What if the cheapest new car in America was electric and 100% zombie apocalypse ready?
on May 31st, 2011 at 8:14 pm
No matter how good the current electric cars on the market are, (Nissan Leaf, Tesla Roadster, Chevy Volt) they still get the same reaction from the general public: too expensive and range limited, a sentiment I share. My next car won’t be electric……….but that could change if it was cheap enough that its EV limitations didn’t matter.
Thats the idea behind ApocalypsEV-1, a concept my brother and I have been working on for some time now – a cheap solar electric car for short commutes and errands. To make the idea even better, we realized that our concept was zombie apocalypse ready. While gasoline and plug in electric cars would quickly become useless as fuel and electricity were shut off, the ApocalypsEV-1 would still be on the road, outrunning zombies and providing post apocalyptic fun.
Our first apocalypse ready car, TWEAK cost about $1k dollars to make (build page here). It was powered by two 1hp electric drills and the battery pack was charged by a rear mounted solar panel. While fun to drive, TWEAK was extremely range limited (<3 miles) and had a top speed of about 10mph on a flat road. Even at that price, it was not very useful. ApocalypsEV-1 seeks to change that with a 16-25hp motor that gives it a top speed around 35 mph and a range of 10-20 miles. Most importantly, ApocalypsEV-1 isn’t a car, its a street legal, side-by-side ATV (similar to a Yamaha Rhino) that combines fun and practicality into a single purchase. An advantage of selling this as an ATV, is that ATV trips are generally slow and just a couple of miles in range, which perfectly overlaps the federal NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle) limitations for street legal electric vehicles.
The real question is whether an NEV ATV would actually be a practical vehicle that people would enjoy using. Thats why we are using IndieGoGo to raise funds to build the ApocalypsEV-1 prototype that we can use as a test mule. If we find the design usable, we will try and form a company to build them. If you would like to help make this possible, please check out the IndieGoGo link above.
That is not a freakin’ car. I know this may be hard for you to understand, but some of us live in places that have WEATHER. Bring me a solar powered vehicle that will run in Madison in the Winter without allowing it’s occupant to freeze to death and you can call it a “car”.
Hi Parintachin,
It’s great living in the South. I totally agree with you, and cars like the Nissan Leaf come close. Our goal would be to build a third or fourth generation car that could do what you are proposing. But it won’t be the cheapest car in America. To start with, cheap is where we want to be. We are hoping at this price, people could afford to use it as a spring – fall car, much like people use a motorcycle.
Cheers,
Michael
But, but, that would ender all of those Mad Max movies useless.
If we can’t all be huddled around a burning pile of tires bemoaning the end of fossil fuels, what’s the point?
Hello?
If a car is not zombie-proof, what good is it?
So after the apocalypse where do you get new batteries, and solar panels? How long before the zombies take them both to power their lairs?
Someone already has more enclosed version with a pickup bed and a higher solar panel count anyway: http://sunnev.com/