The SOLO is a lightweight, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle designed with an on-board multi-fuel micro turbine battery charger for mass production purposes.
The design behind Velozzi’s lightweight plug-in hybrid electric crossover with an onboard multi-fuel micro turbine battery charger
When Roberto Velozzi works together with his partners to try and turn a concept photo into the SOLO lightweight plug-in hybrid electric crossover, it’s not just a couple of guys in the garage trying to build a car. The founder and CEO of the Los Angeles, CA-based start-up automotive OEM, Velozzi knows the challenges that the automotive industry pose are laborious and brutal.
"Building a car company is next to impossible and I’m aware of it,” Velozzi admits. “If I wanted to be successful, I knew I had to include the suppliers. This sets us apart from everyone including established OEMs. We are allowing the suppliers to have a say because they’re the experts.”
The Velozzi Supercar was already on paper and set to show the world that one day a 770-hp AC induction electric motor was able to accelerate from zero to 60 mph in only three seconds — and top out over 200 mph. It was an impressive feat with a sexy design, but it isn’t exactly the vehicle taking the family to a relaxing Sunday brunch at Grandma’s. It was going to impress, and the other details would be sorted out at a later time.
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Velozzi had the SuperCar, but he needed the SOLO, a vehicle designed with an on-board multi-fuel micro turbine battery charger for mass production purposes. Crossover vehicles (CUVs) are an answer to consumer demand for more passenger and cargo room than your typical four-door sedan with greater fuel efficiency and smoother ride than SUVs.
“There is a market for crossovers out there, and we feel that CUVs are going to address a lot of the issues that people are looking for,” says Velozzi. The vehicle is big enough to comfortably seat a family, but at the same time, consumers are looking for something that is more environmentally friendly.
“We decided to design a car that was built the right way,” Velozzi says. “The approach is sort of old fashioned; we have included the supplier from the conception of the project itself.”
From the onset, Velozzi set out to build a car that he knew would be manufacturable. Having said that, he’s not wasting time making a prototype in house with new components that suppliers refuse to produce.
“We didn’t want to do work twice,” Velozzi recalls. “We wanted to do it once and we wanted to do it right. The way we did it was more of a team effort. We would take the part to them and they would say, ‘No, that part is not going to work, but if you slightly modify it ..."
Some of the Velozzi vehicles’ main attributes include modularity and a lightweight design capable of capitalizing on new ways to manufacture vehicles.
Supply & Demand
Velozzi partnered with 17 companies including PPG, Ashland, Bayer MaterialScience, Nanoledge and Weismann R&D to help make the SOLO and SuperCar realities.
“We’re using the raw material from Bayer to make a dashboard or a skin for the interior,” says Velozzi. “They are part of the design process and we are using their existing materials to make the parts.”
Velozzi is working with Bayer because he wanted a car that was as lightweight as possible. Being lightweight is something that most hybrid cars are now addressing. You can’t make a car that’s efficient when weight is an issue.
Bayer’s support for the non-traditional OEMs includes high-performance materials including plastics, polyurethanes, carbon nanotubes, coatings, adhesives and sealants to create a low-weight, high-efficiency CUV.
Carbon fiber is used extensively in rigid applications, as well as many aeronautical applications. “Carbon fiber nanotubes are used in our industry, but they have not yet translated to the automotive side. It was considered too expensive,” reports Velozzi. “The old car companies want to continue making cars they’ve always made. A change for them would be too costly. It comes to retooling and it’s too expensive. Because we are starting from scratch with a clean sheet of paper, we can afford to go down that road. You can build a car using composites and still make it affordable if you start from zero.”
The carbon fiber nanotubes are placed in a resin by Velozzi's partner Nanoledge. Nanoledge has offered Velozzi its expertise in the use of nanochemicals and resin formulation to develop and provide lightweight and high-performance epoxy/carbon fiber body panels.
