There have been a number of relatively unknown manufacturers that have burst on to the scene in recent years with various green car concepts – from Tesla to BYD to the Lightning Car Company. Now you can add another name to that list – Bright Automotive.
The company is building a plug-in hybrid vehicle that aims to achieve 100 miles a gallon while remaining economically priced. The key to its performance is weight reduction with CEO John Waters claiming that the battery pack could be made 40 per cent smaller than those in similar plug-ins.
The battery can be slimmed down thanks to a focus on aerodynamics, rolling resistance and new construction materials. With a reduction in wind resistance and weight, the engineers have reduced the amount of work the vehicle has to do to get up to the right speeds.
While Bright faces many challenges including raising capital and moving from producing prototypes to commercial vehicles, Waters is confident it can produce success thanks to the experience it has in stock – he has worked on batteries for the GM EV1 and worked at Ener1, which makes lithium-ion batteries.
Waters is convinced that plug-in hybrid cars are the future pointing out that a one cent increase in the price of fuel raises the operating costs of the Federal Government by $8million.
The company has targeted the Electronic Vehicle Show in Stavanger, Norway as its opportunity to unveil a commercial prototype that is capable of travelling for 30 miles on batteries before the petrol engine is used. With the electric and gas engine combined the car will have a range of 400 miles.
