Mission Gets $500K – Electric Drive Package Trend Coming?

Image courtesy of Amarok Consultants

Mission Motors was granted $505,381 for development of the Mission Electric Vehicle Technology (Mission EVT) by the California Energy Commission. The announcement reveals that Mission will build a downtown SanFrancisco facility able to crank out 30,000 EVT’s per year and employ 100 locals.

From the California Energy Commission news release:

Electric vehicles components – $505,381 to San Francisco-based Mission Motor Company to help it bring its prototype electric vehicle components to commercial production. In 2007 the company developed Mission One, a high performance electric motorcycle. The company used that technology to create battery modules and motor control systems that will work in other electric motorcycles, scooters, cars, buses and even outdoor power equipment. Along with the Energy Commission grant, Mission Motor Company will provide match funding of $623,581 to create an assembly facility in downtown San Francisco that should be capable of producing 30,000 battery packs and motor control systems each year by 2015, creating as many as 100 jobs. If used in a motorcycle, the resulting powertrain will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 72 percent and save 70 gallons of petroleum each year. If used in a light duty passenger vehicle, the powertrain will cut emissions by the same percent as it displaces 575 gallons of petroleum yearly.

It seems we are seeing a trend in EV design and funding developing here. Mission Motors is not the first company to focus its electric drive expertise into an integrated electric drive package. MotoCzysz developed and markets the MotoCzysz Electric D1g1tal Dr1ve based on what it learned from the e1pc electric  project. MotoCzysz’ eDD or “suitcase” is a fully integrated drive train for use with motorcycles and other vehicles.

Zero Motorcycles was granted $900,000 a few months back by the California Energy Commission to develop a new electric drivetrain. The press release said the edrive would be used for Zero Motorcycles. No word on them developing a package like the eDD or the EVT at this point but it might be a good move unless they feel they have enough free money.

Mission EVT Electric Drive Platform

All electric motorcycle companies put extensive research into getting batteries and motors to play together nicely in an electric drive format. They worked out power delivery glitches and irregularities, developed ways to keep the motor and batteries cool and identified the best combination of technologies for the task. All of these small details are critical for a happy EV ownership experience.

Mission and MotoCzysz distilled their core knowledge assets down and packaged it as a building block for purchase by other companies. No one knows what the ultimate EV package is yet. Brammo, Zero, Quantya, etc come closer with each model iteration to figuring that out but no one has nailed it yet. While they attempt to nail the product they need to develop a distribution network, dealers, marketing, etc so they can scale up product sales. These are things that are tough to build and other legacy manufacturers already have them in place. With this in mind, it makes a lot of sense to package what you are good at and sell it to folks who are good at the rest.

Realistically, I think Mission Motors knows there is not enough $70,000 electric Superbike customers to support their business long term. However, they now have a product packed with intellectual property they can sell right now.  Companies who have more money can buy the package and figure out what type of EV the world really needs and put it in their garage.

The California Energy Commission thinks it’s worth throwing $500K at. I think we can count on the electric drive package trend continuing.

Source: California Energy Commission – Thanks for the tip Harry!

Image Source: Withheld for the benefit of one lucky PlugBike.com reader. Hell For Leather – Congrats BrammoFan, enjoy the sticker!