Commuter Cars Corp. Tango

By Eric Boyd on February 28, 2008 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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Commuter Cars,

Tango

This skinny little car made waves a few years ago when George Clooney bought the first one, but we haven't heard much since. Apparently they had some trouble at the first factory and had to find second one, and it wasn't until just recently that they have been able to make more. In terms of the Automotive X Prize, they have a racing car here, but it only goes 60 miles on a charge, and that is going to be crippling. The website makes mention of a possible li-ion battery for it, which would give the car a 200 miles range: that might be sufficient to give the Tango a shot at winning the Alternative Class race. Check out our new Commuter Cars Corp Tango PDF page, or read on for the same information.

Commuter Cars Corp: Tango

Short Description: Narrow EV, 2 tandem seats
Availability & Cost: T600 kit car, $108k, pre-orders

Background and Details

Designed by Rick Woodbury and Son, in the late 90s
The first prototype was shown at EVS17 in 2002
First customer: T600 sold to George Clooney in Q4 2005
As of April 2006, they had preorders for 50 more, but only five are for the existing T600 (other versions are cheaper, with less performance, but have yet to be designed)
Electric air conditioning (12kW) and heating (3kW)
They have an excellent Cost per Mile table which includes the costs of replacing the batteries - very educational.
Racing seatbelts - 4 point harness
Car is built around a roll cage
The batteries are very low in the car, giving it excellent stability (a 5-star NHTSA rating) despite its narrowness
The Tango should be a strong competitor for the Alternative Class Automotive X Prize race - except for their range limitation. Maybe they will upgrade the batteries?
References: Commuter Cars Gallery CostPerMile Wikipedia EVWorld_VideoInterview CarType

Vehicle Stats

MPGe	189 MPGe (electricity)
Weight	3000 lbs
L x W x H (ft)	8.5 x 3.25 x 5
HP	? 600 kW peak-output from controller
0-60 MPH	4 seconds
Top Speed	130 MPH
Range	60 miles (lead-acid)
Battery Info	lead-acid 2000 lbs
Charge Time	overnight (110V) 3h (220V) 10 min. to 80% (200 amp)
Motor	2 * DC electric motors, >1,000 ft-lbs torque
Cd x Frontal Area	<? x ? ft^2

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1 Comments

frustrated driver said:

Take a billion from the Detroit Bailout
I went to the commuter cars website. They solve a lot of problems with one vehicle. Double Highway Capacity, Double Parking, No more imported oil. No pollution. All this in one car.

The company says that with 50 million in capital they can go into production and produce low cost vehicles. I wonder what they would do with a billion. I know Detroit is just going to burn the money. I say give everyone of the electric car companies a billion.

March 11, 2009 5:13 AM