Case Studies

Sparrow 

• $14,000, 40 mile range, upto 70 mph
• Light weight mono-coque chassis was 4 feet wide and 8 feet long (classified as a motorcycle)
• 13  lead-acid "Optima" AGM batteries weighing 46 lbs each / Total pack weight: 598 Lbs
• 1350 lbs, 156V DC motor
• fully recharges in 6 hours (3 hours with a 220-volt charger)
• Only 300 made (2000-2002), many went back to the factory for repairs.  Several caught on fire!
  
• Corbin Motors went bankrupt in March 2003.  Why?
• Inventory and IP sold to Myers Motors in 2004
• More misc at:  www.hightechscience.org/sparrow.htm  and a Wiki about it
• Letter from Corbin's founder at bankruptcy
  
• I'd buy one if they still made them today (and could assure me it wouldn't catch fire)!
• Why did they Fail?
  • Insufficient funding and corporate politics?
  • A lot of posters on the yahoo list have a lot of problems with the Sparrow.  A lot of them are clearly implementation problems: squeaky brakes, belts breaking, leaks, etc. However, the big issue is durability of the batteries.  It seems to me that there was a lack of proper design and system engineering, and no concept of building a product to be manufactered.
  • "If you consider that a major automaker will spend a billion dollars to design a new model which uses entirely proven technology that is decades old, it's laughable that Corbin tried to bring an entirely new technology to mass production for several million dollars. The product was released before it was ready, which introduced a support burden that crushed any possibility of developing it to the point where it would be a viable product."
  • "Unfortunately, producing the Sparrow at a $15k pricepoint is probably not feasible. And their difficulty making sales at that pricepoint indicates to me that it wouldn't sell at a higher pricepoint. Producing a conversion EV from a new car chassis at a $20k or $25k pricepoint seems like it would be very doable at quantities of thousands per year, and there would probably be many people buyers if marketing was done well. So the one lesson I think I would take away from the corbin experience is:  If your goal is to produce an electric vehicle, don't blow your budget on reinventing the wheel (chassis and body)."
  • There is a yahoo group (sparrow_ev) with over 1000 members and 20K posts filled with experiences and opinions about the Sparrow.   (if you're interested in browsing them, download PG Offline for a much easier experience - ask me)

   

NmG

(no more gas)

• Redesigned "Sparrow"  (at double the price!?)
• $27,000, 20-40 mile range, upto 70 mph
• $0.01 and $0.02 in electicity costs, per mile
• Full Owners Manual online

        

TriHawk 

(three wheeled motorcycle based sports car)

• Not electric, but relevant as an example of a non mass-produced vehicle
• It was conceived in about 1980 by a nice guy who wanted to produce a 3-wheeled sportscar for the rest of us. He had his own financing, so didn't go outside for help. He hired a top suspension designer to work out the suspension details, a top stylist to design the interior layout and a boby to go around it, a small crew of mechanics & welders and whatever else he needed to design and put together a saleable vehicle.... Half a dozen prototypes were made and tested, and modified & changed, over & over, until the design was finalized... And during all this time, the press (and you & I) knew nothing about it! Total developement time? Two-years. Total developement cost? About $2-million (in 1980 dollars); figure $5- million today. And how did he pulled it off? He used standard, automotive parts, available from your local auto-parts store! Here are some examples: the brake master cylinder was from a Chrysler, the brake pedal from a VW, and the brake rod connecting the two, from a Cadillac (wonder who thought up that arrangement?). The oil filter cap was from a Ford Fiesta. The instruments are Honda. The gascap was from a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle and the tail-light from Suzuki m/c. The rear swingarm was from the right-rear corner of of a Renault LeCar, with the lower- front suspension arms from the same source. And on, and on, and on... The resulting combination was a 3-wheeled vehicle capable of out performing a Porsche on a twisty road! And from 1983 to 1985 you could buy a copy of one of these for merely $12,000, complete with a weather-proof top and a stereo radio. 85 lucky people bought Trihawks, while they were available. So, why aren't they still in production? Because the company was sold, for a profit, to another corporation who let it die...