KleenSpeed was founded as recently as 2007 to develop pure electric vehicle technology and intellectual property in the NASA Ames Technology Park in Mountain View California. Already it is selling the fastest EV race cars at about 150 mph for 45 minutes, rather like the Mission Motors Mission One pure electric motorcycle made not far away. A 200 mph Formula One version is next in line.
Source West Race Cars and Kleenspeed Technologies
They believe that, when these components and systems are scaled down to power street vehicles, they will yield a 6x increase in drive time and mileage, so, rather like Tesla, they are going to do just that - make a mainstream car.
Kits
In addition, they will begin selling components and kits on their website soon. The immediate opportunity here is seen in the conversion of pre 1990's sports cars. Utility and 3 wheel vehicles are also an interesting immediate market for EV's, they say. A complete gas-to-electric conversion kit will be available for the Mazda Miata. The electric version will have a 100-mile range and performance and weight similar to that of the original car -- for $15,000. They are already selling a universal kit, without batteries, for $4,400.
Mainstream car
The KleenSpeed Project involves a multi purpose three / four wheel prototype. With expertise gained from pushing electric car technology to the limit in race cars, Kleenspeed has plans to develop an affordable electric passenger car for mass production. The goal is to build a $20,000 car by 2011 that can go 200 miles on a charge. Few other than BYD Auto have produced pure electric cars capable of this and the BYD Auto cars have had modest sales due to a high price and are not yet approved for sale in the West. Kleenspeed say that their battery pack would be paid for separately in a monthly lease. A prototype is in design which the company plans to unveil by end of the summer this year.
"The advantage of testing electric vehicle systems in a racing car is you're pushing them as far as they'll go," CEO Timothy Collins said.
While the company is still a Silicon Valley-style start-up with all but two employees paid in stock, Collins predicts that Kleenspeed can build 10,000 new cars a year for $200 million in funding, about what Tesla has spent so far on building a smaller number of high priced electric sports cars.
The company is getting help in building a prototype from another NASA Ames tenant Contactscale owned by Dan Bolfing. Contactscale is housed in the service bays of the shuttered gas station at NASA Ames, near the former Home and Garden Center that houses Kleenspeed. Bolfing uses computer-controlled equipment to produce composite car body shells at lowest price. Composite materials are usually only affordable in the most expensive sports cars but Collins says the Kleenspeed project will make extensive use of composites to keep weight down, thereby extending the range. New composite technology makes it financially viable. They appear to have an interest in using second generation lithium iron phosphate batteries produced by others.
IDTechEx notes that these may be chemically safe against thermal runaway and free of heavy metal pollutants. No cobalt price hikes here.
Collins points out that the composite chassis, once established, could also be the basis for a utility vehicle or truck the company could produce later. Many pure electric vehicle manufacturers, including Renault, see light industrial and commercial vehicles as early wins, not just cars. The same is true of traction battery suppliers such as Lishen Power Battery in China that is linked to Coda Automotive down the coast in Santa Monica. Lishen seels traction batteries for both buses and cars. Coda plans a mainstream car but its strategy is different from that of Kleenspeed, being more reliant on East Asian manufacture.
"We are going to create our own motor, our own drive," Collins said of Kleenspeed. "Our goal as a company is to purchase everything from ourselves."
In addition to building their own cars, Kleenspeed will sell parts to other companies and individuals. For example, the super powerful electric drive train for the Formula One car could also be used to power large trucks, they argue. Kleenspeed is clearly a fast moving company in every sense of the word.
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