By Gordon Dower
I remember attending a seminar on
how to make money from real estate and one of the speakers,
talking about foreclosures, said how remarkable it was that families facing foreclosure would sometimes carry on
as usual until the day when their furniture was put out on the sidewalk
and they had nowhere to go. Until the very end, they convinced themselves
that something would turn up and the disaster would not happen. The truth
being too unpleasant to accept, they went into a state of denial. How
foolish! How irresponsible! We’d never do that or get into that situation.
But sometimes things just happen that are beyond our control and the
situation is forced upon us.
“Well,” you say, “we’d not go into a state of denial, you can be sure of that!”
My friends, most of us are in that state right now. The atmosphere is
foreclosing upon us and has been threatening to do so for the past 20
years—the world’s biosphere will foreclose on half the world’s population before the end of this
century. There are those who deny it, and many of us find reassurance in
that because we are in a state of denial, too. So what should we be doing about it?
We should be doing all we can and whatever is necessary, for our children’s
children to live. If this should require us to give up driving our CO2 – producing
automobiles, using instead electric trains, trolley buses, and bicycles, we must do
that, and the sooner the better. Of course, there will be many other changes.
Energy consumption must decline until it is produced cleanly. There must be a
concerted effort on all fronts.
The necessary changes in our transportation system may be the most
disruptive because we have become so dependent upon the automobile. Cars are
getting better all the time, gradually, but now they must get much better, quickly.
They must not pollute or produce CO2. Automobiles account for perhaps 50
percent of our pollution of the atmosphere and 100 percent of our
worrying (and unsustainable) negative balance of trade. They must not use oil
or its derivatives. They must be energy efficient. They must be as commodious
as a minivan or an SUV, they must have excellent acceleration, and they must not
cost more than the cars we have now.
Surprisingly, the only vehicle that meets these requirements is the battery-electric
vehicle or BEV. Nothing approaches it in simplicity, durability, efficiency and cost
of manufacture, and it can be fast. In the early days of the automobile, there were
more electrics than gasoline cars. Electric energy is convenient and cheap but
difficult to store. The EV part of the BEV was fine but the B wasn’t. It was efficient
but its storing capacity was less than one percent that of a fuel tank. It was
expensive, needed careful attention and had a short life.
Although there are now better batteries, they are expensive and do
not allow the BEV to match the range of the gasoline car. The shortcomings
of batteries have led to extensive governmental support for alternatives, such as the hydrogen car and biofuels.
Unfortunately, there are serious problems with these solutions.
Hydrogen does not occur naturally in its free state and extracting it from, say
water or natural gas, requires more energy than you get out of it.1 If you
use electricity to hydrolyze water, the energy efficiency is only 50 percent.
The hydrogen must then be piped wherever it is needed. Some will leak
away—there is nothing more leaky than hydrogen. Then it must be
compressed into storage tanks or liquefied, both of which require much
energy. The most efficient way of using it in a car is to feed it to a fuel
cell, but the efficiency of this is only 50 percent. Fuels cells are far from
perfected and prohibitively expensive so there is now a trend toward burning
hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, much as natural gas is used. In
this case, the efficiency will be much less than that of a fuel cell powering
an electric drive. Industrial hydrogen is mostly derived from natural gas. If
you go from that to the hydrogen coming out of the fuel tank in your car, you will have only about one sixth
of the original energy, and you will still have to deal with the CO2 used to
produce the hydrogen.2
Biofuels create a different problem.
When they fuel internal combustion
engines, they give rise to CO2, like any
other fuel. Their redeeming feature, if
you can call it that, is that the plants used
to produce them took that CO2 out of the
atmosphere. But what about the CO2
released by the machinery and
infrastructure needed to grow and harvest
them? And there is a more serious
problem: the production of biofuels is
now producing a food problem in the
under-developed countries because
ethanol and biodiesel can be made from
corn, palm oil, sugar and other crops!3
Let’s look at electricity. Although, in
USA, 60 percent of it comes from
burning coal, electricity can be produced
cleanly without drastically disrupting our
way of life. Its infrastructure already
exists; it is safe, clean, cheap, and
versatile. It can easily power trains and
urban buses. The efficiency of
transporting it over the grid is 95 percent.
Electric motors have a similar efficiency.
So do batteries for storing it. Surely this
widespread and proven technology
trumps hydrogen and biofuels. If batteries
force us to accept cars that have only a
short range, say 50 miles, and need an
hour or so to recharge, then we must
change our life style and get used to it.
We must also accept that our cars will
cost more because of their batteries.
Unless…
There happens to be a completely
unexploited solution to the problem—
a solution that will cost not more, but
actually less. It will not oblige us to
use smaller vehicles because it can
give us more roomy and user-friendly
ones than we have now, and make
them safer, too. Neither will they be
less convenient than what we have
now; they will be more convenient.
This remarkable solution is the Ridek
(ride-ek) modular car.
The Ridek is composed of two
modules: the Ridon (ride-on) body and
the Modek (motorized deck) chassis.
