EnVironmental Transportation Solutions, based out of Grosse Pointe Woods, has developed a proof-of-concept urban-based low-speed electric vehicle ready for line production. The EcoV is street-legal at 25 mph on surface streets with speeds limits less than 35 mph and has a range of 25-40 miles fully charged. President Richard Marks drives his to and from meetings in Detroit for “less than 50 cents of electricity.”
Marks has developed a partnership with Detroit Chassis, a minority-owned assembly plant located on Detroit's East Side, and anticipates that production of the vehicles would add 200 jobs to the plant and an additional 600 spin-off jobs with parts suppliers, in logistics and in the service industry.
Currently, there are similar vehicles in production—including the Chrysler Gem—but their golf cart-like limitations limit their usage to restricted-access roads like those at golf courses and resorts. However, Marks calls the EcoV “a new paradime” in electric vehicle design and envisions it as “a daily driver” that will make its owner “feel comfortable and safe” on urban streets.
Marks also points out that he and his partners all come to the EcoV with automotive engineering backgrounds—he spent 35 years in the industry including five years with GM's electric vehicle program. He believes that vehicles like the EcoV are “the future of transportation” and that the entire industry is eventually going to have to shift towards the technology.
Production will require the vehicle to evolve from its current proof-of-concept incarnation and to the actual production vehicle. He says that it will be “very rugged, built primarily with off-the-shelf current production technology auto parts.” To get new ideas for the production vehicle, EcoV has been working with CCS's Transportation Design program to get “great, fresh new ideas” from students.
EcoV is currently searching for start-up capital to get the vehicle into production and is busy marketing the vehicle to commercial fleets like the United States Postal Service, University of Michigan's Public Safety Department and Detroit's Municipal Parking Department. Upon funding, the vehicle can be put into production in nine months and the sale of just 1,050 units in the first year will put the company into the black.
Source: Richard Marks, EnVironmental Transportation Solutions
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
Photograph courtesy E.T.S.
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