Interview with Ingo Valentin of Valentin Technologies

Episode 12 of the X Prize Cars Podcast is live! It contains an interview with Ingo Valentin of Valentin Technologies (13 minutes, download MP3), conducted on March 21st 2008 at the New York Auto Show. See also: Valentin Tech Ingo Car Page, AXP blurb, tagged posts from this site.

Notes:
- he is the only member of the team so far
- has patents on hydraulic drive train
- has done detailed simulations and models to prove the efficiency of his concept
- efficiency comes from: i) small, constant speed/power ICE, ii) very efficient hydrostatic drive train with 100% regenerative braking, iii) low weight, iv) improved aerodynamics due to less need for cooling
- mainstream class, 4 wheels 5 seats, totally new car (not retrofit), but he plans to outsource the coach part
- found some funding from Switzerland for simulation, but needs $5-6M more for the whole project. Want to find five $1M angel investors.