Hacker News Reader

Comment by jurrgis | Hacker News Reader

Hey guys, we are a team of five engineers and over the last 6 years we’ve been developing a high-performance electric three-wheeler. We’ve built two prototypes up to date.

It’s a futuristic looking vehicle with a new kind of body tilting system. We made the system completely mechanical which means there are no complex actuators, etc. The trike weighs around 400kg, it’s equipped by a 24kWh battery with 200hp output and 300+ km of range.

It will also have two seats, airbags, sportish seat belts, room for luggage, and it’s extremely fun to ride! Our hope is to turn it into a commercial product.

Let me know what you guys think

View on HN

This trike is awesome! Love the way it looks open and closed.

I have an electric motorcycle and it's crazy fun. I've driven t-rex trikes before and those are so much fun too so the combo has to amazing!

One thing I'd like to see are door bars like you see in a roll cage. The exposed area is pretty big and even with the enclosure the door doesn't appear to be structural. The door bars can be swing out not fixed which is also approved in most racing specs for roll cage design.

What's the battery swap process on this? I'd like to see it designed to be a quick swap so it this is used on a course it could be swapped out for a charged spare but I understand if that isn't feasible.

Also as far as price goes, you're positioned cheaper than and Ariel Atom and a t-rex although it is smaller so that is expected. But I think it's a good price target for people who might cross shop those toys.

Yeah it's like a good premium motorcycle

oh it will have full doors, we shot the video when we did not have one for the prototype, haha. It's a good idea to thing about quick swapping of the batteries, thanks for that. Not sure if it is viable enough, looking from engineering perspective.

Great work guys. The design looks modern and travel range is impressive. How does it compare other three wheel scooters?

that's the fun part, there are not many options on the market that would be even close. We're positioning it more on the electric sportsbikes category due to it's tilting & performance. Latest calculations shows 3s for 0-60mph

How do you make the body tilt system work well with a wide range of driver weights?

The systems I've seen are spring-balanced, which can only work smoothly for drivers of a certain weight. Too light a driver and it's hard to crank the wheel all the way. Too heavy and it gets wobbly at low speed.

That's the cool thing about it. We've built it based on pure mechanical solutions, not hydraulics, not actuators (MB had a concept of F300 life-jet that would be the closest option). And to answer your question - we've tried it with two full sized guys and it's smooooooth. We've actually posted a video on our social where two guys are in it, and the driver even touched the ground while tilting. I mean, you can really have fun with this thing no matter the weight

How does it handle with a single, light occupant (say, 100-130 lbs)?

Flawlessly. The center of mass is low, so really no problems. The physics is on your side, that's the fun. Whenever you push the throttle, it will always want to keep you straight (not tilted). And I've just understood how difficult it is to explain the experience by text haha

I’d love to see a diagram or patent filing for the tilt mechanism if one can be shared. I’m only used to ones that can be described as “fussy” and “high maintenance.”

What price range are you aiming at?

It says on the website "TARGET MARKET PRICE: €24000 PRICE IS A SUBJECT TO CHANGE DEPENDING ON SELECTED VEHICLE CONFIGURATION".

It’s probably banner blindness. Not a best place to put a price near “as seen on...” section. Had to actually use “find on page” functionality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banner_blindness

At that price point it’s going to be competing with the Tesla Model 3 once Musk gets the price point closer to his $30k mark. It’s a great idea, but it needs to be 50% cheaper.

we're thinking of introducing several models, that would break down into three main costs: ECO - 12K EUR, PREMIUM - 24K EUR. Both of these will have few options to select from (like range, power, rims, etc)

You say 200 hp, website says 200 kW. Which is it?

The specs do look fantastic.

The specs on the website are target and may change a bit. Latest tests (yesterday) showed that we're having extreme performance at 150kW already, so we may stick with that. I mean, it's only around 400kg in weight

Reply on news.ycombinator.com