Sirius Radio interview

[AZEqualizer]

From March 1st 2007
http://www.flytheroad.com/blog/audio/VV_Sirius5.mov


As I promised earlier, I’m posting the audio from my March 1st guest spot on Sirius/Maxim Radio’s “all things automotive” program, RPM.

Mike Spinelli and Jon Wilde were teriffic hosts, and both had a much better grasp of the vehicle, and the technology, than I could’ve possibly imagined.

Overall, I think the interview went reasonably well — considering my utter lack of public speaking skills — but please have a listen for yourself. ... The segment runs for about 20 minutes.

[Hardtime11]

Hey, this is a great Interview and very informative. That was a year ago and Ian and VV are still pretty much dead on with the Dream the only thing that has changed is the "In-Wheel" motors are out and being replaced with a one motor drive unit (which could be for the good as dependability is not verified) and the possible addition of a transmission (or what is to be called a transmission) of some sort but I am sure if so it will be kept simple.

We expect things to happen and some changes to be made but I think they are doing great. Go Venture Vehicles!!!

[Miracleman89]

You know I just want to add! I hope that whatever radio they choose to put in the V1 come Sirius satellite radio capable!

[waboom]

For those of you with the inability to play the interview, or who just want a handy reference to what was said, I've transcribed the interview.


Transcript of Sirus/Maxim Radio's interview of Ian Bruce
By Mike Spinelli and Jon Wilde of RPM
March 1, 2007

John: John Wilde
Mike: Mike Spinelli
Ian: Ian Bruce


John: Yes.

Mike: Hey.

John: It's RPM again.

Mike: Yeah.

John: Powered by Castrol Syntec for maximum power. Great cars want more than just oil. Give them Castrol Syntec.

Mike: Give it to them.

John: I would. John Wilde here from Maxim Magazine.

Mike: And it's Mike Spinelli from jalopnik.com.

John: And we're going to drop some automotive knowledge on you. We're going to speak with Ian Bruce, of Venture Vehicles. Venture Vehicles has some wacky vehicular creation that they're going to be providing us, I believe.

Mike: Well, they make a really cool, uh... You know the Carver? Remember the Dutch thing?

John: I do, I don't know if everybody out there knows quite what it is.

Mike: It's a 3-wheeler that leans into the turns. It's actually pretty cool.

John: One wheel up front, 2 wheels in back, essentially the platform itself, kinda the bottom half of the chassis stays completely flat to the ground, and the top half is mounted on this pivot that can kind of swivel side to side. So when you go into a turn, it leans into the turn, not unlike a motorcycle.

Mike: Yeah, well, you know, apparently Venture Vehicles is using that technology for a hybrid version.

John: It looks crazy from what I've seen of the few people that have driven it. They say it's absolutely nuts. Yeah, when we come back we're going to talk to Ian Bruce of Venture Vehicles. We'll be back in a few, stick around, it's RPM.

.....break.....

John: We're back with RPM. It's John Wilde from Maxim Magazine.

Mike: And it's Mike Spinelli from jalopnik.com.

John: The man never misses a cue.

Mike: Hell no.

John: So, we've got a few things coming up. I'm going to talk a bit about an insane off-road van, RV kind of freak thing.

Mike: Yeah.

John: And then we're going to talk a little bit about the, uh, I guess perception versus reality - Japan versus the rest of the world making cars.

Mike: Are Japanese cars better?

John: Are they? I don't know. Consumer Reports may think so. We'll talk about it at the end of the show. But right now, we're going to talk to the man, the plan - Ian Bruce, executive vice president of Venture Vehicles. Ian, how are you doing?

Ian: Good afternoon guys, how are you doing?

Mike: Hey, good, Ian. How are you?

John: Great. Thanks for being here, appreciate it.

Ian: Sure.

John: So, the reason we're talking to you is because you guys have a pretty insane vehicle you guys have dreamt up.

Ian: Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're building a - it's a 3-wheel vehicle. Two configurations: hybrid and electric - fully electric. It's based on the Carver design out of the Netherlands, but we're putting sort of an American twist on it.

John: So the Carver, obviously, as we were just discussing, the Carver's kind of claim to fame is that the body essentially tilts independent of, I - kind of the chassis, I suppose - I guess not the chassis, but some kind of platform?

