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标题: 2008 Vectrix Electric Scooter [打印本页]

作者: andy1918770 时间: 2010-3-18 13:27
标题: 2008 Vectrix Electric Scooter
2008 Vectrix Electric Scooter
The Shape of Things To Come?
By Yossef Schvetz, Sep. 19, 2007, Photography by Lorella Borri
Fancy a peek into a truly functional crystal ball? Hop on this new ground-breaking scooter made by America-based Vectrix Company and have a taste of what may become the shape of things to come: electric-powered bikes.
With our non-renewable fossil fuel supplies running short, there’s little doubt that alternative power two wheelers such as the Vectrix will crowd our streets one day, whether we like it or not. Car makers have been at it for a while, but none has really offered a fully zero-emissions vehicle. The Vectrix, on the other hand, is no hybrid thing – there’s no internal combustion engine charging batteries for a mixed cycle.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Vectrix, just as smooth as our beloved superhero, gliding silently through the countryside.
Vectrix says its scooter is made up from just 250 components versus the 2,500 needed to construct a typical gas scooter), resulting in reduced production costs and minimal maintenance.
Not the best color match but the Trattoria's owners refused to repaint the house in a more suitable shade for MO's photo session.
Instead the Vectrix runs solely on electric power, and after a few days of commuting on it, I have to admit I was in a slight state of future shock. Nothing to do with the actual riding, mind you. On many levels the Vectrix feels and behaves just like a current big scooter. Think more about new mindsets: personal energy management, carrying all sorts of extension cords and pacing yourself to make it to the next socket.
But before we get all too philosophical about the Vectrix, here’s the story behind the innovative vehicle that goes where the Big Four fear to tread, at least for now.
Seems like around 1995, good old Lockheed Martin was looking for some nice projects to bite on outside the military field. Together with entrepreneur Andrew MacGowan, they soon enough came to realize that a zero-emissions urban vehicle that runs purely on electricity could be a swell idea. Bam!
Fifty million dollars and 11 years later we have a mass produced scooter that delivers the goods. Okay, okay, it's been a bit more complex than that to be sure.
Big hitters like Parker Hannifin, ALCOA, Gold Peak batteries and others had to pool their engineering resources, and a new facility was established in New Bradford, MA, but by 1997 a first prototype was up and running. The scooter was unveiled at the Bologna show of 2000.
The Italian connection is not casual. With close to 300,000 scooters per year sold in Italy alone, this is the most commuting-aware two-wheeled market in the West and a fertile ground to introduce the Vectrix. Just to make sure the message didn't get lost on the spaghetti eaters, Carlo Di Biagio, former CEO of Ducati Motor Holding, was brought into the board.
Technically speaking, the story looks misleadingly simple. A brushless DC motor that sits next to the rear wheel and drives it though planetary gear powers the Vectrix. The huge space between the rider legs, basically the scooter's bottom spine, is filled with NiMH batteries rechargeable batteries. Easier said than done. With no similar vehicle using the technology things like motor and batteries, controllers had to be developed from scratch. The weighty batteries required a sizable weight reduction in other areas, which could only be achieved by going for a unique all-aluminum frame under the injected ABS body parts.
By 2005, the project was mature enough to win Vectrix the Frost & Sullivan Award for “Technology Innovation & Leadership of the Year,” while in far away Poland an assembly line was being constructed. When you consider the kind of media noise that some small manufacturers of Big Twin choppers are able to create around their low-tech creatures, you have to take your hat off in front of Vectrix's quiet yet amazingly profound way of doing things. Behind the Vectrix's production there's a complex logistic chain that brings together electric parts from the USA, cycle parts from Italy, batteries from Hong Kong and who knows what else.
Yossef's doing his best to recharge the Vectrix with his superpowers. It worked at the end.
What she'll do you ask? Okay, here it starts to get tricky. Remember the different mind-set thing? So forget about cc's, valves per cylinder and such. If it's any consolation, then you might be happy to know that the "3-phase, permanent magnets, brushless, 12-pole, 16-slot" motor manages to develop a healthy 25 hp, about equal to a current 250-300cc gas-powered scooter. But that doesn't tell the whole story because being electric, the motor can develop huge torque from nil revs and has a peak torque of 45 foot-pounds.
