Motorola built a 428hp electric corvette in 1993
Discussion
This is interesting!
I knew that Motorola did do some interesting automotive stuff in the 90s. They were working on a microprocessor controlled CVT gearbox which gave massive performance and mpg gains, using a K-Series engined Rover as a mule but never found out what happened to that.
But this is incredible - they built a running prototype 1987 Chevy Corvette from in 1993 with a 428hp drivetrain.
Great article here from the Drive:
https://www.thedrive.com/culture/we-found-motorola...
The drive unit under the bonnet looks like it has a family resemblance to the AC Propulsion drive unit developed before Tesla swallowed them up in the late 2000s.
Corvette:
MiniE with AC propulsion AC-150 controller:
I do wonder if some of the Motorola team left to join AC_Propulsion which founded in 1992?
Going down the rabbit hole, it is amazing how much work was being done into EVs in the early 90s, with some very familiar discussions still going on in this summary of a Department of Energy EV and hybrid conference in 1992. (Warning very geeky historically and technically!)
[url] https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/7001738[url]
I knew that Motorola did do some interesting automotive stuff in the 90s. They were working on a microprocessor controlled CVT gearbox which gave massive performance and mpg gains, using a K-Series engined Rover as a mule but never found out what happened to that.
But this is incredible - they built a running prototype 1987 Chevy Corvette from in 1993 with a 428hp drivetrain.
Great article here from the Drive:
https://www.thedrive.com/culture/we-found-motorola...
The drive unit under the bonnet looks like it has a family resemblance to the AC Propulsion drive unit developed before Tesla swallowed them up in the late 2000s.
Corvette:
MiniE with AC propulsion AC-150 controller:
I do wonder if some of the Motorola team left to join AC_Propulsion which founded in 1992?
Going down the rabbit hole, it is amazing how much work was being done into EVs in the early 90s, with some very familiar discussions still going on in this summary of a Department of Energy EV and hybrid conference in 1992. (Warning very geeky historically and technically!)
[url] https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/7001738[url]
Edited by Spunagain on Saturday 17th September 08:04 to add more guukery
Edited by Spunagain on Saturday 17th September 08:15
I first drove an EV 11 years before this Corvette.
OK, it was a forklift.
Point being, 20th Century battery tech was the problem, and there was really no big deal in making a 'car' around the batteries which were available at the time.
In those days, fuel cell tech was available, albeit comically expensive as today, but it would have been technically 'not hard' to make a fuel cell/nicad hybrid.
But maybe the bigger point is, in the early 90s, electricity in most places was a pretty dirty product, in the UK, it mostly came from coal, rendering a BEV less green than petrol so the whole thing would have been pointless from a CO2 perspective, even if people had accepted the MMGW/CO2 relationship at the time.
I spent most of the money I earned driving the forklift on a 2-stroke motorbike, so not a great contribution to environmentalism on the whole.
OTOH, a battery Corvette could be fun on a dragstrip, and the Forklift was fun too.
Happy days, good music, cheap beer.......................
OK, it was a forklift.
Point being, 20th Century battery tech was the problem, and there was really no big deal in making a 'car' around the batteries which were available at the time.
In those days, fuel cell tech was available, albeit comically expensive as today, but it would have been technically 'not hard' to make a fuel cell/nicad hybrid.
But maybe the bigger point is, in the early 90s, electricity in most places was a pretty dirty product, in the UK, it mostly came from coal, rendering a BEV less green than petrol so the whole thing would have been pointless from a CO2 perspective, even if people had accepted the MMGW/CO2 relationship at the time.
I spent most of the money I earned driving the forklift on a 2-stroke motorbike, so not a great contribution to environmentalism on the whole.
OTOH, a battery Corvette could be fun on a dragstrip, and the Forklift was fun too.
Happy days, good music, cheap beer.......................
Spunagain said:
This is interesting!
I knew that Motorola did do some interesting automotive stuff in the 90s. They were working on a microprocessor controlled CVT gearbox which gave massive performance and mpg gains, using a K-Series engined Rover as a mule but never found out what happened to that.
But this is incredible - they built a running prototype 1987 Chevy Corvette from in 1993 with a 428hp drivetrain.
Great article here from the Drive:
https://www.thedrive.com/culture/we-found-motorola...
The drive unit under the bonnet looks like it has a family resemblance to the AC Propulsion drive unit developed before Tesla swallowed them up in the late 2000s.
Corvette:
MiniE with AC propulsion AC-150 controller:
I do wonder if some of the Motorola team left to join AC_Propulsion which founded in 1992?