Ian: Yeah, exactly. The cabin module in front actually leans into turns like a motorcycle. This allows it to hold the road like a motorcycle. There are no side-to-side forces at all, and it rather feels like flying a jet fighter - very very stable.

John: So in terms of stability, obviously when you have a vehicle that's kind of tilting itself - are there any ways to kind of tip this thing over? Does it ever kind of spaz out in one situation at all or is it just kind of perfect in every way, shape and form?

Ian: They've spent about ten years developing this technology, and it's based on steering torque on the steering wheel. The vehicle has standard car controls - steering wheel, shifter, pedals, and so forth. It gets it right all the time.

John: Gotcha. So essentially it's just completely automated. The driver's not controlling the tilt at all, it just knows what the driver's doing and responds accordingly?

Ian: Yes, completely automatic. At low speeds it barely tilts, and there's more wheel deflection in the front, and after about 40 miles or so there's no wheel deflection - that is, the front wheel doesn't turn - and the vehicle just banks, and that's how the turns are done.

John: So now, you guys have taken the whole Carver technology that they came up with over that 10 year period, and you're building a green version, I guess - that's sort of the way people have been talking about it. I mean, it's green because you've got a hybrid, and a possible all-electric, too, is that how it works?

Ian: And a fully electric, yeah. We're working with California Motors and A123 Systems. A123 is a spinoff of MIT that has the most advanced technologies with Lithium-ion. We just saw this platform, the fact that it is very, very aerodynamic; it's very, very narrow. I mean you use about 40% of your horsepower overcoming aerodynamic drag, and we just thought it was obvious that either a hybrid, an electric, or both, would be appropriate for this vehicle. And considering the weight, it's only about 1200 pounds. It's a perfect platform for introducing these technologies.

John: Exactly. It sounds cool and actually one of the insanely cool things about it is that the motor itself is completely housed inside the hubs, right? The front wheel hub?

Ian: No, actually it's in the 2 rear wheel hubs.

John: The rear wheel hubs. OK.

Ian: So actually, you've got 3 engines, if you really want to look at that in this vehicle. You've got 2 electric motors, one in each wheel, and in the hybrid version of the vehicle you've got a small internal combustion engine, which is connected to a generator, which is just charging the batteries back up again.

John: Gotcha. So it's not actually powering the wheels at all.

Ian: No. The battery is powering the wheels. Now this is interesting: the wheels themselves - if you look at the back wheels you'll notice some things that are missing. For example, you won't see any obvious signs of brakes. The brakes are regenerative, they're electric; but having 2 digitally controlled rear wheels allows us to do things like ABS braking, steering control, traction control, entirely in software.

John: Really?

Mike: Ahhhh... So rather than, let's say, spending a weekend putting new brakes on it, you would just upgrade the software package.

Ian: Yeah, exactly. Just upgrade the firmware. We're looking to have this vehicle integrated with Bluetooth or WiFi, so if you drive it into your garage, your home network's going to recognize it just like any other peripheral. If there's a firmware upgrade for the power system, or steering control system, you can just upload it then.

John: That would be cool.

Mike: Hopefully people don't brick their car, though. That would be a bit of a bummer.

John: So, what drove you guys to choose this? Because from what I understand, the Carver version is intended as kind of a bit of a track day toy, it's not really what you guys are positing it as, which is almost an urban runabout vehicle. Your everyday, take this wherever you go.

Ian: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Motorcycle sales in this country have gone up between 10 and 20 percent, and most of that is in response to things like gas prices, and traffic penetration - just getting from point A to point B, getting around traffic. This vehicle is ideal in both roles. The Carver One - the one that was developed by Carver Engineering - yeah, at their price point, they're more of a toy, but I'd use it as an everyday commute.

John: Oh, you do?

Ian: No, I would use it. Yeah, we do have one here in the States that we're using for testing, ride and evaluation purposes. You know, as well as turning over to our vehicle design team and our engineering partners.

John: Gotcha.

Ian: By the way, our engineering partners are Swift Engineering, here in California, who build the Formula 1 Atlantic series bodies for Toyota and Mazda.

Mike: Ah.

John: Ok.

