We've seen some
wacky prototypes of
electric vehicles over the years, but never anything quite like the Weng. It's a product of graduate students at Stanford, and it stands for Where Everyone Needs to Go. Where does everyone need to go? Less than 30 miles at 35mph apparently, as that's the maximum range and speed of this conveyance, which stylistically has more in common with a utility trailer than something you might want to actually want to pilot. But, pilot this thing you can, controlled by a twist grip on the right and a little PS3-style thumbstick on the left for steering, meaning it's both drive and steer by wire. Power comes from a pair of brushless scooter motors in the (scooter-sized) wheels, and from what we can see from the video below power looks to be rather scooter like as well. The kicker? An anticipated $10k price tag if this ever did come to production. Cool project, guys, and that you threw it together in a few months is hugely impressive, but in our estimation this is not "what a modern vehicle needs to be."
posted June 5th 2010 4:15PM
This is better than a mass produced electric golf cart how?
This is a golf cart with a different seating arrangement.
@Bacchus027 A stripped down golf cart.
Now add all the safety equipment on it and see how far and fast it goes. FAIL...
Did he actually say "EXTREMELY stylized?"
@Smart People Play Tuba
Maybe to a Hipster. The average level headed human being would call it a POS.
well first off, this is a student's project not a university high level state of the art research project. Secondly the whole thing was designed and built in 10 weeks.
In terms of capability if you were to simply ad a roof and some wind blockage, this is a perfectly reasonable transportation device for short errand trips at a fraction of the cost in energy of a combustion engine car and even a full size and weighted electric car. There's plenty of room for a passenger and a car load of groceries or other shopping items (not building materials, though.)
I don't know where they came up with a $10,000 production retail price, but what I see there doesn't add up to more than $2000 in mass production.
I think a lot of the objections are not well founded. Like the article says, for the type of trips this is intended, the speed limit is typically 35 or below anyway. Electric motors have great acceleration, too.
You wouldn't want to be seen driving this? Who is basing their self esteem on what the drive? You're giving away that you don't think much of yourself if the only thing you can say about yourself is you drive a nice car.
The thing is, we really need to consider things like this. The gulf accident is just one more huge sign that we are headed in the wrong direction with our use of technology on this planet. As we become more and more capable of creating large impacts on our environment we need to match that with the ability to be conservative, if not promotive, of the environment. When the real supply of oil has dwindled down to the level where only the super rich can use it carelessly like we use it today, and everyone's back on bicycles, (old, used, run down bicycles, too) and you can only use electricity for one hour a day and things like whole house air conditioning are just a fond memory of comfort and ease, you're going to wish everyone had been a little more willing to make some sacrifices in comfort, convenience, luxury and public image to allow some things like this to come to market and mature to allow us to reduce our dependence on expensive and toxic energy sources.
So go ahead and knock this project and relegate your descendants to a Mad Max generation.
If I really want it, it appears that I can make it in my back yard. Kthanx
Darling, did you feel that bump under the right wheel??
Don't worry darling must have been a rock in the road or something...
NERDMOBILE
@The Incredible Mr Coco Pants
I'd hit it...
...with my truck
WoW! I really do love this. Doesn't need to go faster. You're not going to drive to Moscow are you?
Let's see:
$1500 used car, plus
$2000-$4000 to convert to electric give-or-take...
... and you get a vehicle that can actually DO something.
@dragonfli
used car + donkey. cheaper, and by far cooler.
Looks like a 19th century prototype LOL!!! The time machine is real.
This contraption for 10k, what the F**k?
Being open air is really what makes it useful. I can see it being extremely popular in Seattle and across the northern States. Are these the types of students our education system is creating now? If so, our country is as good as dead.
@Mr Pips SEATTLE? are we talking about the same city? Rain 24/7 and sitting 90% of the driving time in traffic is not where an electric car will call home. Maybe in Phoenix Arizona :)
10,000 dollars? I can build one like that myself for a lot less. And it will look a lot nicer too. Actually wait, for 10,000 I can buy a decent (used) gas powered car (2008 Mazda 3 for example), that is more comfortable, practical etc. And I don't have to worry about cold/heat/rain/wind, cause it has a roof!
airbags are so overrated.
i'd like to see weng take a 10 mph hit from a car
True fact:
If you are not working on battery technology, you are not working on electric cars.
would you like to ride my Weng?
"WENGO" is far more catchy...
