -- ultimately we want to use more solar power rather than coal or nuclear energy.

[farfalla131]

How come no one actually READS what they claim to have read before commenting? This is not a consumer vehicle. They are not "taking on" Detroit.