The Zing! (Custom-built prototype hybrid tadpole trike) - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

NeilBlanchard · 12-20-2011, 12:32 AM

I'm glad to come across another enterprising person who has built a very efficient car, Ken Fry; who has a working "proof of concept" prototype for The Zing!

A great interview by a budding reporter / saleman:

Ken was going to the X-Prize, but didn't for various reasons. Here's more info on The Zing! Ken Fry driving it:

Order a Zing!
Zing! News
The Zing! - ApteraForum.com - Unofficial Aptera Car Forum

Frank Lee · 12-20-2011, 01:28 AM

kach22i · 12-20-2011, 12:54 PM

Cool looking, but I would want something taller to be seen in daily traffic, and a back seat would be nice too.

NeilBlanchard · 12-20-2011, 01:48 PM

This is the "proof of concept" prototype -- the intent is for the production version to be 2 seats in tandem. Ken Fry mentions on the Aptera thread that they are mocking up the 2-seat chassis now. It will be ~2' longer and ~5" taller, which is still pretty compact.

The intention is for the production version to have a 7.2kWh lithium pack which will have a maximum electric-only range of ~70 miles and about 40 miles for everyday driving. Then the genset starts up and you can keep driving.

JasonG · 12-20-2011, 04:04 PM

Sweet !

Frank Lee · 12-20-2011, 05:23 PM

Still not a fan of the gen-set idea but oh well. My POV on it is, when I go out of what would be an attainable electric-only range, I really go out of it, so the bulk of the trip would be on gen-set power, which I think is kinda dumb. It boils down to usage patterns and cost and complexity of putting the ICE power to the ground vs sticking a gen-set in there.

mcrews · 12-20-2011, 08:59 PM

nice design!

cfg83 · 12-20-2011, 09:51 PM

Frank -

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Still not a fan of the gen-set idea but oh well. My POV on it is, when I go out of what would be an attainable electric-only range, I really go out of it, so the bulk of the trip would be on gen-set power, which I think is kinda dumb. It boils down to usage patterns and cost and complexity of putting the ICE power to the ground vs sticking a gen-set in there.

Is there a lesson-learned here from Aptera, aka DO THE ICE first?!?! That way they'd have something on the road ASAP and would be able to test the rest of the components under real-world conditions.

CarloSW2

NeilBlanchard · 12-20-2011, 10:10 PM

Ken Fry seems to know what he is doing on the drivetrain. The genset in The Zing! weighs 49 pounds, plus a little more for the fuel tank. The engine he has in the POC is 25% efficient, and I think he said they will get ~32% efficiency in the production units.

See post #3: The Zing! - ApteraForum.com - Unofficial Aptera Car Forum with more info throughout the thread.

Frank Lee · 12-21-2011, 01:13 AM

The engine might be 32% but it's putting the power to the ground via generator then battery then electric motor then transmission(?) then wheel vs engine/trans/wheel. I could get behind a gen-set strategy if the usage for it was, say, just to get a tiny bit beyond how far electric only would go, like if an EV could go 70 miles on a nice warm day but now it's winter and rolling and air resistances are way up and you're headed into a vicious headwind on your 70 mile trip so you need a little help on the tail end, occasionally.

For me, if I'm gonna go somewhere out of town, I transition from a few miles of in-town puttering around, to 100-350 miles one way trips. Batteries ain't gonna cut it and since I like to go straight through, I won't plan on stopping somewhere for a recharge either. For that putting the ICE power to the wheels seems like a no-brainer.