Vision Motors and Its Insights into the Electric Vehicle Market

Vision Motors is in the process of bringing us on board to do some marketing work for them.  This will truly be a labor of love; I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the task of promoting a company with a terrific product that, I believe, will essentially sell itself. 

I developed an instant affinity for the company’s CEO, Brooks Agnew, when I first met him in Charlotte, NC last year.  He’s sharp, likeable, treats people well, and carries himself with a bearing of success.  It’s always best to work with people that you personally respect and admire. 

Here’s a paper he just sent me that explains the company’s approach.  I think readers will find it quite informative about the nature of the electric vehicle market and the direction that he (and I) believe it will be taking. 

Catching up with Vision Motor Cars

(By Staff)

 Two years ago, VMC founders introduced their all electric pickup truck called the Everest.  Once poised to begin production the Spring of 2010 from their Williamsburg, Kentucky plant utilizing what everyone thought was going to be strong government support for electric vehicles, VMC had to make a change in plans.  The DOE’s now well-known policy that small business has no business building electric vehicles forced VMC to find other sources of funding.  You would think that with 150 thousand orders for their vehicles that it wouldn’t take long to find a solid source of funding, but as the independent electric car makers of American unanimously testify, the DOE’s commitment to electric vehicles turned out to be a whole lot of clucking without seeing any eggs.  There now appears to be financial light at the end of the tunnel for VMC, and none too soon for the American automobile consumer.  VMC is hopeful there are other independent electric car makers who are able to negotiate past the carnival of political and financial opportunists and get their vehicles to the American market.

Common sense has rarely been a design philosophy in the automotive industry.  Detroit’s relentless development horsepower is like bringing thoroughbred racehorses to a petting zoo.  The vast majority of production vehicles shading showrooms all over the world are quite capable of burning rubber past every traffic law on the books before getting out of second gear.  While required to comply with federal safety standards crafted for collisions of less than 35 miles an hour, they’re spending billions to build cars that go zero to one hundred to zero in less than 20 seconds.

 Drivers overcome by the temptation to press the skinny pedal hard enough to take advantage of Detroit’s adrenalin infused fuel management programs have been almost immediately hammered by a revenue-hungry law enforcement community.  And after painfully paying the judge, the insurance companies will come along and spank that rash for another couple of years.  Does it make any sense to design TV commercials featuring a tire-smoking, sideways drifting sedan to a buyer who can’t afford to pay their kid’s tuition because of high fuel prices?  No.  It doesn’t.  Maybe this is why the Detroit buggy whip makers needed a $40 billion bailout that was never repaid to the taxpayers.

High-horsepower, internal combustion engines aren’t wanted by American consumers anymore.  It isn’t safety that they’re thinking about.  It’s their wallets.  And while idling police cruisers lurk in the hiding places along the highway, the revenue from citing drivers is so low that homeowners are facing higher taxes to come up with the shortfall.  People are driving the speed limit, and it’s costing Detroit a fortune. 

There are other American budgetary decisions that are changing the market.  Fuel prices have finally become so painful, that American consumers are looking for alternatives.  No, they’re not ready for public transportation.  They are, however, ready for electric cars.

That’s precisely why Vision Motor Cars refused to give up.  Seasoned automotive engineering experts inside VMC have designed an affordable electric vehicle that drives and costs the same as a gasoline-powered vehicle.  Most electric vehicles are like golf carts with doors.  Their solid light-duty pickup truck has proven it can work hard day after day hauling payloads of up to one thousand pounds and yet can achieve ranges of one hundred miles or more on a single charge.  Their Omni-Charge^tm system recharges 100% recyclable batteries six ways, including being able to plug into any available source of electricity or recharging from sunlight.

VMC has an open-door policy to any innovation in energy storage, generation, and management.  They have crafted a new product develop strategy that allows leading edge technology to get into the car in months, not years.  While Detroit’s designs are leftovers from five-year-old DOE grant programs, VMC’s designs are up to the minute.  VMC places a lifetime warranty on their drive train.  There are no belts, hoses, water, oil, and only a few moving parts which make the annual maintenance costs a fraction of those of other electric vehicles.  The motors are designed to last for 50 years.  Their digital throttle allows complete programmability for the operation of the vehicle.  That means the driver can configure their vehicle any way they like.  It’s freedom to perform.  It’s freedom from shoveling the planet into the gas tank and burning it.  It’s freedom.

VMC is targeting the average consumer with designs that makes sense and look good.  VMC’s website traffic was so high it crashed GoDaddy’s servers with their  first announcement on national radio.  While the major car makers are trying to ensnare consumers with zero margin vehicles and a pay-to-drive charging grid revenue model, VMC provides the freedom to recharge anywhere, anytime, and by whatever means the consumer desires.

The Company’s founder, Brooks Agnew, believes that when consumers are provided an affordable electric vehicle that soothes the withdrawal from gasoline addiction with equivalent performance, they will drive away from the showroom happy.  He also believes the market is so large that independent electric car makers should stop eating each other’s young and work together to develop this supply chain that is traditionally not automotive.  VMC’s confident it will take ten major manufacturers to even scratch the surface of the electric vehicle market, but he cautions that people will not pay to charge, and they will not pay the equivalent of five or ten year’s worth of gasoline in price of the car.  Working Americans will be looking for an excuse to leave the showroom if the price exceeds $25,000. 

VMC’s Plug-and-Play Vehicle^© may be the perfect splash in a pool full of gasoline powered sharks.  And should VMC buyers decide to go after that skinny pedal, at least they’ll have the extra money to pay for playing.  Drive electric.