Of course, there is nothing new in
building a car out of chassis and body
modules, brought together in the final
stage of construction. However, being
able to separate, exchange, and rejoin
them in a couple of minutes is new.4,5 It
allows exchange of the powered unit
(the chassis) for a freshly energized
one in much the same way—
economically and functionally
speaking—as the tired horses pulling a
stagecoach would be changed to allow
the passengers to continue their
journey with minimal delay. Thus the
short range of the horse, or the BEV,
becomes manageable. The Modek
chassis, like the horses, now becomes
a different economic unit from the
Ridon body. Its needs are different, its
lifespan is different, and its ownership
may be different—indeed, it should
be.
The life expectancy of the average car
is 12 years. The greatest single expense of car ownership is depreciation.
Owners with little mechanical knowledge
tend to fear exploitation and may prefer
to change their cars when the warranty
expires. Maintenance costs can be high,
and they are often unexpected.
The
situation is different with a Modek
provided under a Modek Exchange
Contract supplying a fully charged and
serviced Modek, within minutes, at a
Modek Exchange Station. There should
be no waiting, and no need for a
“courtesy car.”
The modern automobile is a marvel of
complexity and compactness, but it is
expensive to work on because of
inaccessibility. Contrast this with the
Modek, whose complexity is far less
while accessibility is far greater. So is the
reliability of its electric motor compared
to the internal combustion engine and its
complicated transmission.
The life expectancy of a Modek, judging
from that of electric trolley buses, should
be 30 years because of the intrinsic
reliability of its mechanism but also
because of its easy maintenance and
updatability. Few motorists would want
to drive such an ancient car, unless in a
rally, but the age of the well maintained
Modek would not be apparent because
only its wheels would be visible beneath
the Ridon. Thus the operating cost of the
more complicated component of the
Ridek should be less than for a
conventional car. Also the initial cost to
the Ridon owner would be less because
that would have no running gear.
The cost per mile of operating a car
reduces the more it is used. (The same
is true for a horse.) When a Ridon is
idled for an extended period, the
Modek may find employment
elsewhere. An example might be the
long-term parking lot of an airport—
normally containing an abundance of
idled machinery within the vehicles
parked there. However, with suitable
arrangements, the Modeks associated
with parked Ridons could be used in
taxies, rented cars, etc. Another
example might be vehicles that are
used seasonally. While the Ridons
rest, the Modeks find other
employment. The turnaround of the
rental car is delayed by the need to
clean it. Consequently, a car-rental
agency might require fewer Modeks
than Ridons.
But what about the range? The
modern car packages its passengers as
close to the surface of the road as
possible, among the machinery, so
there is little space for a battery to
provide sufficient range. By contrast,
with the passengers riding wholly
above it, there is plenty of battery
space in the Modek. With a lithium
battery, the range could be well over
100 miles, perhaps 200. But there is
no need for more than 50 miles
because the Modek can be quickly
exchanged for one that is freshly
charged. Batteries are expensive and
heavy so it is better to accept a
minimal range rather than a maximal
range. This is more economical and
energy efficient. For most drivers, most of the time, 50 miles is enough,
especially when the range can be
extended by Modek exchange. However,
until the necessary infrastructure of
Modek Exchange Stations is established,
another solution might be allowed: for
long trips, the exchanged Modek could
be gasoline-powered. This would not be
a backward step so much as a necessary
intermediate step toward weaning, like
the plug-in hybrid car. But it is
preferable because it avoids the
complexity, expense, and unnecessary
weight of a dual power plant. Instead of
spatial hybridization, as in the plug-in
hybrid, there would be temporal
hybridization—much simpler and neater.
The necessarily smaller battery in the
plug-in hybrid results in a much more
modest range, that is likely insufficient
for most daily needs.
Clearly, the Ridek is a very different
vehicle from the conventional
automobile. It is also drastically different
from any BEV. This difference extends
to its appearance, user-friendliness, and
safety. The Modek raises the passengers
to the height they would be in a
conventional SUV, and approximately
the height they were in cars before the
streamliners and stylists changed things.
Of course, the Ridek must not be too tall;
otherwise it will not fit into a parkade. Its
height and length match those of an
Astrovan and most SUVs, and it will
have about the same amount of
aerodynamic drag. In urban driving, this
will not be too serious, and there is a
compensating factor—the cost of electricity works out to 35-50 cents
per gallon of gasoline.
A disadvantage of the SUV is that it is
more likely to roll over in an accident
because of its high center of gravity.
This is not a problem with the Ridek
because it has a very low center of
gravity.
Placing passengers above the bumper
of a vehicle colliding from the side is
much safer than seating them in line
with it. This is well appreciated by the
general public and no doubt accounts
for a good deal of the SUV’s
popularity. But there is something
else we can do to make them safer.
Instead of separating the front-seats
with a console, the Ridon abolishes
the console and brings them close
together, away from the doors. Cars
are built to resist side impacts, but
they still cave in before the impinging
vehicle is stopped. Those few inches
between passenger and door are more
valuable than a console.
