We have all seen the amazing Tesla, it is a beautiful electric car that has some huge off the line power. When I first saw the Tango I thought it was s joke, but on second glance this Tango has some surprising power hiding under that strange body style. This car is half the size of a normal car but has faster acceleration than the Tesla roadster! Even though the tires are tiny have a look at how well it handles piles of snow. I think the main advantage it has in the snow is the weight from the lead acid battery pack.
"As far as performance goes, the Tango is no slouch. Since electric cars–especially small ones–are generally thought to be slow and weak performers we set out to blow some minds by designing the Tango to accelerate through the standing 1/4 mile in 12 seconds at over 120 mph and travel from 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds."
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way too expensive
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Way too ugly.
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Interesting, but if you took a turn at 120mph, that thing would flip pretty darn easily, I’d bet. These types of tiny, efficient cars are catching on really well in places like Japan, but definately not so much here in the states.
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Nice to see work on an electric car that could feasibly used in northern Canada. I’d be interested in a full-size one. (I could never afford it, but I’d still be interested…)
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I’d buy one if I had a George Clooney bank balance! I’ve got an electric bike and it’s a lot of fun to ride, especially being able to get up the hills where I live (they don’t call it the 5 Valleys for nothing)
I wonder how long we have to wait until someone hacks a Playstation controller into an electric car? “hey this is just like a computer game”… like the scene in MIIB
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I wonder if you could put a plow, or a snowblower on the front of it, and sell it to cities to clear the sidewalks.
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I wish I would have thought of turning a forklift into a sports car.
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That has to be the strangest car I have ever seen, don’t think I would be rushing out to get one its a bit pricey.
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Hmmm, 12 second quarter miles at 120 mph, go-cart handling, and Nascar safety. Oh, and plows snow. If it was $10,000, it would sell like hotcakes. Of course, it’s getting hard to even sell hotcakes these days…
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Although the car is interesting, and has good specs, the car will not sell particularly well. Forget about distance limitations and other short comings of the electric car except for one: most electric cars are ugly as hell. Until the engineer and the designer have good aesthetic taste, the future of electric cars is doomed. There is, however, a shining star in the abysmal sea of ugly cars, the Tesla Roadster. Despite less than optimal handling due to large amounts of lithium ion batteries, the car’s lotus elise exterior is beautiful. People would rather have a ferrari than a ford for two main reasons 1. it performs better and 2. it looks awesome. People would rather have a ford than a ferrari for 2 other reasons 1. the ford is considerably cheaper and 2. the ford will most likely be more gas efficient. So far the Tesla is the best electric car, in my mind, that takes care of these problems. Despite a seemingly large price tag, the Tesla is considerably cheaper than other cars in its multiple categories. The Tesla uses the body of a lotus elise, so therefore it is stylish and interesting to look at. The handling is ok, not perfect, but it can be tuned, and I highly doubt that anyone is going to be driving at 100 mph around tight bends. The Tesla also uses no gas and instead uses electricity from the power grid. One can fill the battery bank of the Tesla for a fraction of the cost of a typical gasoline powered car.
This car may be efficient and powerful, but it is not cheap and it is ugly as hell. The ideas behind it are interesting, but this company seriously needs a better designer. Smaller cars are fine, just don’t make them look like a dog link.
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“way too expensive” – They are working on getting it cheaper. This is basically the ‘luxury’ edition, to be sold to generate capital to make more.
“Interesting, but if you took a turn at 120mph, that thing would flip pretty darn easily, I’d bet. These types of tiny, efficient cars are catching on really well in places like Japan, but definately not so much here in the states.” – With the batteries in the bottom of the car, you would lose traction before the car flips. SUV’s and things flip very easily because of how high they sit on the road. This is very low, making the CG very low, which makes it hard to flip. Also, these are PERFECT for US cities as they would ‘double’ capacity of the roads because two of these cars can be side-by-side and be in the same size of a ‘standard’ car.
Quit thinking in the 19th Century people! Gas is out, Electrons are in!
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Its interesting that you should say “Quit thinking in the 19th century people! Gas is out, Electrons are in!” Alexander you are wrong in one way, and oddly stupid in another. First off, the electric car was one of the first kinds of cars, and was extremely popular in the late 19th century to early 20th century until the gasoline fueled car overtook it after the advent of gasoline and large oil reserves were discovered. Second, electrons are in? Why not just say electric is in? You are not sounding any more intelligent by using the word electron.
In addition, these cars are not necessary for US roads because roads were built with large vehicles in mind. The only reason that the US has such terrible traffic congestion is that it regulates traffic poorly. The traffic lights and directions are much more efficient in places like london, where all sorts of cars share the road.
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@Ben H: Thanks for not actually adding anything positive to the thread. The world thanks you for your non-contribution. 😛
How about you stop worrying about what aesthetics a car has (your posts seem to be centered about looks, rather than real-world performance/test) and start thinking about all the problems that your favorite EV the Tesla has:
1. Cost is sky high
2. Constant failure to meet deadlines
3. Filed for bailout money from the US Government
So… Yeah. It really is great that it LOOKS cool and all… But it really isn’t a solution now is it? Why are the millions of day-to-day drivers driving big cars that seat 6+ people when it is just themselves driving? Why do I need a car that can do 0 to 60 in 4 seconds? You don’t. Flashy sells the initial batch, to get capital. Looks are for suckers. Give me real world data, and the world will buy your product.
