Saba Motors Boasts Light-weight Electric Vehicle Design
My first stop on my trip north (San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver) last week was to EV start-up Saba Motors. I had met CEO Simon Saba a few weeks earlier when he approached me after the talk I gave at the EV Summit in Los Angeles a few weeks ago.
I knew Simon had something interesting to offer the world when he handed me a brick of a substance that was perfectly rigid, but so close to weightless it was eerie. “Wow,” I said, “What is this?”
“Check this out,” he smiled, deliberately ignoring my question, as he built a small bridge out of the bricks, and proceeded to jump up and down on it. “Do you notice that my weight, about 170 pounds, hardly deforms the bridge?”
Simon showed me a sheet of this stuff that weighs 0.2 grams per square centimeter; it’s ridiculously light, yet super-strong. Of course, the implications for electric transportation are obvious, since every hundred pounds removed from a design means significantly better range, and Saba Motors is poised to take advantage of it; at 1750 pounds, their sports car will perform like a little rocket.
Craig,
Generally speaking, there is a little bit of confusion when talking about making lighter vehicles.
In the case of hybrid and electric vehicles, weight factor vs range is very much reduced because all of them have braking energy recovery systems. Even if these systems are not 100% efficient and their performance depend on driving conditions, they still diminish a lot the influence of inertial weight on the range. In my Honda Civic Hybrid, braking energy recovery is responsible for about 25-30% fuel economy, in a frequent start/stop driving environment.
Another thing is we should not exaggerate in cutting vehicles’ weight because we wouldn’t be pleased (to say the least) to see our car blown by the wind or by a larger vehicle passing by.
So, in my opinion, we still need safely heavy vehicles.
Aerodynamics is a much more important factor that affects range, compared to weight, in any kind of vehicle.
In ICE vehicles – yes, weight is a big factor because any braking means wasted fuel.
Corrosion resistance is very important in choosing the right materials for electric vehicles, as we expect them to have a longer life.
I see a better use of this material in aerospace.