One must climb aboard an SUV using
the steps provided, but those steps are
small and set into the vehicle, where a
descending foot may not find them—
after all, feet point forwards, not
backwards. Much thought was given
to the Ridon’s steps. Eventually,
convenient user-friendly foldout steps
were conceived, fashioned, and
electrically deployed with gratifying
results. The inboard positioning of the
passengers in the front seats made this
easier.
Another unusual, though not unique,
feature of the Ridon is the use of a single
large sliding door on each side instead of
four separate doors. This makes entry to
the rear seats extremely easy, using the
same foldout steps. Ridon’s windshield
is remarkable although not quite
unprecedented: it slopes forward as in
many fishing vessels. Not only does this
enhance the view and eliminate annoying
reflections off the dash, it increases the
area of the roof and shading from the
sun. With the large roof there is space for
a large solar panel, that can keep the
Ridon cool in hot sun, even when the
Ridek is stationary and unoccupied—a
blessing when stalled in traffic. With an
on-board heat pump, energy from the
panel can maintain a comfortable interior
without draining the battery—the battery
may receive some charge from it.
As an exercise in demonstrating the
amount of useful space that the Ridon
can provide, its interior dimensions have
been maximized. Its use as a taxi or
commercial vehicle is foreseen.
However, the present Ridon should be
considered as just one out of a great
number of possible designs, all fitting the
standard Modek. Note will be made of
its slab-sided appearance. The intent here
was to allow the use of aircraft-type
preformed carbon-fiber honeycomb
panels because of their great strength,
rigidity, and lightness. In the prototype
mockup, plywood was used, rather than
experiment with such costly panel. When
the intended panels are used, the weight
of the Ridon body shell will be two
thirds lighter.
The EV1, featured in the movie Who
Killed the Electric Car, had minimal
aerodynamic drag in order to optimize
its range. But it had only two seats
and was far from roomy. The Ridon
described above may be reasonably
aerodynamic because of its rounded
sloping nose, divided windshield, and
smooth sides. Surprisingly, the
squared-off rear has less drag than if it
had rounded corners. The forward sloping
V-windshield design was used
on a Boeing aircraft. However, wind tunnel
testing has yet to be done. This
Ridek is essentially an urban vehicle,
and will spend much of its time in
slow-moving traffic. The design intent
was for it to fulfill that role optimally.
Nevertheless, its powerful motors will
accelerate it smartly and propel it to
highway speeds.
I’ve heard it said that if you can get
three or four points across in a lecture
that’s pretty good. In preparing this
presentation I made a list of the points
I had to make: you have been at the
receiving end of 34 points! You will
not be surprised to hear that it takes a
considerable time for the true value of
Ridek to sink in.
I’d like to finish with an account of
how it might be to use a Ridek instead
a conventional car. It will drive like a
conventional car, except that you will
not hear an engine running when you
stop at traffic lights. It will feel
substantial and roomy. You will never
have to buy gas: it will be recharged
in your garage, where it will automatically plug itself in. You will not
need to worry about tires: they will be
supplied, correctly inflated, with the
Modek. You will never need to concern
yourself with brakes, oil changes,
antifreeze or other servicing—just
exchange the Modek. When the Ridon
begins to look shabby, you can refurbish
it, or customize it as you wish. When
you enter the Ridek, after it has been
standing in the sun, on a hot day, you
will find it is pleasantly cool because of
its shading roof, solar panel, and heat
pump operating without draining the
battery. When you outfit your Ridon as a
mobile office or workshop, you will
never have to leave it at a service station.
When you add up your expenses over
time, you will find you have saved
money! This last may be the most
important factor likely to make Ridek a
success. But another may be that there is
something for everyone: space, safety,
convenience, economy, performance,
individuality and GREENNESS—
adopting Ridek puts us back in control of
the amount of CO2 emissions that we, as
individuals, put into the atmosphere.
1. Zubrin, Robert: “The Hydrogen Hoax.” The New Atlantis, Number 15, Winter 2007, pp. 9-20.
2. Goldstein, David: Out of Gas, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2004, (footnote quoting Alan N. Brooks, p.88).
3. Wall Street Journal: April 9, 2007, p. 1.
4. Dower, G.E.: Modular Vehicle Construction and Transportation System. United States Patent Number 6,059,058; Canadian Patent Application Number 2,302,761; European Patent Number EP 1,009,651 for France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland.
5. www.ridek.com
Question: “You have emphasized the urgency and, by implication, the dispatch with which we should act, and you have presented what may be the most practical direction, so:
1. How long will it take to get Rideks on the road?
2. What further development is required?”
Answer: “With completion of the third road-licensed prototype, Ridek III, embodying the features I have described, presentation to various city governments becomes the next step, for them to order test fleets of Rideks, manufactured locally. Although Ridek III contains several innovations, it requires no new technology. The principle of modularity is the same, only the details are different.”