# Calling all UK enthusiasts



## Ellrot (May 17, 2010)

I'm a Precision Engineer, from Lincolnshire England, I'm on a mission to try and make a difference

As we all know the UK is in pretty Dire Straits right now. I have been working on a business idea for the past 2 years, to kick start the EV industry and our national infrastructure (where I live it's non-existent), whilst also providing a more affordable EV option without loosing out on style (lets face it production Ev's look ghastly) 

The Primary Objective is to make travelling by car affordable once again, giving people more disposable cash, which will help to stimulate or economy...

The business model aims to be as sustainable and carbon neutral as possible. This is done by Carbon credits, weighing in of ICE, recycling of production scrap. Installation of charge stations with Green/renewable energy sources. 

I have already had meetings to secure government funding to get involved with such a project, and responses are good. 

The largest Hurdle at the moment is sourcing good affordable batteries. Ideally in-house production would be cheapest, but I wonder if anyone else could provide another solution?? or know of any companies in the uk producing Battery tech worthy of Ev's demands? 

After a Meeting with http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58958&highlight=favguy we realised we need to get as many enthusiasts involved as possible to provide the right work ethic and industry knowledge. 

So I am calling all enthusiasts who want to make a change, to get intouch!! 

[email protected]


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

I'm interested in helping out in any way I can.

Sent you a PM.

Cheers,

Mike


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## Woodsmith (Jun 5, 2008)

Watching with interest.


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## iti_uk (Oct 24, 2011)

Also watching with interest. I'm a newb as far as EVs are concerned, but I would like to see a project like this take off properly! More of a CAD/FEA engineer than a businessman though.

Chris


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## Ellrot (May 17, 2010)

Cheers guys, nice to get a positive response




iti_uk said:


> Also watching with interest. I'm a newb as far as EVs are concerned, but I would like to see a project like this take off properly! More of a CAD/FEA engineer than a businessman though.
> 
> Chris


What sort of CAD programs do you use?


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## Kevin Sharpe (Jul 4, 2011)

Ellrot said:


> I have been working on a business idea for the past 2 years, to kick start the EV industry and our national infrastructure (where I live it's non-existent)


Sounds like an interesting project... for the record, ZCW are donating 1,000 free Charging Stations to UK business and hope to have them installed by next July (2012), with a further 10,000 to follow;

http://www.zerocarbonworld.org/zcw-charging-stations

Please let us have some more details of your infrastructure plans so that we can work together.

Good luck!


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## iti_uk (Oct 24, 2011)

Ellrot said:


> What sort of CAD programs do you use?


Catia (V5) is my preferred environment. I can use Solidworks and ProEngineer.

For FEA I use ANSA as a pre-processor, Nastran (static) and LS Dyna or Radioss (dynamic) solvers and Metapost post-processor, although all of these I have restricted use of at work - the servers they run on are strictly monitored.

Chris


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## favguy (May 2, 2008)

Yes, very productive meeting on Wed. with Ellrot. I'd urge any UK guys to contact him if you have any EV relevent abilities/skillset. We need to get organised as there seem to only be a handfull of us around!


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## Ace_bridger (Nov 22, 2011)

Hi there,

I'm UK based and will watch with interest. I'm also a aero project engineer with access to all that normal gumph. Solidworks is my prefered package.

Have you spoken with Skool about lithium?

Cheers and good work, I think you're right to be doing this and have considered similar myself.

One thing I would say is, and excuse my cynisism, but whatever mode of transport becomes the choice of the masses it is that which will attract the highest taxation...and so the battle of wits continues!!

All the very best and drop me a line if you need to.

Adam


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## MalcolmB (Jun 10, 2008)

I'd like to encourage any initiative to encourage electric vehicle adoption, and especially promote affordable road use, but over the last few years I've also learned to be a little sceptical. Could you give a rough sketch of your business model and tell us who you've met with to discuss funding?


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## MikeBoxwell (Aug 5, 2008)

This is very interesting. We have a suitable drivetrain and chassis to produce an affordable electric car, plus we have the R&D, prototyping and production facilities and the expertise to make it a reality. In other words, if you are serious, we can help you make this happen.

However, we have not found a business model that would make building a low cost electric car - and I stress car - a commercially viable operation. We can find business models for other electric vehicles - indeed, we're going to be launching one ourselves early next year - but producing a low cost electric car is actually quite a difficult thing to achieve.

In terms of funding, have you given any thought as to how much this is actually going to cost to design, build and put into production? Do you genuinely have access to the funding to make this happen?


