Battery Power

Battery Power

AC Propulsion is doing fine as a small specialty business, but executives hope to partner with automakers on electric cars.

by Howard Fine

When General Motors Corp. closed its Van Nuys plant in 1992, the last vestige of L.A.'s auto manufacturin industry went with it.

Alan Cocconi is trying to change that.

A former consulting engineer to GM on its first electric vehicle, the Impact (now the EV-1), Cocconi and his team at San Dimas-based AC Propulsion Inc. have been developing and producing small numbers of electric cars for the past seven years.

For much of that time, AC Propulsion has been making electric motors, as well as a dozen or so high-performance electric cars a year aimed at a few wealthy people who want to make a contribution to cleaning up the environment.

Now, the company, which posted $1.2 million in revenues in 1998, is aiming its sights at the world's major automakers. Last October, it signed an agreement with Volkswagen A.G. to supply electric motors, batteries and related engineering for a line of electric vehicle prototypes.

"Building electric cars here from the ground up is very expensive and you can only reach a few customers," said Cocconi. "We are really aiming for partnerships with major automakers, so that when they bring their electric vehicle fleets to market, we are part of that."

But Cocconi's strategy carries a major risk. The automakers themselves are moving cautiously with their electric vehicle fleets, and the few electric cars now on the market have been poor sellers, as consumers remain concerned about the vehicles' range and speed.

Three years ago, the seven largest automakers persuaded state regulators to back off an electric vehicle mandate -which would have required 2 percent of all vehicles sold in the state last year to be electric-arguing that the technology wasn't yet ready.

As part of a compromise reached last year, the state Air Resources Board pushed the deadline back to 2003 and agreed to accept hybrid gas-electric vehicles and vehicles running on other low-emission fuels as substitutes for electric vehicles.

Volkswagen's contract with AC Propulsion is open-ended, with no set dollar value. Five AC Propulsion engineers are part of a team of about 30 people at Volkswagen facilities in Germany, Detroit and Mexico who are developing a line of prototype electric vehicles for the German automaker.

"We like what they are doing and think they can build a good system for us," said Stuart Johnson Volkswagen of America's principal engineer in Detroit. "But we really don't know how much AC Propulsion is going to do for us."

In the meantime, companies like AC Propulsion must focus on the high-end market, whether it's developing an $80,000 electric sports car called the tzero or retrofitting Honda Civics for about the same price.

"The key for us was to recognize that costs won't come down unless these cars are mass-produced, which is quite a ways off," said Tom Gage, AC Propulsion's business manager. "If costs are not going to come down, then you should be trying to target those people who have the ability to buy at these price levels."

The tzero has won raves from the electric car industry for its zip and power. It has a motor that puts out between 150 and 200 kilowatts of power, three to four times the 50-kilowatt output of GM's EV1.

"Any time somebody wants to go for a rocket ride, they'd hop into one of Cocconi's conversions or his tzero," said Bill Van Amberg, vice president of marketing for Calstart, the Pasadena electric car industry consortium that recently gave Cocconi an award for his work on electric vehicles. "He has been such a key innovator that it's partly because of Cocconi that people no longer view electric vehicles as little golf carts."

But only one customer has made a deposit on a tzero. In an attempt to boost the program, AC Propulsion just hired Alec Brooks, formerly with Monrovia-based Aerovironment Inc., which collaborated with General Motors on its electric vehicle program.

Also to be overcome are safety concerns. Unlike most other electric vehicle manufacturers that use special adapters, AC Propulsion's electric vehicles use a plug that can be connected to most standard outdoor electric outlets. While that's a convenient feature, it can generate a strong shock if not handled properly, according to Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas spokeswoman Leah Reich.

She cited one case at electric car manufacturer Solectria Inc. (based in Cambridge, Mass.) in which a man and his son were knocked down by an electric shock.

Cocconi acknowledged that safety was a concern, but said the circuit grounding devices on most outside electric plugs deployed in the last five years prevent shocks. Also, he said hi motor has an extra layer of insulation and has a self-checking system to ensure the insulation is holding.

Meanwhile, Cocconi and his team are trying to address consumers' main concern about electric vehicles: their limited range. While their cars can go 70 to 90 miles on a single charge - slightly farther than the GM EV1's average 60 to 70 miles - that's still far too limited for most drivers.

Engineers are approaching the problem on three fronts: switching from lead-acid batteries to nickel-hydride batteries, which have more storage capacity; reducing the time it takes to recharge a vehicle; and making a gas-powered trailer that can be hooked up to the electric vehicle for use on long trips.

Ultimately, Calstart's Van Amberg said, the solutions will come from more partnerships between emerging technology companies like AC Propulsion and the major automakers.

"There is a race going on to partner with the automakers and their major suppliers to develop new systems and tackle these issues," Van Amberg said. "And AC Propulsion is well poised to take advantage of this."