Oregon’s Willamette Valley has become home to the electric commuter. Considered anything between a Nissan Leaf and a golf cart, the commuter EV business is young, but developing fast. Arcimoto, located in Eugene, has enjoyed plenty of media buzz for its three-wheeled, 65-mph SRK model, code named ‘Red 5′. Arcimoto isn’t the only game in town and those still hedging on a hybrid will find the EV commuter price points and performance an interesting alternative.
Arcimoto’s marketing and manufacturing strategy – targeting local buyers, parts and politics – illustrates why area EV makers are speeding from prototype to production. Arcimoto serves as baseline construction – maybe poster boy – for a nubile industry promising cleaner rides and a lot of fun.
Given today’s tepid market conditions and support for other clean industries, why haven’t the brakes been put on commuter EVs? What makes the Willamette Valley and its products different?
It helps that Oregon’s people and government are both eco-friendly and responsive to the EV-commuting concept: carbon-free, short-range rides. Like California’s solar industry, the cluster model is working in Oregon, building economies of scale, momentum and acceptance. Cleantech sectors struggling for traction in the U.S. may consider a copycat approach. Entrepreneurs might put the Willamette Valley on their map.
Plush and fertile, the agriculture-rich Willamette Valley covers a 110-mile I-5 stretch running from Eugene to Portland. And the majority of Oregon’s 40 EV vendors dot the landscape. Arcimoto’s SRK, a fifth-gen, near-production prototype, features both custom parts and off-the-shelf components, most manufactured locally by designers on the same sustainable page.
Arcimoto aspires to both fill a need and disrupt a market. But the 2007 startup aligns its strength with numbers and doesn’t have to look far for partners, peers and a market. And the Willamette Valley – a farmer’s market of organic brains and brawn – fields a bumper crop of EV talent shaping our transportation future.
Arcimoto can’t do it alone. They need support and competition. Support from suppliers, government and community. More support from infrastructure and buyers. And competition game enough to force a useful idea outside of Oregon and into less enthusiastic parts of the U.S. Henry Ford fought an army of both tinkerers and corporations to revolutionize transportation.
Will anyone fight Arcimoto hard enough to keep the cluster alive? Is there a big enough market for the first movers to stay alive? Maybe the Willamette Valley is the new Detroit. Speculation? Yes. But questions lingering over any speculative market.
So, who are the players supporting Arcimoto? Great ideas go nowhere without teamwork.
Portland is home to AmFor Electronics, making custom-built electric cable and wiring harnesses. Pushing 50-years old, AmFor may be the elder statesman of the green corridor, but has gotten faster with age. Specializing in prototyping and low-volume orders, AmFor’s lean and mean manufacturing complements their EV clientele’s need for flexible manufacturing.
Arcimoto buys components from Synkromotive. CEO, Ives Meadors has over 20 years of electronics experience and committed to EV technology – focusing on DC controllers – when he founded Synkromotive in 2007.
Portland, a notorious green metropolis, acts as the hub and spoke for the cluster. Shorepower Technologies, a charging-station maker with a national footprint, dropped a satellite office in town, adding critical experience and reach to the region’s bigger EV picture.
Shorepower helped build “Electric Avenue” at Portland State University, a city block of chargers used in a joint-research project and showcase for EV technology and usage. The concept is simple: pay to park and juice for free. The August grand opening brought the majors out, including the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt. Commuter EVs were invited, too. Portland Mayor Sam Adams was spotted on Electric Avenue admiring an Arcimoto.
High-tech brains already fill the Willamette Valley. But Oregon is carving out an educational discipline for EV technology, shaping future talent to feed the cluster.
PSU-type projects backed by the city explain why big manufacturers are using Portland as a test-market for both hybrids and all-electric vehicles. Residential and business tax incentives help boost the appeal.
But educated consumers ready to buy into change need more than choices and discounts. They need infrastructure. Oregon answered with a brick-and-mortar roadmap, starting with a network of chargers.
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) selected AeroVironment to install, operate and maintain 22 fast-charging stations throughout northwest Oregon. The chargers help steer Governor John Kitzhaber’s mission of a carbon-free state. “They will ensure that we can kick the fossil-fuel habit that hamstrings our economy and national security, and deploying this infrastructure shows that we are, and will continue to be, a leader.”
AeroVironment plans to place both 480 and 240-volt chargers at each location, allowing drivers to charge in less than 20 minutes. A pioneer in EV technology, AeroVironment also makes home chargers, and publishes a guide to owning your first EV. Having a predictable trail of chargers mitigates range anxiety: the fear of running empty on electricity.
A $2 million U.S. Department of Transportation Tiger II grant funds the charger project. Phillip Ditzler, Federal Highway Administration, Oregon Division Administrator, applauded the progress. “Oregon will serve as a model for the rest of the country in its innovative approach to electrifying transportation.”
Not all of this progress directly impacts the commuter market…now. But favorable policy and dedicated hardware pave a bright future all involved and nudges Oregon from carbon-free talker to doer.
Portland, the Federal Government’s electric darling hides one other ace to early adoption: geography. With only 145-square miles to navigate, a local coffee and a light charge will cover most commutes. Portland took a lot of gas-powered engines off the road with a light-rail system and generous bike paths. And with limited metro reach, smaller EVs make good sense.
Oregonians are both sustainable and creative. A buyer has commuter options, and some may bend your imagination.
Commuter EVs may trace their heritage back to the BugE, a DIY kit inspiring Arcimoto founder Mark Frohnmayer to leave a lucrative gaming career and start Arcimoto.
Marketed as the Model T of the 21st century, BugE is a three-wheeled space-aged buggy topping out at 50 mph. Designer and visionary Mark Murphy likes to sells his BugE dream as a revolution, imploring the curious to join his grassroots movement for a cleaner future.
Although a hybrid design, Green Lite Motors shadows Arcimoto in both aesthetics and performance. The prototype, a fully enclosed, two-passenger commuter, gets a 100-mpg. Feel free to the hit the “gas” and then the freeway, because Green Lite rates the three-wheeled bullet at 85 mph.
If you have a need for speed and prefer getting electrified on two wheels, you should hop on a MotoCzysz or a Brammo. Both come from the future with muscular, industrial bodies, removing any perceptions EVs are puny.
In 2010, Popular Science tagged the MotoCzysz E1pc “the world’s most advanced electric motorcycle.” For now, MotoCzysz’s design genius can only be found on the racetrack. But if you want a production, award-winning electric, Brammo wants your business. As U.S. distribution grows, Brammo went global, inking a deal with Jackie Chan to promote the Enertia model in both Hong Kong and Singapore.
Unfortunately, the future is not yet now for many of these prototypes, including the Arcimoto SRK. But other cleantech sectors fighting for survival should study Oregon’s commuter EV model.
It won’t be long before you can take a guilt-free, exhilarating ride to the grocery store. Let’s hope the rest of the world – outside the Willamette Valley – is ready to take that ride.
