World’s Greatest Electric Car = W.E.N.G.

Discovery channel should round up a dozen professional car guys, give them a good shop, and tell them to come up with usable/affordable electric car in three weeks. I bet it blow the "doors" off this thing and be cheaper too.
 
I'd also like to point out that these people are Product Design majors. I tend to laugh at them from time to time (being a ME myself).
 
Wild guess but I have a feeling the concept was more that people are lazy fucks and drive big ass vehicles for no reason.
 
Achron said:
I'd also like to point out that these people are Product Design majors. I tend to laugh at them from time to time (being a ME myself).
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From the website http://wengmotors.com/

How is this different from a golf cart?


Good question. Come try it out and let us know what you find! Whether it's a bicycle or a car or a boat, vehicles are emotional and visceral artifacts! (Somehow this question is only popular on comment threads.) One of the most wonderful differences between the WENG and other vehicles is the transparency of the technology we use. The motors of the WENG are the wheels- they are in-hub DC brushless motors. The steering is electronic ("steer-by-wire" like on a Boeing 747.) The brains of the whole vehicle lie in the controllers, which are two little boxes under the seats. With a golf cart, for instance, the drive components are far less accessible, more confusing, and more complicated to install, adjust, repair, and replace.
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Yup, definitely not engineers. Clearly no KISS theory at work here.
 
Achron said:
First off, your name suits you well. Second, I have my masters from Stanford and I am not a retard. Third, I'd like to see you build this in 10 weeks (the length of our quarters) with other classes.

So much hate. Relax people.
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It took my three friends and I about a week and half one summer to build ours, that's designing, welding, installing engine, wiring, suspension, brakes. We did this in our friends garage with his Dad's tools and it went faster than 35m/h and we were all 13 years old. So yes. They are retards in the masters program at Stanford building crapping electric cars. You're just upset because you went to Stanford and are taking what I said personally. Don't worry. I'm don't think you are too retarded :) j/k
 
Not engineers, but product design? I should have read it rather than skimming. That certainly explains why they made such a big deal over basically nothing.
 
The worst part about this is they are getting a masters degree from an Ivy "Plus" school for welding some metal tubes together, buying and installing some batteries and a motor. Seriously, this looks like a high school project!

D*mn Chinese are ahead of the curve for everything...handing out masters degrees like candy.
 
infect0 said:
Wild guess but I have a feeling the concept was more that people are lazy fucks and drive big ass vehicles for no reason.
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I'd say two primary reasons.

1. We live in climate controlled everything. During really hot or cold days, just going from the house to the car is a chore. Some of it is certainly laziness, but some of it is just comfort.

2. This thing cost $10K. That is a whole lot for something you can't use to go very far. Some people ride around in golf carts, but they do that because they already have them. Same thing is going on with large cars. Most people don't have the funds or storage space to keep a car for every possible purpose.
 
The biggest tragedy of this story is that the project was probably funded through a federal grant.
So my taxpayer dollars went to fund this idiocracy.

Epic fail on my part for being a silly taxpayer :(
 
The public will never see electric cars; not because they are too expensive, not powerful enough, can't go far enough, etc ... but rather because service departments would not receive enough business if electric cars dominated the marketplace.

An electric car has 1 moving part (in the engine) and only requires the brushes to be replaced (very easily) every 50,000 miles.

GM only allowed people to lease the EV-1's, and as soon as the leases expired, they crushed all the cars and they now sit in the desert. Customers told GM they would buy the cars outright, release GM from all maintenance contracts, and pay for the car by themselves, and still GM refused.
 
Draax said:
An electric car has 1 moving part (in the engine) and only requires the brushes to be replaced (very easily) every 50,000 miles.
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Umm, no. Shocks/struts, springs, tie rods, suspension bushings, wheel bearings, power steering, air conditioning, brakes, hood/trunk/door latches and hinges, power windows, windshield wipers, and tons of other shit. There's plenty of moving parts on an electric car.

Plus, with an electric drive system, you've got all of the potential electrical gremlins associated with that.

Lots of stuff still for a service department to take care of.

But yes, they would be losing the regular oil change business.
 
[Tripod]MajorPayne;1035801496 said:
I bet they'd still be able to get gullible people in on the "change your electrical bushing motor oil every 3,000 miles!" or some other made-up part name.
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Well, always gotta change your blinker fluid. And I'm sure the flux capacitor is going to get varnished, so probably need to get that buffed.
 
Parja said:
Umm, no. Shocks/struts, springs, tie rods, suspension bushings, wheel bearings, power steering, air conditioning, brakes, hood/trunk/door latches and hinges, power windows, windshield wipers, and tons of other shit. There's plenty of moving parts on an electric car.

Plus, with an electric drive system, you've got all of the potential electrical gremlins associated with that.

Lots of stuff still for a service department to take care of.

But yes, they would be losing the regular oil change business.
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Did you miss the "in the engine" qualifier?
 
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