Using its NANO INTM technology, Nanoledge integrates the carbon nanotubes into an epoxy resin to improve its mechanical performance. The process improves crack growth, fatigue, impact and compression resistance without compromising other properties.
“We are very proud to be part of this project, combining a high-performance, eco-friendly product and mass production” says Benoit Balmana, managing director of the Americas, Nanoledge. “Nanochemicals give unique assets and are the ultimate way to achieve the new market needs in the composite industry, developing stronger, safer and lighter materials by using fewer chemicals.”
Adding the nanotubes to the resin improves the mechanical properties of the part by 40 percent. The part can be lighter and stronger without becoming brittle.
“The benefit is that it’s not all that expensive,” adds Velozzi. “Carbon fiber nanotubes are commercially created by Bayer — leading us back to involving them early in the chain of supply.”
Multi-Fuel Micro Turbine Battery Charger
The SOLO will be the first production cars in the world to use a multi-fuel micro turbine battery charger to recharge its bed of super capacitors and lithium-ion batteries.
According to Velozzi, turbines are the most efficient engines in the market if you run them at a constant, low RPM. The turbine burns many fuels, making the SOLO capable of using gasoline, diesel, ethanol, methanol, butanol, biodiesel and natural gas, among others.
The Velozzi cars are plug-in multi-fuel hybrid electric vehicles that are powered by a combination of lithium-ion batteries and super capacitors, which in turn, are recharged by an on-board multi-fuel micro turbine battery charger or simply by plugging it in.
“We’ve been saying for a long time now, that super capacitors are essential for going zero to 50 mph,” says Velozzi. “Gas and most of the energy stored in a lithium vehicle is spent going from zero to 50 mph, and you use a lot of energy. If you observe the energy taken from the battery pack, you’ll see that super capacitors are better than batteries because they charge very quickly and are very lightweight.”
The super capacitors will give the SOLO the extra boost needed to reach 15 mph using an efficient power management system. Velozzi’s power management system is designed to have the car choose which power source to tap into, and calculate how much power is needed for the operation.
According to Velozzi, the SOLO will reach 100 miles per gallon, with the capability of going from zero to 60 mph in six seconcds with a top speed of 130 mph.
“We’re making the car smart,” Velozzi states. “It will know when you’re driving in the city, on the highway, up a hill, down a hill — and it will only use X amount of energy. The car won’t spend as much energy when it’s coasting downhill as when it’s working uphill. The energy will be dispersed per the road’s demands.”
The vehicle also has the ability to reverse polarity and serve as a power generator powering equipment. Regenerative braking captures kinetic energy when slowing the vehicles, thereby improving their range.
“With regenerative braking, you don’t get a lot of energy from it,” says Velozzi. “The energy that you capture is not really that relevant, that’s why we’re using capacitors, because they can be charged by the regenerative breaking. Capacitors make more sense to use with regenerative braking than a battery. We’re not relying on that as the entire recharging system; we’re using the onboard battery charger to recharge the capacitors as well.”
The SOLO’s power management software is key or, as Velozzi calls it, his “secret sauce."
“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” Velozzi insists. “One of our approaches has been to be practical. Working with suppliers to use something that has been used before and packaging it better. We’re more cautious about waste savings than most car companies are. We have a consortium of major companies working with us to go about building a better car using the resources and engineering support that we have.”
The SOLO should be ready for production by the beginning of 2010. Velozzi has an in-house staff, but he attests to the power of partnering with 17 different global companies. “In working with those global companies as partners, we now have thousands of scientists and engineers working with us on the project.”
Velozzi’s mission is essentially to create a car that people can afford. “We don’t want to build a car that will sell for $100,000. Who could afford that today?” Velozzi asks. “The SOLO is the first step to bring something that is somewhat affordable, and I think $30,000 to $40,000 is an affordable vehicle.”
Velozzi and his team, while prepping for production, are currently at work on an even smaller, more affordable and more efficient hatchback car.