Outside in the lobby of the theater was a unique vehicle. I have seen it before and never get tired of seeing it. It is a three wheeled electric car made by Myers Motors. I first met Dana Myers briefly at an E4S event in Akron. The car in the lobby is called the NmG and stands for No More Gas. It is an all electric vehicle and perfect for a guy like me.
Dana Meyers took the stage to great applause, so apparantly I was not the only one in the room to have heard of the NmG. We know that Cleveland and NE Ohio know how to make cars. Never planning to be in the car business or retail, but he decided to jump in full force and make an all electric car. We need electric vehicles like these for several basic reasons. First there is a finite amount of oil on the planet. The world took 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil and the the next trillion will only take 30. All electric vehicles cost less to drive no matter the price of oil.
Secondly there is the issue of congestion. In 1900 only 25% of the world’s poulation lived in cities. We are around 50% and by 2050, we can expect that number to rise to about 75%. Not only is there not enough pavement for all these commuters, there is precious little real estate for parking. It is expected that we will have 1.4 billion cars in the US by 2030. If you have even been in traffic in LA at rush hour, or tried to find a parking spot in Chicago you can see the advantage of a tiny car like the one created by Myers Motors. No matter what you try to tell people, most daily commuters get into their larger car all alone and drive 10-15 miles to work. The NmG has a range of about 50 miles at 70mph, and seats just one. Their real goal is not to replace everyone;s car, but to get every two car family to make their daily commuter car an NmG. To address those who travel to work in pairs or who might want to use their car a little more often, they are planning the release of their DUO-a cute two seater.
Thirdly there is the obvious environmental issue of pollution caused by petroleum based vehicles. Electric vehicles have no CO2 emissions. Sure there are emissions generated from the power plants that generate the electricity to charge electric vehicles, but that is a fraction of the amount of pollution emitted by today’s autos. Furthermore, as we add more and more highways and roads, few people talk about noise pollution cased by so many big cars on the roadways. Electric vehicles are quiet. If you think they have no pick up, you are wrong. Some electric cars are being used in racing and tested against traditional vehicles. The NmG gets up to 75 mph, and since it has immediate pick up, can reach higher speeds quicker- a plus at the on ramps. Other advantage of the NmG over other electric cars is the size and weight. When you try to take a standard car that seats 4, you need more batteries, more power, all adding more weight and thus needing more power…. The simple idea of a small commuter car makes it extra efficient. It can plug right into the household electric to charge. Most electric cars being developed operate on 220 and need a converter box to charge up. That converter is expensive and neither your utility or your car salesman want to pay for it. Besides, a few of these big cars means adding huge capacity to the existing infrastructure. If all households adopted one NmG, about 80% could easily be charged at night on a daily basis without any extra infrastructure being necessary.
Lastly, Myers Motors is good for the economy. They are all built in Ohio. They use local talent to build their cars. Through efficienies and economies of scale, they have managed to get the sales cost down from about $30K to $23K. The largest cost of any electric vehicle is in the batteries and as we see advancements in batteries, we can expect that price to drop even further. Myers has a commitment to keeping production right here in the US. When they analyzed the cost of shipping the finished cars from China, they realized they could produce them for the same cost right here, and put Americans back to work.
Susie Sharp shows off the NmG from Myers Motors
You can order your NmG or DUO from Myers Motors here. The only question left is what color do you want? They have 3 shades of purple.
Great post, Robert. I’m always intrigued with these emerging (and arrived) technologies. One portion of the article struck me as interesting – the electricity used to power the car. In my mind, there are a couple ways to make this genration “green”, both expensive & cost-effective.
Probably the most expensive way would be for each car owner to have their own small scale on-site renewable electricity technology. Solar PV & small scale wind would probably be difficult for someone to handle financially, especially after investing $23k in the car.
The most cost effective way for green power to be available to most Americans would be the implementation of a national Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard that would require major utilities to source an increasing percentage of their energy portfolio from renewable technologies. This method exists in around 25 or so states currently. Obviously, the utilities would need to raise their rates to accomodate for additional investments in renewable technologies. Coupling this strategy with energy efficiency could limit any potential increase in utility costs to homeowners.
Taking all this into account, products like the NMG make me very excited for the future. Designing products that run solely on electricity affords us the flexibility of meeting electricity demand with the most appropriate renewable technology of the specific region. Now we just need all of the states to implement Renewable Portfolio Standards to start inching toward zero carbon.
I had always thought that sun drenched southern CA would be an ideal testing ground for solar generated electric cars. Apparently there is still not enough efficiency. The solar panels needed to power a car are as big as a trailer. It will happen, though and when you consider light and small like these babies are, and a solar panel recharge station in the lot and commuters could change the air quality of LA or Las Vegas. Why not a car that has an attached wind turbine and the power could be generated by the wind of the movement of the car? I am glad to see that we have renewable energy mandates in Ohio that are stepped for the coming decade, but until we make those numbers actual and not by RECs we have a long way to go. What excites me overall is the return to these technology ideas that were all abandoned in the 80s. We had solar panels on the White House when Carte was in office, but progress in these areas was abandoned for other pursuits. I am glad we are all moving in the right direction again. Carbon neutral is only one component, the dependence on fossil fuels is the other. I just watched Crude, the movie and what we have done to chase that dragon makes me sick. We can tackle the energy problem, and we can also try and fix the transgressions of the past.
I jsut wonder where we would be had we not had cheap oil for the last 20 years of the 20th century.
Robert, thank you for including the picture of me in the vehicle. I’m not a small woman yet I fit comfortably and felt secure. The next person to sit in it was 6’2″ and he said he fit comfortably. The dashboard was simple and clear. There was plenty of room in the trunk area for a few bags of groceries and a briefcase. It is supposed to be able to achieve a speed of 75 mph.
Four of them will fit in a standard parking space. Dana Myers showed pictures of one that had been rear ended on the freeway after pulling over to stop for an emergency vehicle. It was rear-ended my a Mercedes sedan. Damage to the sedan was significant; the NmG showed only a scratch and the occupant was uninjured.
The retail on the one occupant vehicle was less that $25,000. Myers Motors, located in Tallmadge, Ohio, is in the process of producing a 2 occupant vehicle called the Duo.
It is exciting to have companies like this in Ohio. Thanks to TEDxCLE 2010 for the opportunity to showcase!
Sincerely,
Susie Sharp
Cleveland, Ohio
Thanks again for the photos, Susie!