I'd rather have a Golf Cart!!! I was watching a show on TV about them in Florida. They trick them things all out including boosting the speed of them things even though it's Illegal. They can be quite FAST and go pretty far. They make this thing look like a huge joke. Please $10,000? Are they kidding. That's like, $8000 in profit? By the way, where that that power come from your plugging into the socket? Oh wait, From a Power Plant burning Coal, which is throwing up all kinds of Radiative Garbage into the air, or Oil or Natural Gas. Powering a Vehicle like this is LESS EFFICIENT then just throwing GAS into a Car. We already have Rolling Blackouts here in California, and they don't want to build Power Plants, let alone the only CLEAN type of power available, Nuclear. You get a bunch of people plugging in Cars, and the blackouts get even worse.
This thing is a joke. It's Ugly as hell. Completely Unsafe, Way, Way Overpriced. I could get a used older Car in nice condition, Yank out the Engine, convert to a Electric Motor, throw in a bunch of battery's and have something, SAFER, Out of the Weather, and better Mileage for under $10,000. Hell a few more Battery's, and a smaller Secondary electric Motor running at a constant fixed speed, I could also Power the Vacuum brakes, Power steering and A/C!!! If you could find a small older car with Manual brakes and Manual steering, save some battery power even better. Need my A/C though. If I could get 100 miles with everything ON, Perfect. That's 50 miles each way. That would take care of 90% of my driving saving my truck for the other 10%.
A Motorcycle I think is safer then this thing!!!
Looks like Carrot Top is no longer on the roids.
Ah... I see there is still a lot of crack being smoked at Stanford :P
This is what is coming out of Stanford these days?
If you've seen their weng, they blew it.
all of a sudden, i got this idea of an electric horse-drawn chariot.... with a robot horse.....
"clean green chariot without the horse poo!"
Looks like a mule, if thats what i'm thinking of, that they used on raillines in the 1800's. You know one person on each side pushing and pulling.
We need to change people image on electric vehicle, this is the last thing we need In fact the worst.
Your right. That is not a car
I've had an electric golf cart for fifteen years that can perform almost as well. Maybe not quite as fast, but the range, yes.
its got hardwood floors.. pimp...
but really, look how sexy that girl looks driving it
It seems like none of the commenter have ever looked at golf cart or ev prices. A new golf cart goes for around $9k and the cheapest ev runs about $12k (Zap Xebra).
It should be mentioned that there is a giant federal tax credit for vehicles like these. Depending on the size of the batteries in this car it could be worth a $2500-$7500 tax credit. Thus a $10k price tag isn't that big of deal.
Wow! Their parents must be so proud to know that extra money spent sending those kids to Stanford wasn't wasted. Now they need to make the seats more comfortable and put a roof on it- Oh wait, the golf cart was already invented decades ago.
There is a good reason for the WENG design. Fast heavy internal combustion engine powered vehicles are shockingly inefficient. Slow, light, electric motor powered vehicles are highly efficient.
I define efficiency as percentage of energy consumed that gets driver and payload to destination. For example, if a 150 lb driver in a 1500 lb car goes uphill, only 9% of total energy is used to lift the driver. Then fold in 20% efficiency of gasoline engine - only 1.8% of total energy consumed gets driver to destination. That is, the car takes 55 times more energy then the actual amount needed to get the driver up the hill. Then add energy needed to overcome air resistance, which goes up with the square of speed. Double your speed and you must use four times more energy. This factor dominates when driving on level ground or going downhill.
Compare to my electric bike: the bike weighs 90 lbs - heavy frame, motor, battery, controller, and wiring. I weigh 220 lbs, so for uphill riding, 220/(90 + 220) = 71% of total energy consumed goes to getting me up the hill. Electric motors are about 80% efficient, so overall efficiency is 57%. Uphill speed is around 10 mph, so air resistance is much less than for car going, say 50 mph. The actual difference depends on size and shape of the driver/vehicle so I can't make numerical comparison based on speed alone. But total energy needed to ride at 22 mph on level ground is no more than 2/3 hp (maximum motor output, no pedaling). I seem to recall that a car driving at highway speeds needs about 30 hp for air resistance. So, to make a wild guess, overall efficiency of car is under 1%, and e-bike is maybe 30%.
For the e-bike, maximum speed on level ground with pedaling is about 25 mph. Range is better than 20 miles (with 36V 20AH LiPO4 battery). This is fine for around town driving, but cargo space is limited and there is no room for a passenger. Range could be improved with a second battery, but that cuts into cargo space. The WENG addresses all those issues, plus it has a better top speed, making it safer in traffic. I expect the brakes and suspension are better, therefor safer than an e-bike.
My main complaint about the WENG is the high price, and the fly by wire steering. What happens when the electronics goes on the fritz?