Ian: As well as - you guys might have seen something from VW that came out last year called the GX3?

Mike: Absolutely.

John: It was the inverted trike - 2 wheels up front, 1 in back, and they were going to come out with it and then they killed it.

Mike: And the lawyers, I think, stepped in and went, "Yeah, liability action, I don't think we're going to be able to do this."

John: Yeah.

Ian: Yeah, that's exactly what happened. You know, you look at this thing and you wondered, "Is it a motorcycle? Is it a car?", and you had to wear a helmet. It was very, very low to the ground, and just a pocket rocket.

Mike: Yeah, frankly I actually thought they were kind of insane, like they lost their VW minds on that one. I mean, it was cool...

John: It was awesome.

Mike: It was almost too awesome to think that a major car company would do that.

Ian: Yeah, exactly, it was just too good to do. Eventually, yeah, the lawyers did kill that - that was unfortunate. However, the whole suspension, power-train, and chassis of the vehicle was built by Swift Engineering. So, arguably, they have more 3-wheeled experience than anybody else in this country.

Continued in Part 2...

[waboom]

...Continued from part 1


John: Gotcha, gotcha. So again, we're here with Ian Bruce of Venture Vehicles, talking about the concept Venture One that they have come out with. Do you guys intend to sell this just about everywhere? Will it actually be in the United States?

Ian: Yeah, we're going to be doing a roll-out in California first - in fact, the people who are handling our launch and low-level marketing are AMCI in California. These are the guys who did the launch for Prius, the Scion, Lexus, and are now working on the launch of the Smart car here in the States. Each one of these cases the vehicles are rolled out in California, so - it makes a lot of sense, we've got the largest single automotive market here in the world.

John: I was going to say, those bastards over on the west coast, they get everything first!

Mike: Well I was looking at the traffic on the 101 last night on Google - now that Google has the traffic incorporated in Google Maps?

John: Yeah.

Ian: Oh God, yeah.

Mike: There's a lot of red in that state.

John: They've got their own color red.

Mike: It's pretty red for a blue state. But one thing - we've been looking at the concept - how close to the picture, you know the rendering you guys have done, do you think the car will be, eventually?

Ian: Probably very close.

John: So we've kinda been talking about the Venture One and mentioned the fact that you guys are positing it as an everyday car, and it's interesting, because it's... obviously, for people out there who haven't seen the picture of it, and you can check it out at flytheroad.com, but - it by no means looks like your regular car, especially not just because it's a trike, but because it only seats 2, right? It's one in front, one in back, kind of jet fighter style?

Ian: Yes, that's correct, and that's for a reason. 77% of all driving in the US, is one person per car, and 90% of commuting is one person per car. Because this thing is officially classified as a motorcycle, even if it weren't a hybrid, you could stray into the carpool lane like any other motorcycle.

John: Really?

Ian: Yeah.

John: Loophole!

Mike: Exactly, it's always a nice thing to grab a loophole and just run with it.

John: Now I have to ask, because from the conceptual drawing that's on the website - the cockpit looks nice and snug, but how safe is it? Because it's classified as a motorcycle, is there much attention paid to the cockpit as a safety cocoon, or is it just essentially you're treated like you're in a 2-person motorcycle?

Ian: Oh no. I mean, frankly, we wouldn't have to do anything. Because it's a motorcycle, and it's an assumed risk, we could build the whole thing out of crazy straws and saran wrap. Seriously. However, we're designing this thing to meet or exceed US Federal standards for cars, despite being classified as a motorcycle. So we're doing a chromoly steel roll cage, collapsible steering column, side-impact rails, we're putting in a driver's air bag, breakaway engine mount in the rear, 3-point driver and passenger safety belt, safety glass, and of course we have digital traction control and ABS all standard.

Mike: It's interesting, it occurs to me that you guys are able to do these kinds of things - you don't have a lot of the baggage that the big car companies have. And you can kind of go into - you can sort of build a car that sort of fits in with everybody's digital world that they're in. I mean we're talking about the car being able to link up by Wi-Fi. And so, people are already on their computers all the time, right? I mean, everybody's got all their stuff, and everything. But car companies aren't really positioned to be able to take advantage of that. Is that part of your thinking with this too?

