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DIY Hybrid Car Kit
Hybride And The Groom writes "Building hybrids uses machinery that pollutes the environment. The solution? Ship the parts of a hybrid individually and get your customers to put the car together themselves. That's exactly what Robert Q Riley Enterprises is doing, according to a story on CNet today, with its XR-3 hybrid. It'll cost you $25,000 for the bits, plus zero dollars in manufacture, I hope. Better yet, cough up $200 for the blueprints and schematics and even build the parts yourself. It's no secret that many hybrid drivers are smug enough as it is. Allow them to brag about having built the damn cars themselves and we might be entering obscenely smug territory."
At least that one looks cool but, really, who has the time to do this? If they have the time then do they have the interest or the money?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Only if your time is worth zero dollars.
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Like so many of these things, it's a motorcycle - not a car. It only has 3 wheels so that they don't have to meet safety standards.
Who knew you could lighten up a car if you stripped out all of the safety equipment?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
At $25000 for the parts alone, what idiot is going to buy this separately? Its cheaper to buy a pre-built vehicle like Prius or a Honda hybrid.
So has this thing been crash tested? Do you have to get the car certified after you build it, so that you can drive it on the road? Are you any more liable if anything happens to a passenger, motorist, or pedestrian, in such a car?
Twinstiq, game news
I agree completely. The first part of this article makes an assumption which doesn't seem too solid: that automotive machinery pollutes. If this is a reference to the byproducts of the power generated to run the machines, then I fail to see how running smaller machines in your home will improve the situation. Plus, power (and pollution?) is still needed to make the parts for a car no matter who puts it together. Sounds like someone is just trying to appear 'green' and cash in on the hybrid craze with kit 'car' (actually a motorcycle as an astute reader notes above).
If your only tool is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail.
I don't see how this eliminates the carbon footprint of building the car. It only moves it. Unless all of your tools are alternative energy powered, and the vehicles used to deliver the parts to you are likewise alternative energy powered, nothing has been accomplished here except moving where the carbon has been emitted. I fail to see how this helps the planet.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Crimeny, having had a VW Beetle I would estimate that you would have to factor in the cost of a barn to keep enough spare exhausts, wings, sills, filler, primer, welding rods etc to keep 10 of the damn things operative (at least in the UK).
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
The reason they sell it as a kit is to avoid all the federal vehicle rules. By passing on assembly to the end-user, it becomes THEIR problem to get the car licensed.
Good point. But to be accurate, the licensing becomes a non-issue. You start with a car complete with license. Then you mod it. Once you have a license, you can do pretty much anything you want with a vehicle, so long as you leave the safety and emission equipment needed for inspections intact.
The other advantage is that federal regs mandating manufacturer warranties don't apply. This is what killed GM's EV1. The requirement to provide spare parts for a few thousand cars would have cost GM millions (think batteries).
Have gnu, will travel.
Great idea, too bad it's fugly, more expensive than Honda's new hybrid at $25k, and basically just a motorcycle.
Call me when they make a Prius kit, or a drop in electric engine replacement for the Civic. ;)
-- sudo.ca
Well, if you enjoy tinkering with stuff and would otherwise have the time free anyhow, then it might even be that the time is of a negative cost.
That is to say, if you spend $25k for the unit, but spend 200 hours being rather entertained by putting it together, then you've just spend $25k on the parts and saved $x on whatever else you might have spend that money on (movies, video games, trips, etc).
I do a lot of the additions/repairs around the house. If might cost *more* than a plumber/carpenter/etc if you count what my day job's hourly rate is, but for me the cost of supplies is paying for both the renos and the entertainment of doing them.
One man's burden is another man's leisure, I'd rather be working on neat projects around the house than baking under a hot sun swinging a stick at a dimpled white ball.
AMEN. I had a 79 diesel Volkswagen Jetta (52 whole HP!) It got 45-48 mpg all the time, with my foot to the floor most of the time, but it couldn't maintain 50 mph when driving on the hilly Interstates in West Virginia and Tennessee. Just move to the far right and hope not to get run over.
So new hybrids must have enough battery storage capacity to get over those hills, more than just to get going after a stop light.
Against stupidity, the Gods themselves contend in vain. --Friederich Schiller
> At least that way repair shops won't have to be all confused about fixing the new technology [...]
Yeah, they can be all confused trying to figure out what the user has done to the thing.
Let's take an example we can relate to. A company advertises that they can send you the parts to a PC and directions on putting it together. Many of the unwashed public take advantage of this. Local nerdshops are inundated with half-assed assembly jobs, and the natives get really unfriendly when they're told that the best thing to do is junk it as a bad investment and buy an assembled car, er, PC off the lot, er shelf.
One could argue that this deal is for people who know what they're doing. I submit that this is not exactly true -- it's for people with $25,000 who *think* they know what they're doing.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
The way I understand it a motorcycle really has one and only one safety feature, maneuverability. You don't ever want to get hit and if you're careful you can often avoid getting hit when a car wouldn't be able to. A car on the other hand has size, crumple zones, mass, multiple airbags, decently strong building materials and so on which let it it take a hit without killing the occupants. This thing seems to fail under both criteria.
Exactly. You need to have a kilowatt hour or two of reserve charge to "average out" the hills. Optimally, your motor should be sized to haul you up an interstate at 5-6% grade (6% = legal max) at what you consider a reasonable speed, while your engine should be sized to manage a 1-2% grade (you generally won't surpass that as a running average of slopes on an interstate). Smaller mountain roads may be steeper and have higher average grades, but you won't be climbing them at nearly as high of a speed, either.
Do you work at Taco Bell? The guy at the drive-through said that to me last night.
I would assume that part of the problem would be the inherent safety problems with assembly by the untrained. Not safety with the actual assembly, though I'm sure there could be a fair share of collapses, or miss use of tools, but the safety of the vehicle on the road. What happens if as soon as the car gets up to 50 mph, the axle comes loose?
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
Mod parent up. This is likely the main reason why this project will never see the light of the day. I can't imagine a DIY vehicle getting approved over road safety.
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
The thing is, hard numbers are easy, drawing conclusions isn't.
What data should you examine to compare the "TCO" of the Prius over 5 years versus a same model-year vehicle? Which vehicle would you compare it to-- a mid-size Matrix or Mazda3, since the Prius is classified as a mid-size liftback, or a Corolla-- a compact sedan-- to push cost and efficiency numbers in the ICE model's favor*? Would you take different financing plans into account in your analysis? Would you include maintenance (if any) of the electric component of the hybrid drivetrain?
Some of the "analysis" I've seen in Slashdot comments were either armchair analysis (with no references or actual logic), or oversimplified cherry-picks of data that factored in things like battery replacement after 11 years, most with the general aim of encouraging people to continue to buy small cars because they're cheaper now. It's the same mentality, IMO, that fuels the credit and financial industries-- don't worry about a few years down the road when you're effectively paying an arm and a leg more for a glorified limited rental today.
* I'd love to see why you would want a Prius/Corolla comparison if it's not for this reason.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."