A friend and I over the last two years had been working on a custom build at his shop. I designed an aluminum body for my custom-built KMX-framed velomobile until I came to the conclusion that it was going to be too heavy for my application. We decided to build a car off of my design.
Semi-recent photos:
Earlier photos:
Regarding putting this together, my friend did the vast majority of the work, while he was generous enough to allot me some shop space for me to work on my velomobile project. This car is not yet driveable, as we're still waiting on components to arrive. For the prototype, it uses a 1500W 5T wind front-mounted Leafbike motor in the rear wheel, and 19" motorcycle wheels all around, with a 250A Kelly controller. The front suspension is from a Yamaha ATV. The plan is to run it with a 72V or higher battery pack. It is not expected to perform fast, perhaps golf cart-like acceleration with a 60 mph top speed. 60 mph in this may end up being scary on the first design iteration. We expect this first prototype to end up with a CdA around 0.3 m^2 while weighing in around 200 lbs ready to drive(just add driver), and as a result only consume around 50 wh/mi when it is driveable. The ones after this will be much more efficient.
This platform is intended to spawn both car and velomobile designs from us once we know what we are doing. Even though this vehicle is not a velomobile, the vehicle itself was inspired by velomobiles, and the goal is to get mass and drag figures as close to that of a velomobile as possible while allowing safe and stable operation at highway speeds.
Once all the bugs are worked out, the idea is to build it into an all-wheel-drive 3-wheeler that makes more than 1 horsepower per pound of vehicle weight using a hub motor in each wheel with its own controller and slip detection system. That may not happen until the 2nd or 3rd design iteration. If we can keep the chassis light enough, this performance goal will be doable with ebike motors/controllers, further helping to keep the weight down. I like to imagine such a vehicle ending up with a top speed around 100-120 mph, reaching it from a standstill within 4-5 seconds at full throttle. The technology to build something like this has been around for more than 5 years now, and is only getting better.