Sports car to be fully electric

Sports car to be fully electric
By Jim Warren
jwarren@herald-leader.com
A small Cincinnati start-up company think its has a sporty answerfor $4-a-gallon gasoline, or even $5 gasoline, for that matter.
Advanced Mechanical Products Inc., or AMP, early next year plans tostart delivering the Amp, a fully electric sports car based on thetwo-seat Saturn Sky.
AMP plans an initial production run of 300 cars, with sales limitedto a 200-mile radius around Cincinnati, including Lexington.
The deal would work like this. You buy a Saturn Sky and turn itover to AMP, which removes the standard internal combustion engine,transmission and related parts, and replaces them with two electricmotors, a powerful lithium-iron-phosphate battery, and someproprietary computer software.
The total purchase price for the car and the electric conversion isexpected to be about $50,000.
You could save money if you already own a used Saturn Sky. AMP willconvert any 2007 or later Sky model for the cost of the conversionalone, which is $25,000.
AMP officials say you get a car that would never need gas, andcould be operated for only about 4 cents a mile. Driving aconventional car now costs about 54 cents a mile, according to theAmerican Automobile Association.
A prototype of the electric Saturn will be running in about amonth, says AMP CEO Jack Kuntz.
"This is a commuter car, not a car you'd drive to Florida," Kuntzsaid. "It's not for everybody, but it's not for the ultra-wealthyeither. There are lots of families that have a pickup and maybe aminivan, and this would be a great third car for them. We wantregular folks to be able to afford it, not just the rich andfamous."
AMP began working on the project about a year ago, according toKuntz, with six investors putting up $1 million in venture capital.Now, with gas prices climbing almost daily, they think the time isright for a practical electric car that would save money and reduceenvironmental pollution.
"We're not just making money," Kuntz said, "we're making adifference."
Plenty of others have similar ideas.
" The Tesla, a high-performance electric sports car, went intoproduction in California this year. Also available are small,low-speed electric cars such as the ZAP (Zero Air Pollution) andthe ZENN (Zero Emission No Noise).
" Think Global, a Norwegian company, plans to offer a smallelectric car in the United States in a year or so.
" Mercedes-Benz is working on an electric version of its Smart car.
" Chevrolet is developing an electrical car called the Volt.
Various other companies, like AMP, aim to covert standard cars toelectricity.
Even rock star Neil Young is playing along, helping underwrite aKansas mechanic's plan to develop an electric car. As a first step,they recently converted Young's 1959 Lincoln Continental to run onelectricity.
The high cost of batteries, limited travel distances betweenrecharges, short battery lifespan, and limited performance havediscouraged widespread acceptance of electric cars.
According to Kuntz, the AMP battery should last up to nine years,assuming that the car is driven about 40 miles a day