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## RobSmith (Aug 13, 2010)

iti_uk said:


> Catia (V5) is my preferred environment. I can use Solidworks and ProEngineer.
> 
> For FEA I use ANSA as a pre-processor, Nastran (static) and LS Dyna or Radioss (dynamic) solvers and Metapost post-processor, although all of these I have restricted use of at work - the servers they run on are strictly monitored.
> 
> Chris


V5 Me too. It is great although a licence at £1k a quarter it is rather dear. 

Interesting thread and post some updates as things progress.

Rob


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

MikeBoxwell said:


> This is very interesting. We have a suitable drivetrain and chassis to produce an affordable electric car, plus we have the R&D, prototyping and production facilities and the expertise to make it a reality. In other words, if you are serious, we can help you make this happen.
> 
> However, we have not found a business model that would make building a low cost electric car - and I stress car - a commercially viable operation. We can find business models for other electric vehicles - indeed, we're going to be launching one ourselves early next year - but producing a low cost electric car is actually quite a difficult thing to achieve.
> 
> In terms of funding, have you given any thought as to how much this is actually going to cost to design, build and put into production? Do you genuinely have access to the funding to make this happen?


 
Hi MikeBoxwell,

Have you got anything online (pictures/plans/writups) your drivetrain and chassis?

What is it that you actually do? (excuse my ignorance!)

As said in a PM to Ellrot. I am more than happy to help out with Lithium, I'll happily supply at cost price to get things moving on a large scale project like this. 

I think that something needs to be done to supply an affordable EV to the UK market.

I am all for getting togethor as a community and getting something moving,

perhaps it woul be worth talking to some of the smaller manufacturers about having some 'shells' ordered, I seem to remember daihatsu will supply you a car with no engine etc for fairly cheap.

Anyway, I'm more than willing to help get things moving.

Perhaps we should all get togethor for a chat in a central location?

Cheers,

Mike


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## MikeBoxwell (Aug 5, 2008)

I run a company specialising in EV design and development. We work with a number of different manufacturers and have access to a number of different chassis and drivetrains, some of which we own, others which we can access from our partners.

Posting detailed information about these on a public forum is not appropriate, but we would certainly be able to share more information as part of a structured working group.

However, at this stage, nobody other than Ellrot really knows what the proposal is, what the finance looks like and so on. If this is a serious proposition from Ellrot, I guess it is up to him to co-ordinate something, but this is what I would propose:


Somebody needs to co-ordinate getting a list of contact details together - names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and Skype addresses.
We agree a basic confidentiality agreement between us, to give Ellrot some confidence that we're not all going to nick his ideas and go sailing off into the sunset without him!
Ellrot provides a brief description of the project he is proposing.
We arrange a suitable time for a video conference call using Skype, or similar, to discuss this in more detail.

I would propose a video conference meeting in the first instance rather than everyone travelling to a central location because of the time, cost and environmental impact of doing so. Of course, if this project is serious, then we are going to have to meet up sooner rather than later, but if it is serious, we're also going to have to get smart at communicating between us - best start sooner rather than later!

So... I guess that passes the ball back to Ellrot. I've PMed across my contact information to you. Let me know what you want to do as a next step.


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## Midnight (Dec 12, 2011)

I have an idea for a small volume affordable modern British made Sports Car if anyone is interested.

The finished product would appeal to a section of the market concerned with style and environment. 

I have access to new old/stock bodyshells and the parts to build the mechanical aspects of the vehicle. The project would need design of the EV system and marketing.

I would envisage the retail price to be a fraction of the Tesla price and still provide a very desirable car.


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## Ellrot (May 17, 2010)

Wow, I'm really impressed with the response.. 

Looks like everyone got something to offer. Which could be the key to making this work. 



Kevin Sharpe said:


> Sounds like an interesting project... for the record, ZCW are donating 1,000 free Charging Stations to UK business and hope to have them installed by next July (2012), with a further 10,000 to follow;
> 
> http://www.zerocarbonworld.org/zcw-charging-stations
> 
> ...


This looks very interesting. I'm not settled 100% on where all the infrastructure is going to be, it needs to be right other wise they'll go to waste. So far the suggestions for charge points are: Car parks, taxi Ranks, schools, Supermarkets, train stations, Large corporations staff car parks, just to name a few. 

I have been in contact with Skooler about the Batteries, looks like we may have something there...




MalcolmB said:


> I'd like to encourage any initiative to encourage electric vehicle adoption, and especially promote affordable road use, but over the last few years I've also learned to be a little sceptical. Could you give a rough sketch of your business model and tell us who you've met with to discuss funding?


I'd love to share more details of my idea, I'm sure you can appreciate me waiting until I've organised a basic confidentiality agreement between everyone interested. 