Going down the rabbit hole, it is amazing how much work was being done into EVs in the early 90s, with some very familiar discussions still going on in this summary of a Department of Energy EV and hybrid conference in 1992. (Warning very geeky historically and technically!)
[url] https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/7001738[url]
Very cool. I love old idiosyncrasies such as this that get unearthed every so often. Could be very valuable in the future, as it’s kind of an EV-genesis. I wonder what it’d have been like to driveI knew that Motorola did do some interesting automotive stuff in the 90s. They were working on a microprocessor controlled CVT gearbox which gave massive performance and mpg gains, using a K-Series engined Rover as a mule but never found out what happened to that.
But this is incredible - they built a running prototype 1987 Chevy Corvette from in 1993 with a 428hp drivetrain.
Great article here from the Drive:
https://www.thedrive.com/culture/we-found-motorola...
The drive unit under the bonnet looks like it has a family resemblance to the AC Propulsion drive unit developed before Tesla swallowed them up in the late 2000s.
Corvette:
MiniE with AC propulsion AC-150 controller:
I do wonder if some of the Motorola team left to join AC_Propulsion which founded in 1992?
Going down the rabbit hole, it is amazing how much work was being done into EVs in the early 90s, with some very familiar discussions still going on in this summary of a Department of Energy EV and hybrid conference in 1992. (Warning very geeky historically and technically!)
[url] https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/7001738[url]
Edited by Spunagain on Saturday 17th September 08:04 to add more guukery
Edited by Spunagain on Saturday 17th September 08:15
OutInTheShed said:
I first drove an EV 11 years before this Corvette.
OK, it was a forklift.
Point being, 20th Century battery tech was the problem, and there was really no big deal in making a 'car' around the batteries which were available at the time.
In those days, fuel cell tech was available, albeit comically expensive as today, but it would have been technically 'not hard' to make a fuel cell/nicad hybrid.
But maybe the bigger point is, in the early 90s, electricity in most places was a pretty dirty product, in the UK, it mostly came from coal, rendering a BEV less green than petrol so the whole thing would have been pointless from a CO2 perspective, even if people had accepted the MMGW/CO2 relationship at the time.
I spent most of the money I earned driving the forklift on a 2-stroke motorbike, so not a great contribution to environmentalism on the whole.
OTOH, a battery Corvette could be fun on a dragstrip, and the Forklift was fun too.
Happy days, good music, cheap beer.......................
Weird, slightly mean spirited reply, but okOK, it was a forklift.
Point being, 20th Century battery tech was the problem, and there was really no big deal in making a 'car' around the batteries which were available at the time.
In those days, fuel cell tech was available, albeit comically expensive as today, but it would have been technically 'not hard' to make a fuel cell/nicad hybrid.
But maybe the bigger point is, in the early 90s, electricity in most places was a pretty dirty product, in the UK, it mostly came from coal, rendering a BEV less green than petrol so the whole thing would have been pointless from a CO2 perspective, even if people had accepted the MMGW/CO2 relationship at the time.
I spent most of the money I earned driving the forklift on a 2-stroke motorbike, so not a great contribution to environmentalism on the whole.
OTOH, a battery Corvette could be fun on a dragstrip, and the Forklift was fun too.
Happy days, good music, cheap beer.......................
georgeyboy12345 said:
Very cool. I love old idiosyncrasies such as this that get unearthed every so often. Could be very valuable in the future, as it’s kind of an EV-genesis. I wonder what it’d have been like to drive
It would be nice to know why Motorola were motivated to build this.My guess is that it would not have been anything to do with the 'genesis' of BEV cars as we know them today.
Probably more to do with showcasing Motorola's semiconductor capabilities?
But they appear to never have done anything with it?
There is a lot of twaddle on the 'net about this car, but it isn't really a prototype BEV, there is no logical path from building this one-off car to producing BEVs which would be marketable. Simply as a paper engineering exercise, it's obvious that a car with 90s batteries in it will be characterised by the energy density of its cells. Whether it's this thing, or a Sinclair C5, a forklift or a milkfloat, or any number of various electric 'vehicles' which were around last century, if you only had lead-acid or Nicad or a few other cell types, a few lines on a spreadsheet will tell you what was possible.
There were a few electric dragsters, electric go-karts of course.
The first commercial Lithium cells appeared in the early 90s, I don't believe Motorola were players in that game?
Maybe they were? If this car is the first to have 'modern' cells in it, then that would be a real milestone, but I think we'd have heard about it before.
It could be one of those apprentice projects never intended to produce anything commercial, like the solar powered 'cars'?
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