Manhattan Motors: an LM Car inspired by Better Place

Take one look at the US Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy website at http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/stations/advanced.php and you will see the vast proliferation of Drivetrain Fueling choices. Some you probably didn't know even existed, but the fact is that the future direction of transportation fueling is being hotly contested and there is more choice and less certainty than ever before in the history of the automobile. The DOE lists - and allows you to locate - refueling stations in the following technology categories:

• Biodiesel (B20 and above)
• Compressed Natural Gas
• Electric
• Ethanol (E85)
• Hydrogen
• Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
• Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Propane)

And that extensive list is not even inclusive of refueling choices in other technologies such as:

• Clean Diesel
• Compressed Air
• Stirling Fuel

And of those listed stations none of them includes the result of the larger initiatives that are planning regional roll outs of targeted refueling networks such as:

• The Pickens Plan CNG network
• Project Better Places's Electric infrastructure
• California Fuel Cell Partnerships Hydrogen Infrastructure

What is happening in this country? What ever happened to leaded or unleaded? Super or Regular? Gas or Diesel? From individual technologies to whole network plans, choice is proliferating; however, due to

• the massive dollar cost of most infrastructure development,
• the large number of competing champions for individual technologies, and
• the limited availability of cars to run on a specific type of energy storage....

Markets are increasingly segmented. This segmentation creates a specific problem for auto manufacturers who ideally like to build single types of cars and to build those types in big volume.

The problem is not the length of time it takes to develop most alternative fuel drivetrains. Automakers are less concerned being able to meet the technical challenges as they are in meeting the economies of scale.

Said another way, its not as much a worry that the targeted refueling networks will pop up and disappear overnight so that an automaker might make a car for Sacramento's CNG station network and then that network disappears by the time the car is ready to be built. No. It is more a problem that the networks are not big enough and widespread enough to support the roll out of an OEM car program where a major car manufacturer sells cars from a diffuse dealership network all over the country.

Big capital plants, high finish products, tightly integrated dealership channel and upstream manufacturers together are a perfectly terrible recipe for choice, change, and adoption of local and competing refueling solutions.

Local Motors aims to change that recipe...

Here is that First Step.

2 years ago we met Shai Agassi when he was developing the seed of Project Better Place while still at SAP. Now one year after their official launch, Better Place (www.betterplace.com) (the "Project" part has now been dropped) has a plan to become a global electric-car grid operator. Said plainly, they own the batteries, the recharging, and the software. You own the car. Basically, for those autos, which adhere to the standard, their users can operate seamlessly within range of the recharging network.

Sounds good! .... if the recharging network is real and accessible.

Though Better Place has a LOT of money (read $100's of Millions of US Dollars in investment), even its war-chest is not enough to blanket the world in a recharging grid of battery-swapping and parking-place recharging stations; therefore, they are launching in tightly defined regional areas where drivers tend to want/need to stay local.

• Isreal
• Denmark
• Hawaii

...are just a few examples of where they would like to roll out.

So far they have signed up one automotive partner, Renault, who plans to carry the technology to market in a modified Megane-like sedan, whose styling can best be described as unremarkable. Renault is building this $20K car to support Better Place all over the world wherever Better Place goes.

In Israel, your Better Place car is...

In Denmark, you will be driving a Better Place car that looks like...

And yes, in Hawaii when you go to surf the Banzai Pipeline or drive up with your sweetie to the Pali lookout after a quick battery swap, you will be driving - you guessed it - ...

Enter Local Motors.

We are inspired by Better Place. Not only do we like that their heart is in a good place, but also, we think that our Micro Factory Retail plan is a perfect complement to their plan. In whatever tightly defined regional area where they roll out we would like to move in with an LM Micro Factory and to deliver vehicles that rock the Local styling Kasbah! Some people will buy the Megane for the price, others will pay more for the LM style, but ONLY LM's product will bring high-quality Local jobs, a personal service and recycling presence, and vehicles designed FOR THE LOCAL BETTER PLACE.

So with that drum roll, here goes the competition. Let's show Better Place what our community can develop when it comes to a LOCAL focused car. After all, our community rocks at designing cars with unique Local DNA.

Target: Manhattan Island and its surroundings. (Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Jersey suburbs, Long Island, Hudson River Valley).

Heart of the 5 Boroughs, the city that never sleeps, the international town, Gotham, Metropolis, New York City.

Today it is crowded, fast-paced, and filled with noise and exhaust. As the population has swelled, the city has contemplated various "congestion reduction" plans and centered on, high bridge fares, tunnel restrictions, idling laws, and an impending Congestion Tax. And those are just the government solutions. The private market has also settled on various free market equilibriums that reflect the rising desire to compete for vehicle space in Manhattan: expensive parking, limousine service, local car sharing, bicycles, Segways, etc.

The entrants to this competition will compete to design a vehicle tailor-made for Manhattan that will recharge on a Better Place recharging grid in and around the city. Commuting, going to school with the kids, making deliveries for your small business, going to dinner, having your own roustabout, driving to the Hamptons, the shore, or the Hudson on the weekend, or just being fashionable when seen on the New York Streets in the newest coolest greenest wheels, these are the things that this Manhattan LM wunderkind will achieve.

Built in a Micro-Factory in Harlem, serviced locally, and recharged on a Better Place network in and around the city this product is going to be a category killer and internationally recognized as a winner.

Electric in every way. Quiet and expressive. New and Unheralded. The thing to have!

Can you design the ultimate Manhattan City Car?

(NOTE: LM is not an official partner of Better Place. Better Place has no affiliation with this competition. LM has not settled on a facility in Harlem or in any NYC location. This is a competition meant to expand the world of possibilities because we are inspired by the vision of Better Place like we are inspired by LM and want to see if we can do our part to help.)