Ian: Oh yeah, absolutely. If we want to do an embedded version of Linux in the vehicle, so people can upload their own music players and so on, and have them play? With the (car?) we can do that, or personal organizers, or other kinds of software that they can run within the vehicle. I mean, you talked about legacy manufacturing, like American car companies. Because we have a much lighter vehicle, we're composed of a lot fewer parts than a typical automobile, we can implement a production process that's nearly identical to motorcycles and ATVs. We're using lighter-weight components, and we can manufacture it for a fraction of the capital cost you see in a typical automotive assembly operation.

John: Gotcha.

Ian: So, basically, our manufacturing infrastructure would cost as little as $2 million, versus something like an automotive assembly operation which would cost anywhere from $200 to $500 million.

John: That's a big difference. That gives you a lot of flexibility.

Ian: Yes, it does. It also allows us to develop a turn-key assembly operation that will also allow us to set up local productions throughout the world at minimal cost. So we can set up assembly facilities for the vehicles in other countries, in those countries that we're going to be selling to.

Mike: Oh. So no need to ship overseas in big boats, and stuff like that. It's like everything I read in "Wired" Magazine about 10 years ago, wrapped up in one little vehicle. I mean, it's amazing. You know, the local production, the whole, you know, it's cheap.

John: This is the modern equivalent of the flying car.

Ian: Yeah, we're pretty excited ourselves. And exactly, when 2000 rolled around, it was like, "Where the hell is my flying car?"

John: Again, we're talking with Ian Bruce of Venture Vehicles, talking about the Venture One. We've kind of ignored it because we've been talking about the practical aspects, but it's also no slouch in the performance department, right? I mean, this thing's tiny as hell, and besides the fact that it gets 100 miles per gallon, it's got a top speed over 100 miles per hour?

Ian: That's correct. It's actually not that tiny. The vehicle itself is going to be about 11 feet, 8 inches long, which is about the size of a Mini Cooper.

John: Ok.

Ian: As well as the height. Your eye-line on the vehicle, when you're sitting in it, you're sitting feet forward, hands on the steering wheel. Your eye-line is about at 1.3 meters, so you're sitting up pretty high.

John: So that's like a typical roadster, I guess.

Ian: Actually, it's a little higher than a typical roadster. In something like a Porsche, you'd have an eye-line of about 1.1 meters. This is more like a Ford Siesta.

Mike: I wouldn't make that comparison too often. You might want to come up with a better one than that.

John: (laugh) Don't ever say that again!

Ian: But performance, remember we've got a very very lightweight body. Formula One cars for example, and things like the Lotus Roadsters, they're all about removing weight. Because we're only 60% to 50% the width of a standard car, we've already got a lot of the weight removed. We've got a very very strong subframe, and the body panels that are on the outside are aerodynamic, they're not structural, so we're using lightweight thermo plastics. The acceleration on this thing - because we're using the in-hub electric motors - we're looking at acceleration times for 0-60 between 4 and 5 seconds.

John: That's pretty - I mean, by any standard, that's pretty quick.

Mike: Oh yeah, no joke, that's sports car territory easy.

John: You know, the interesting thing about the in-wheel - we were talking about this a little bit before, but - Mitsubishi has been showing this a lot lately in their concepts for the past couple of years...

Ian: Yeah, their MiEV concept, yes.

John: Now, so the benefits, like you said before, are that you can put things like ABS right into the software. Is this going to be the way that cars go, or is this kind of just for niche speciality vehicles?

Ian: No, I absolutely think its going to be the way to go. The motors - I mean, even though we've got two of them, one in each wheel - there are exactly 2 moving parts in that whole configuration, and that includes the wheels. At sixty miles an hour, the rotation of the motors is only about 900 RPM. That's what my car idles at.

John: Yeah, I was going to say.

Mike: Wow. Yeah.

John: I mean, that's like a big old V-8, just loping down the road. That's like, nothing.

Mike: Yeah, that's like having a semi motor on the back of your motorcycle.

John: Exactly.

Ian: Yeah, exactly. We've got this really flat, very linear torque curve. The electric motors develop 100% of their torque at 0 RPM, and there is no transmission. It's just a direct drive. So, remove the transmission - I mean, an automatic transmission is one of the most complex devices known to man.

