All About Alternate Fuel Vehicles (AFV)

By Megan Pillow, Mooresville Tribune, January 2, 2008
Source; Mooresville Tribune
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Mooresville has long been in the spotlight because of its racing affiliations, but in December, the town attracted millions of eyes who were looking at an entirely different kind of vehicle.  The cover of the 2007 Sam’s Club “Source for Home & Business” catalogue, released in early December, featured an all-electric, lithium-powered 2008 Mini Cooper for sale, courtesy of Mooresville-based Hybrid Technologies.

The partnership between Sam’s Club and the technology company, whose development office is on Rolling Hills Road, has company officials excited about the future of both Hybrid Technologies and Mooresville.  Richard Griffiths, one of the company’s founders and media spokespersons, said Dec. 21 the company has long worked on significant technology with electric propulsions, but wanted to do something more.  “We wanted to develop an affordable, mass-market electric vehicle,” he said.

The drive system the company devised to propel the car, said Griffiths, is on the cutting edge of electric propulsion technology. Originally produced by Hybrid for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the lithium-powered system is generated by 10 Kokam lithium ion battery packs and allows for either 110 or 220 volt charging. Charging to 100 percent takes between three and four hours.

But Hybrid’s L-Mini Cooper (“L” is for lithium) is a long way from the standard electric vehicle (EV) on the market today. Unlike the Miles ZX40 – one of the more common EVs, which, according to the Miles Electric Vehicles Web site, has a maximum speed of 25 mph and gets about 50 miles per charge – Hybrid’s L-Mini Cooper is a veritable monster. The car goes from zero to 60 mph in nine seconds, can reach speeds over 80 mph, and gets more than 100 miles to the charge.

Those impressive numbers are thanks to the batteries, which are not only able to store electricity efficiently and are environmentally friendly, but also have an excellent reputation for performance.

The L-Mini Cooper is more expensive than EVs like the Miles ZX40 – instead of $12,000 to $20,000, the car starts at $65,000. But that price is still a far cry from the cost of the Tesla Roadster. The Roadster, the “it” EV of the moment, goes from zero to 60 mph in about four seconds and can reach speeds of up to 130 mph, but costs about $100,000.  In addition, unlike the Roadster, Hybrid’s L-Mini Cooper is actually available – Tesla sold just a few hundred Roadsters starting in 2006 and reservations for those vehicles went quickly.

Griffiths said that was part of the point: To find a middle ground, an EV that people would not only like to drive, but might actually be able to purchase.   “We wanted to build something accessible,” he said. The Tesla, he added, “is unattainable. We are the only company that I am aware of that produces commercially available electric vehicles (of this kind) in the world.”

Griffiths said Sam’s Club was convinced to sell the car after Wal-Mart’s CEO spent just five minutes driving the vehicle around one of the store’s parking lots. Now, he said, Wal-Mart has jumped into the promotion with both feet, and as a result, Hybrid has seen a real boost in media coverage and a number of corporate sponsors are jumping on board.

In addition to sitting front and center on the Sam’s Club source catalogue, which is sent to millions of people, the partnership and the new car has resulted in press conferences across the country. Hybrid Technologies has now been featured by media such as the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Popular Mechanics.

“Sam’s Club, when they like something, when they believe in it, they put their money behind it,” said Griffiths.    What that means for Mooresville, he said, can only be good things. Hybrid Technologies, he noted, chose Mooresville in the first place because of its “incredible workforce” and its reputation.

“(Mooresville is) sitting on a massive amount of engineers and people who can get something done,” he said. “If you have to do a car project, what better place to be than here?”  The company’s wave of success, said Griffiths, will likely spill over into the local economy. “We’re certainly a major creator of technology in the region. Hopefully we’ll become a major employer, too.”

And maybe, said Griffiths, the company can do its part to contribute to Mooresville’s growing reputation for groundbreaking work.  “This has become a center for the evolution of alternative energy vehicles,” he said.

To see the 2007 Sam’s Club “Source for Home & Business” catalogue, visit www.samsclub.com. For more on the L-Mini Cooper and Hybrid Technologies, visit www.hybridtechnologies.com.