As Mike suggested, it would be a good idea to get a community going, so if everyone would like to send me (PM) their contact details, inc region location, email address, websites, contact phone numbers and field of expertise. then I'll put together a contacts list. and we can also start to move things forward. 




MikeBoxwell said:


> This is very interesting. We have a suitable drivetrain and chassis to produce an affordable electric car, plus we have the R&D, prototyping and production facilities and the expertise to make it a reality. In other words, if you are serious, we can help you make this happen.


I'm really excited in seeing what you have to offer. Making this work isn't going to be easy, but then nothing worth doing is, and you could potentially make it a lot easier. 

Funding is a serious matter, I've recently had a meeting with The local College who have funding for expanding or new enterprises, these guys saw a lot of potential with the project and want to get all of their heads involved, including their contacts with the Lincolnshire council. last Friday they paid me a visit and got me to sign a confidentiality and T+C's form, and asked for another meeting to be held with new faces from E-factor and the rest of the College enterprise and business lecturers in January. So this is pretty serious stuff. I shall be taking "Favguy" with me to the meeting also. 



Midnight said:


> I have an idea for a small volume affordable modern British made Sports Car if anyone is interested.
> 
> The finished product would appeal to a section of the market concerned with style and environment.
> 
> ...


This sounds good, I've already been looking at british built sports cars as donors, and I think it would be a good idea to have a more bespoke side of the business, offering people a chance to have their toys back. Can you send me a little more info... 

If I've not answered everyone's questions, please highlight it so I can give you a straight answer!

regards


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## Ellrot (May 17, 2010)

Hey Guys Happy new year, this is my first day back.

I've just start a little blog for all those who have been in contact with me so far making it easier for us to all talk together.. 

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/blog.php?b=469


For all those mentioned in the blog so far, if you aren't happy with anything I've put please let me know.. 

Regards

Ellrot


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## favguy (May 2, 2008)

Happy new year!

The blog doesn't appear to be working though?


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## Ellrot (May 17, 2010)

favguy said:


> Happy new year!
> 
> The blog doesn't appear to be working though?


Grrr not sure what I didn wrong, try it again. 

should pop up in new blogs anyway


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

No luck for me either


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## Kevin Sharpe (Jul 4, 2011)

Ellrot said:


> So I am calling all enthusiasts who want to make a change, to get intouch!!


How is your project progressing? I'm happy to say that we've so far donated 218 Charging Stations across the UK


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## Ellrot (May 17, 2010)

Kevin Sharpe said:


> How is your project progressing? I'm happy to say that we've so far donated 218 Charging Stations across the UK


Wow looks like you guys are doing really well. Things have slowed down for me recently I'm afraid due to my girlfriend loosing her job, which has meant working harder to make ends meet, so my project has been on the back burner for the past couple of months.. 

I have had lots of Support from People like "Favguy", E-factor, GY institute, and Co2 sense. I've even had some good feedback from emotor werks in California. 

The Business plan is this in the early stages, of course I'm an Engineer so writing business plans isn't exactly my forte. The Biggest problem thinking of a way of providing a quality service at an affordable price. This required some thinking outside of the box, and has lead me to a finding my 5 yr and 10 year plan. 

My Next plan of action is to enter an EV technician course, I have found 1 in California which is a 16 week course.. http://www.cleantechinstitute.org/Training/CEVT.html 
I have no idea baout the credentials of this so if anyone knows anything please get in touch


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## Kevin Sharpe (Jul 4, 2011)

ZeroNet expansion continues with 278 locations live across the UK


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## Ellrot (May 17, 2010)

That's a bit spooky, I was just on your website yesterday!

I'm still planning on my ev conversion, but it's been a little slow, due to having to put all my efforts into keeping my engineering company afloat and my house. All good now though, just need to build the capital again.

I'd assume other already Know about Emotorwerks JuiceBox! I think an open source Fast charger coupled with the Zero-net map would be awesome. 

Hey Kevin any word on charge points being Donated in Lincolnshire? Your map says there aren't any, but there are a couple. There is 1 fast charger at every Nissan Garage in uk now apparently, donated by Chargemaster plc I think.


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## sexstrap (Feb 25, 2013)

Ellrot said:


> I'm a Precision Engineer, from Lincolnshire England, I'm on a mission to try and make a difference
> 
> As we all know the UK is in pretty Dire Straits right now. I have been working on a business idea for the past 2 years, to kick start the EV industry and our national infrastructure (where I live it's non-existent), whilst also providing a more affordable EV option without loosing out on style (lets face it production Ev's look ghastly)
> 
> ...


Hi Ellrot

Not sure if this thread is still active but you share my sentiments and I would be interested in hearing more if your plans are still actively being persued.

Graham


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## M. Lewisham (May 14, 2021)

So how did the story end 🤔


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