OFF THE WIRE
SAN FRANCISCO — Zipping around on a motorcycle can be fun, but being in a
downpour or an accident on one is not. Driving a car is safer and more
comfortable, but traffic and parking can be annoying.
What if you got
rid of the bad parts of both?
You might end up with something like the
C-1, an electric motorcycle that looks as if it came out of the movie “Tron.”
For protection, the bike is encased in a metal shell, and it is controlled like
a car, with a steering wheel and foot pedals. Two big gyroscopes under the floor
are designed to keep it from tipping over, even when a car hits it from the
side. The C-1’s top speed is 120 miles an hour, and it can travel 200 miles on a
full charge.
A small start-up called Lit Motors is developing the C-1 in
a three-story warehouse here. Its 33-year-old chief executive, Daniel Kim, was
tinkering with a biodiesel sport utility vehicle eight years ago when a
500-pound chassis nearly crushed him. The experience got him thinking about
cutting out the bulk.
“Most people drive alone,” Mr. Kim said in an
interview. “Why not cut the car in half? I was really into bicycles at that time
and I thought, Why can’t we have the efficiency of a bicycle and motorcycle but
all the amenities of a car?”
Fully electric vehicles have long been a
dream among environmentalists and technologists, but companies have found it
hard to deliver affordable and practical vehicles to the mass market. One of the
biggest names in this field is Tesla Motors, which makes expensive sports cars
and has had trouble increasing manufacturing.
But Lit Motors, which has
just 10 people on staff, thinks it can bring the benefits of an electric vehicle
even to those who aren’t rich. Mr. Kim says his motorcycle will be money-saving,
safe to drive and simple to build.
The main culprit in the high price of
electric vehicles is the battery, said Dan Sperling, a professor of civil
engineering and environmental science and policy at the University of
California, Davis and director of its Institute of Transportation Studies.
Unlike computer chips and digital storage, which have improved rapidly while
dropping in price, battery technology has made slow progress, he said, so
vehicle batteries are still bulky and pricey.
The other challenge, Dr.
Sperling said, is that most people are not ready to embrace electric vehicles
yet. Consumers could be nervous about the reliability and maintenance of such an
expensive purchase — buggy software, for example, could lead to more serious
consequences than it would on something like a smartphone. That’s why many auto
companies have stuck to making hybrid vehicles, which use both gas and
electricity and are more affordable, easier to produce and more familiar to
drivers.
“It’s not like when you buy an iPhone and you throw it out or
don’t use it as much when it gets old,” Dr. Sperling said. “Unlike an iPhone or
Windows system, it can’t crash — it has to perform with high reliability all the
time.”
Mr. Kim, who dropped out of Reed College and the University of
California, Berkeley and later studied industrial design at the Rhode Island
School of Design, has plans to overcome those obstacles. The motorcycle is
lighter than a car so its batteries can be smaller and cheaper. And to improve
reliability, the system is equipped with more components than it actually needs,
Mr. Kim said.
The C-1’s secret weapons are the gyroscopes that allow it
to balance itself, similar to the approach used in the Segway scooter. In a
video, the company shows the bike remaining upright as a car yanks it from the
side. Only one gyroscope is needed to maintain balance, but there are always two
running; each gyroscope has redundant computer chips, controllers and sensors,
so if any one of those fails, there are extras to back it up.
The bike
is made up of 2,200 parts, or one-tenth the number in the average car, which
should make it easier to mass-produce, Mr. Kim said. He plans to start
manufacturing the motorcycle in the United States.
There are two main
target markets for the vehicle, said Ryan James, chief marketing officer for Lit
Motors: motorcyclists between 45 and 60 years old who are concerned about safety
but don’t want to give up their two-wheeler and younger commuters who live in
urban or suburban areas where driving a car can be a bother or feel wasteful.
Still, Mr. Kim’s start-up, which is on a hiring spree, faces some tough
hurdles. So far it has raised just $720,000 from early investors and another
$80,000 from family and friends. It will have to get people to buy a vehicle
they haven’t had a chance to drive or even see in real life — and spend some
serious money on it. Each motorcycle will cost $24,000 for the first production
run of 1,000 in 2014, Mr. Kim said, and he hopes to bring the price down to
$14,000 by around 2016, putting it in the range of a nice Ducati motorcycle or
an entry-level car like a Honda Fit.
The company is already taking early
orders and down payments on its Web site. About 250 people have signed up.
Mr. Kim said the company plans to team up with car dealerships in
California, San Francisco and Los Angeles, in addition to selling the bikes
online. And next summer, Mr. James will be driving an early version of the
electric motorcycle to college campuses and conventions to show it to people and
let them test-drive it. The company is also working on smartphone apps so C-1
owners can be part of their own social network.
Mr. Kim has his
doubters. Kevin See, an analyst with Lux Research, which studies electric
vehicles and alternative energy, said the motorcycle might appeal only to a
small niche, and the initial price tag would be much higher than most people
were willing to pay for a two-wheel vehicle. There are also plenty of more
affordable vehicles on the market that perform well and already have a trusted
brand, he said.
“It’s very tough to roll out a vehicle of any kind with
such a significant price premium versus an incumbent,” he said. Mr. See said the
C-1 reminded him of Aptera Motors, a start-up that tried to sell a futuristic
car but went out of business in December. (Steve Fambro, a founder of Aptera, is
listed as one of Lit’s technical advisers.)
Dr. Sperling of the
University of California said the biggest challenge for Mr. Kim would be finding
buyers for the vehicle and then finding the means to deliver it.
“He’s
got some clever ideas, and it really comes down to questions that all these
companies face, and that is can they find a market for the product, and can they
actually do the manufacturing in an efficient and effective way?” Dr. Sperling
said.
Still, he said he was optimistic about the company’s chances.
“There are people who want to do something to save the world, make a
contribution to it, do something both in terms of energy and climate,” he said.
“If it’s cool and good for the world, you’ve got a winner.”
October 10,
2012
New York Times
By BRIAN X. CHEN