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So if you could drive around in a piece of dog poo with wheels, would you do it? Alexander, I’m trying to keep this cordial, but something as stupid as what you just posted should just stay in your head. Looks are everything. Also, I talked about performance in one of my posts. As well as cost, if you took the time to read it, which I’m guessing you did not, then you would know that the price is actually quite low for its performance and amenities. Yes, people are not going to go out and buy a whole shit load of sports cars when there is no money to be loaned for the cars. That’s how the economy works. If the economy was doing fine, and the cars were selling then it would be a different story, but an upstart company is not going to do well if all they start selling are sports cars. Yes, capital in this world is short to come by and they will not be able to constantly meet deadlines. Think before you write something, I mean really think, more than you may think is necessary.
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@Ben H: If looks were everything, then why are Hummers and other Big SUV’s overall sales down since gas went sky-high? Oh, maybe because looks aren’t everything?
Your thinking is what is keeping this economy down. I only buy things that look nice, rather than what I actually need.
I also bet that you don’t buy American cars either. So, not only are you extremely shallow and purchase on looks–but you are part of the problem of why the American auto industry is failing.
Hope you are happy. 😀
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Alexander, first off the Hummer and SUVs are ugly as hell. People buy them for other reasons, chief among them being advertisement. American cars are for the most part, shit. American car companies are the major reason for why people do not buy American cars. In addition you continue to ignore the fact that I did not just talk about looks. I hope you are happy living in your bubble constantly thinking you are correct while completely ignoring everything around you. I’ve been trying to keep this cordial, but you are a dumb cunt. Quite seriously you have no idea what you are talking about and you are going against a design student so do not try and tell me that looks don’t fit into whether a vehicle is worth buying.
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@Ben H.
Considering that you have resorted to calling names like the Internet is some big playground, I think the argument is clearly won by myself. No need to thank me, I don’t need you to validate my greatness.
And I knew that you were either in Marketing or Design, as you focused clearly on looks from the beginning. Nobody in their right mind would have this conversation with themselves:
“Hmm… I could get a car for 50K that will cost me $1 a day to ‘fill up’ but it looks kind of strange… Or I could get a big flashy car that will cost me $50 to fill up every week–costing me a total of $200 a month–that looks like every other car on the road. YEAH! Let me spend more money and look like everybody else at the same time!”
And while I will admit that looks do play a PART of the decision-making process (as indicated by my acknowledgement that the car does look strange, but not ugly.) you are putting waaaay too much emphasis on the looks department. Way too much. The sad fact is that the auto industry would have an ENTIRELY NEW marketing line to spin. They would have hundreds of new ad ideas, as well as designs that would be new and fresh all over again just by changing to electric.
They chose not to. Why? I don’t know. People will only buy the same stuff so many times–that’s why DVD’s are still outselling BR discs because they are ‘good enough’ for most people. Sure, the BR look better–but just like most people don’t need a Bugatti to get back and forth to work, most people think DVD is good enough.
I predict that you will make many engineers go crazy with your designs that are unrealistic. Have fun! 😀
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Yet again, you choose to ignore any comment that contradicts what you are saying. In an argument, one cannot pick and choose and then completely ignore some arguments.
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me interesa el auto electrico quiero saber el costo y todo sobre el motor y las vaterias que utilisa gracias eduardo
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@ Alexander
People dont get BR discs because they dont have a BR player because they ARE TOO EXPENSIVE. which is directly contadictory to your argument. Also u say that looks only play a part, but most people will say that looks play an important part in buying a car, also performance is a big deal too, because people dont just want a box that will get them from point a to point b, they want to have fun, thats why people buy fast cars because they are FUN. and good looking cars are FUN to look at. Also by saying “Electrons are in” makes you sound very stupid because that statement has no meaning whatsoever. i dont know if u knew this but, electricity is the FLOW of electrons, electricity is a CONCEPT or STATE rather than an OBJECT. electricity does not equal electrons. and Ben H looks are NOT the most important thing when looking for a car, i find that how the car drives and feels is the most important, because if you are going to be driving it all the time u will want to have SOME fun in doing so. Thats mostly why people still have gas cars because they are better performance at a lesser cost.
GM makes shitty cars thats all there is to it. they are unreliable, ugly, costly when it comes to performance, and on average too big. GM had their hayday back before the 90s where JAPANESE CARS were unreliable and most imported cars were just plain not as good. but GM has worn out their welcome, they got too cocky and look at them now, just a steaming pile of excrement.
car + good performance + good looks + good price = imported gas powered car
car + bad performance + wierd looks + expensive = average electric car
I personally own a VW gti MKV and its the best car ive ever driven, it looks great handles great, performance is AWESOME and runs on gas
people will buy whatever is the best deal regardless
and by deal i mean the total sum of its qualities and not JUST because of looks and not JUST becuase it runs on “electrons” btw im a electrical engineer, does that make me biased?
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Ugly as hell. (Cleaning vomit form keyboard)