Mike: Well you know, it's interesting because the torque - so you can actually set up drivability based on the software too, right? I mean, if you want to go off the line a little bit quicker, you want to maybe - if the kids are driving and you want to back it off a little bit, you could set the software.

Ian: Yeah, we can have a mode select on the vehicle. In fact, on the fully electric version, you've got several different mode selects. On the hybrid version, you have an economy mode, which for the first 20 miles only runs the vehicle off the battery. So your mileage cost is about one cent per mile. In that, you can go home, just plug it back in when you're done. There's also a standard hybrid mode, and also a performance mode, where you're drawing power directly from the generator and the battery simultaneously. So your acceleration and top speeds can be much higher, but you burn more gas that way.

Mike: Gotcha. So, stoplight-drag race mode.

Ian: Yeah, exactly.

Mike: So, I've got to ask one last question, Ian: How much is this thing going to cost when it comes out?

Ian: We're shooting for a target price on the entry level model of under 20k. We'd like to get that down to about 18 or so. We think we can get there. That puts it in the category of something like a Honda Goldwing.

Mike: Yeah, not a bad deal.

John: Yeah.

Ian: Except it's 100 miles per gallon. And another way to look at it, is if you do a fair amount of driving, your cost savings on gasoline would pretty much cover your car payments.

Mike: Yeah, exactly. Well that's true. So what's the timeline, do you think? I mean, what are we looking at? When are we going to see this?

Ian: As I said, we're working with Swift Engineering and others on the new set of prototypes. We're building about 12 prototypes, both hybrid and EV versions, and probably going to have those available by around September of this year. And then, we've got the whole production and tooling process, so we hope to start doing the shows at the end of this year. And tooling up for production actually having vehicles available by sometime around Q3-Q4 of 2008.

Mike: Oh, OK. So it looks like the old buyer's list is about to start going up then.

Ian: Yeah, exactly. Well, we've created that blog - flytheroad.com - and the forums, so people are welcome to come in and participate, put in their two cents and so on. We're taking consumer input very seriously here. We'd love to see anyone who's interested in this area contribute.

Mike: Cool. Very cool.

John: Cool.

Mike: Well, Ian Bruce, appreciate it. Ian Bruce, of Venture Vehicles, talking about the Venture One. Thanks for coming on so much. We'll be looking forward to checking this thing when it comes out.

Ian: OK, Mike. OK, John. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Mike: So that was Ian Bruce, awesome guy, very cool. I'm kind of a little scared of the vehicle. The whole tilting thing looks just kind of freaky, but it seems like an amazing thrill ride.

John: Yeah, 100 miles an hour, 0-60 in, what? 4.7 seconds, he said?

Mike: He said between 4 and 5, yeah.

John: That's, that's, uhhh... You know, when you're.... You know, it's nothing to sneeze at. You know, anything under 5, you're talking about almost supercar territory.

Mike: Oh yeah, exactly. And the thing is: can you imagine? You take a fairly tight corner at 100 miles an hour, and that thing tilts however far it tilts - it looks like 30, 35 degrees? And your shoulder is dragging on the ground as you're doing 100 around a corner? I mean, that's just absolutely insane.

John: Yeah, it's like a total Top Gear moment. You're calling out for Goose.

Mike: Exactly. I'm always calling out for Goose.

<Maxim Radio jingle plays>

Mike: Guys, that is all for us. RPM, powered by Castrol Syntec, for maximum power. Great cars want more than just oil. Give them Castrol Syntec. We're out!

John: See ya!

[rogwild]

Waboom, thanks for the work. Too bad things like the performance figures (0-60mph under 5 sec.), price (under 20k), in-wheel electric motors, vehicle EV range, etc. have all seemed to change for the worse, I guess we'll just have to WAIT and see what comes out at the END.

[PHEVadvocate]

HELP us Ian, we are rehashing news over a year old and out of date! :cry:

Please, we need a update!

=y:

[RAN]

PHEV, with the "Large Print Reader's Digest Version" of the Update Plea... ;)

Finally! One I can read without my glasses on! :cool:

[AKP23]

Excellant! Now time for an update, ya think?

Thanks waboom