Give the Vectrix a good handful and indeed, even if top speed is limited electronically to 60 mph in order to preserve battery power, the Vectrix gets there in a real hurry, leaving most cars in its wake. Between 30 to 50 mph the Vectrix is truly impressive, gaining speed during roll-ons with some serious oomph.
But that's telling half the story because the way the electric motor responds to throttle inputs is simply unlike nothing else I've tried. First there's the uncanny silence, a quite soft wooosh magically accompanies you. Then, remember when journos used the term "electric motor response" to describe a healthy gas engine? Well, a true electric motor feels even nicer, the sheer fluidity of the drive is fun, fun, fun, and when the time comes to tip-toe in traffic, you can really dole out the drive in what feels like fractions of foot-pounds. The control is simply amazing.
Considering the small size of the brushless DC motor (the finned maxi wheel hub), it packs some serious punch. All Vectrix needs to do to create a Silver Wing beater is add one to the front wheel too.
The instrument panel is rather sporty looking. All important battery state info gets the whole of the right dial as a display. Shame that the clock would reset itself whenever the Vectrix was plugged in for a re-charge.
Coast through turns with the throttle in its neutral position or use the regenerative braking to slow down – both approaches worked well with our electroscoot.
ed to slow down? Don't bother touching the excellent Brembos at both ends. Vectrix has patented an ingenious energy regenerating system, and if you roll the throttle backwards, the motor starts acting like a generator, slowing down the vehicle and transforming the kinetic energy back into electricity that can be stored in the battery for later use. The braking force ranges from mild to pretty serious, and just like the throttle; it can be finely adjusted by how far you twist the throttle in reverse. As if that wasn't enough, in parking maneuvers from a standstill, rolling the throttle backwards results in backward motion, nice touch.
The only problems I find so far are that if you do touch the rear brake while using the throttle braking at the same time, the rear wheel tends to lock too easy. It wouldn't be a bad idea to cutoff the regenerative braking when the real brakes are used. More to the point, the regenerative braking system is so much fun to use that you tend to forget all about normal braking, but in an emergency case, you will have to use those good levers but might not be so accustomed to them anymore. My last complaint is not braking related. Although the riding posture looked at first normal enough, on my longer runs the too-close handlebars induced some mid-back pain that was a bit annoying. A bit of a shame because the seat is actually Gold-Wing plush.
Considering the hefty dry weight of 460 lbs., the Vectrix actually responds nicely to handlebar inputs and is quite agile. The low center of gravity of the battery and motor unit do their part while the stiff aluminum frame keeps the whole plot very steady while leaned over. The sporty calibrated suspension was a bit harsh over speed bumps, but other than that, the cycle side of things is really well sorted out.
And this is when we reach at last the mother of all questions: battery life. Vectrix claims that in an urban riding cycle, the 3.7 kW-h rated nickel-metal hydride batteries can supply up to 60 miles of range. Thing is that my 20-mile ride to work happens mostly on the not-so-urban Milano ring road and the technician that handed me the scooter warned me about getting too throttle happy. On top of that, the scooter was brought to me only 70% charged, and I had to get to work, no time for a recharge.
My ride begins with caution, and as I hit the busy highway, I settle on a 45-mph cruise rather going "berserk" at 60. The heavy morning traffic isn't going much faster anyway. The most useful tool you have in order to judge your range is the backwards mile counter that tells you how many more miles you have left in the batteries. As I am getting nearer and nearer to my office, I am relieved to still have a good 20 miles of charge.

作者: pansh01 时间: 2010-3-18 13:44
pls unload some picture about the Electric Scooter

作者: andy1918770 时间: 2010-3-18 14:05
为什么不让我传图！！

作者: andy1918770 时间: 2010-3-18 14:06
THANKS MATE！

作者: xq_aoao 时间: 2010-3-18 17:07
不错不错不错不错

作者: kimi_hua 时间: 2010-3-18 19:18

作者: chtq 时间: 2010-3-18 20:08
楼主等等我去装个金山快译

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