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The Commuter Cars ''Tango'' is a prototype ultra-narrow electric sports car designed and built by Commuter Cars, an
electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...
company based in
Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...
.


History

Commuter Cars was founded in
Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...
, by Rick Woodbury and his son Bryan Woodbury in 1998. Bryan Woodbury says that his father had come up with the original idea sometime in the early 1980s. He had learned that 106 million people in the United States were driving to work alone. He came up with the idea for a single-seat electric car. Starting in the 1980s, Woodbury started researching
hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
power, which lead to
fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...
s. The relatively light weight of the fuel cells led to his idea of a stable, narrow vehicle with a low center of gravity. While waiting for fuel cell technology to catch up, he eventually settled on a design for the car to have individual electric motors for each wheel. In his spare time, he worked on building his first car. In 1998, he sold his yacht to fund the company. He settled on a plan to use parts that were already produced, instead of producing every part for the vehicles. Commuter Cars used various parts manufactured for other, more common cars. Among those parts was a safety cage made to
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
specifications. Production of the first of their line of ultra-narrow
electric sports cars Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
began with the Tango T600. The company designed a small
electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...
. They stated that production of the first version, at a rate of about 100 cars per year, was set to begin in late 2005. Actor
George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, filmmaker, and philanthropist. Known for his leading man roles on screen in both blockbuster and independent films, Clooney has received numerous accolades, including two Ac ...
took delivery of the first Tango kit on August 9, 2005, which was a major milestone for the company. Clooney appeared in the press with the car, explaining its features and promoting it. Difficulties with their UK manufacturer forced Commuter Cars to take over manufacturing themselves; for this reason the second vehicle did not ship until February 11, 2008. It was completely assembled in Spokane, Washington. The second car eventually found its way into the second-floor office of Google CEO
Eric Schmidt Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and former computer engineer who was the chief executive officer of Google from 2001 to 2011 and the company's chairman, executive chairman from 2011 to 2015. He also was the ...
as part of an
April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. ...
joke. By 2008, Commuter Cars had only produced 10 cars, which sold for an average of $121,000 each. The company generated a significant amount of media interest with the sale to Clooney. However, that initial media attention did not lead to a production deal. In 2010, the company entered the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize in the "Alternative" category. The vehicle entered was a Tango T600 owned by
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
founder
Sergey Brin Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (; born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and businessman who co-founded Google with Larry Page. He was the president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on D ...
, borrowed back for the competition. After passing many of the performance tests with ease, the car failed to complete the 100 mile durability run (one of the complicated set of requirements for the prize) and was eliminated from the competition. The company did not get a production deal with a manufacturer, and by 2014, fewer than 20 cars had been built in the United States. Throughout the company's history, Commuter Cars has had limited financial resources. Whenever the company did generate a profit, they reinvested the money in research and production capacity for their future vehicles. When the company had sufficient funding during 2007, it employed eight workers and was able to manufacture one car each month. By 2018, ''
Car and Driver ''Car and Driver'' (''CD'' or ''C/D'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine first published in 1955. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased it from its prior owner Hachette Fi ...
'' magazine gave the company a 1.1 out of 10 chance of survival.


Overview

The Tango is narrower than some
motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...
s and may be small enough to legally ride side-by-side with other small vehicles in traffic lanes in some jurisdictions. Capable of seating two passengers in a tandem seating arrangement, it only takes up one-quarter of a standard parking space and is able to park sideways. One prototype vehicle has been produced by the company and was shipped to
Prodrive Prodrive is an England, English motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire. History Prodrive was founded in 1984 by Ian Parry and David Richards (motorsport executive), David Richards. Prodrive sold its 51% s ...
in the United Kingdom in January 2005, where the design was refined for production models. Commuter Cars states that the Tango's heavy
battery pack A battery pack is a set of any number of (preferably) identical Battery (electricity), batteries or individual battery cells. They may be configured in a series, parallel or a mixture of both to deliver the desired voltage and current. The term ' ...
and low ground-clearance combine to give it a center-of-mass from the ground, allowing for stable handling. About two-thirds of the curb weight in the prototype is taken up by the batteries, twin motors, and controller, mounted low in the frame. Commuter Cars states that production models are expected to weigh less, ranging from . Propulsion is provided by two
electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...
s. To extend its range, an optional generator cart can be attached to the Tango.


Recharge

Commuter Cars notes that a dryer outlet will give most of the charge in an hour, or a full charge in less than 3 hours. With a 120-volt outlet, the batteries can fully charge overnight. With a 200-amp off-board charger, the Tango can be charged to 80% in about 10 minutes.


Specifications

*Width: *Length: *Weight: (claimed) *Batteries: 12 V * 19 Hawker Odysseys or 25
Exide Exide was originally a brand name for batteries produced by The Electric Storage Battery Company and later became Exide Holdings, Inc. doing business as Exide Technologies, an American lead–acid battery, lead-acid batteries manufacturing com ...
Orbital XCDs or
Optima Optima is a Humanist sans-serif, humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf and released by the D. Stempel AG foundry, Frankfurt, West Germany in 1958. Though classified as a sans-serif, Optima has a subtle swelling at the terminals s ...
Yellow Tops. Lithium-ion battery options available *Nominal voltage: 228 V with 19 Hawkers, 300 V with 25 batteries, 250 V with lithium-ion batteries. *Charging: 50 A Manzanita Micro on-board charger with Avcon conductive coupling. 200 A off-board charger under development. * Motors: 2 Advanced DC Motors DC FB1-4001 9", one driving each rear wheel with claimed of combined
torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational analogue of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). The symbol for torque is typically \boldsymbol\tau, the lowercase Greek letter ''tau''. Wh ...
at low rpms. 8,000 rpm
redline The redline is the maximum engine speed at which an internal combustion engine or traction motor and its components are designed to operate without causing damage to the components themselves or other parts of the engine. The redline of an eng ...
. or 4 motors, one for each wheel, lithium batteries. ;Performance (claimed) *: 3.2 seconds *: 12.25 seconds @ *Top speed: 150 mph (240 km/h) *Range: 40–60 miles (96–128 km) with lead-acid batteries. with
lithium-ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energy ...
. *805 hp claimed.


See also

* Peel P50 * Isetta * William Garrison – studied concept of narrow vehicles


Notes


References

* * *


External links

* {{Automotive industry in the United States Microcars Cars of the United States Production electric cars Electric vehicles introduced in the 20th century