Tiny Electric Car Cost $420,000 To Build
Rick Woodbury claims he has created a car that might solve the world’s traffic congestion problems. Rick from Spokane, Washington USA, is the president, founder and sole employee of ‘Commuter Cars.’ The carmaker’s flagship model is the 2005 super slim two-seater Tango T600, a high-performance electric car that preceded Tesla. Rick told Ridiculous Rides: “I started this company 21 years ago – it was based on an idea that I came up with in 1982.” He was inspired by the shocking traffic congestion he had to face on a daily basis.
Transcript
00:00 The coolest feature to me is that it can get through traffic faster than any car in history.
00:04 We get so many reactions from people watching it, it's amazing.
00:08 Hi, I'm Rick Woodbury. I'm president and founder of Commuter Cars.
00:15 I started this company 21 years ago.
00:20 It was based on an idea that I came up with in 1982.
00:28 I used to drive a Porsche from Beverly Hills to Humos Beach every day, and the traffic was horrendous.
00:34 And I noticed that everybody around me was a single occupant in a car, taking up a whole lane.
00:39 So I thought, everybody wants to get from point A to point B efficiently.
00:43 And in cities like Los Angeles, there's really no centre, there's no hub, it's just everybody goes everywhere.
00:49 I don't think there's any other answer except doubling lane capacity.
00:53 This is the time to do it.
00:55 This is the Tango Car, a super slim electric vehicle that has created Rick's answer to congested city driving.
00:59 Well, the coolest feature to me is that it can get through traffic faster than any car in history.
01:03 Same width as a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
01:05 You just come up to a stoplight, but instead of waiting in line behind all the other cars, you just go right up the line in between and you filter.
01:11 On the inside, well, it's very comfortable.
01:13 You're right in the centre of the car.
01:15 You're on the driver's side on both sides of the road.
01:17 You're not in the middle of the road.
01:19 You're in the centre of the car.
01:21 So it's very convenient.
01:23 You can look out either window, you've got better visibility, you can see exactly what's happening around you.
01:27 You've got better visibility than any car I've ever had.
01:29 You can fit two people.
01:31 This has a Momo steering wheel.
01:33 This is actually used by race cars, the Motec Dash.
01:35 Four-point shoulder harness.
01:37 The pilots of commercial aircraft use these exact harnesses.
01:39 With a comfortable and easy to drive interior, what is it like to drive a car like this?
01:43 It's a lot of fun.
01:45 It's a lot of fun.
01:47 With a comfortable and easy to drive interior, what is it like to drive a car like this?
01:51 It handles really well.
01:53 We know it has a super low centre of gravity, being that it has a dry sump engine that's opposed.
01:59 So it's got a lower centre of gravity than just about any other car.
02:01 I've had it up to 120 miles an hour.
02:03 So the length is 102 inches, the same width of a semi-truck.
02:07 So it can park perpendicular to the kerb.
02:09 So it can park perpendicular to the kerb.
02:16 This is the chassis.
02:18 And this is the roll cage that is certified by FIA for a 200-mile-an-hour race car.
02:24 There's about four times more impact protection here than there is in a standard production car.
02:29 To me, this car is safer than any other car on the road.
02:32 Because it can avoid accidents better than any other car.
02:34 This has the same rollover threshold as a 911 Porsche.
02:37 It turns instantly, unlike a motorcycle, which has to counter-steer before it can turn to avoid a collision.
02:43 The Tango debuted in 2005.
02:45 And after actor George Clooney bought one, the car became a runaway success.
02:49 Due to the nature of the build, the company can only produce a certain amount.
02:55 It took ten employees about three years to get nine and a half cars built.
02:59 And this is number ten.
03:01 It's been quite a few more years.
03:04 But also it's a lot more complicated.
03:06 We've spent a couple of years just developing the new lithium pack for this one.
03:10 But there have been constant upgrades over the years,
03:13 just to get the lithium batteries and the management systems to handle them.
03:17 This is the car that we sold to a customer in Perth, Australia.
03:22 And it's in the process of assembly, but mostly it's waiting on completion of the battery pack.
03:30 The battery box is here.
03:31 The whole bottom of the car is battery.
03:34 There's 90 kilowatt hours of battery in there, which will give us about 300 miles of range.
03:39 With all the work needed to create these slender vehicles, the production costs can't be that cheap.
03:43 These cars have cost an average of $420,000 each to build.
03:48 And unsurprisingly, out on the road, this car gets a lot of attention.
03:52 Hi, sure, of course.
03:58 Thank you.
03:59 Yeah.
04:00 This is so cool that you got this done. I'm so impressed with you. That's amazing.
04:04 We get so many reactions from people watching it. It's amazing.
04:07 Sometimes we have two people, both the driver and a passenger, both photographing the car as we're going down the highway.
04:13 It grabs a lot of attention.
04:16 [Engine Revving]
04:19 [Music Fades Out]
04:22 [Silence]