Tiny Electric Car Cost $420,000 To Build

Ridiculous Rides

Rick Woodbury claims he has created a car that might solve the world’s traffic congestion problems. Rick from Spokane, Washington USA, is the president, founder and sole employee of ‘Commuter Cars.’ The carmaker’s flagship model is the 2005 super slim two-seater Tango T600, a high-performance electric car that preceded Tesla. Rick told Ridiculous Rides: “I started this company 21 years ago – it was based on an idea that I came up with in 1982.” He was inspired by the shocking traffic congestion he had to face on a daily basis.

Transcript

00:00The coolest feature to me is that it can get through traffic faster than any car in history.

00:05We get so many reactions from people watching it, it's amazing.

00:12Hi, I'm Rick Woodbury. I'm president and founder of Commuter Cars.

00:18I started this company 21 years ago.

00:24It was based on an idea that I came up with in 1982.

00:30I used to drive a Porsche from Beverly Hills to Homosa Beach every day and the traffic was horrendous.

00:37And I noticed that everybody around me was a single occupant in a car taking up a whole lane.

00:42So I thought everybody wants to get from point A to point B efficiently.

00:46And in cities like Los Angeles, there's really no center, there's no hub.

00:50It's just everybody goes everywhere.

00:53I don't think there's any other answer except doubling lane capacity.

00:56This is the Tango Car, a super slim electric vehicle that has created Rick's answer to congested city driving.

01:03Well, the coolest feature to me is that it can get through traffic faster than any car in history.

01:07Same width as a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

01:10You just come up to stoplight, but instead of waiting in line behind all the other cars, you just go right up the line in between and you filter.

01:17On the inside, well, it's very comfortable. You're right in the center of the car.

01:23You know, you're on the driver's side on both sides, so it's very convenient.

01:27You look out either window, you've got better visibility, you can see exactly what's happening around you.

01:32You've got better visibility than any car I've ever had.

01:34You can fit two people. This has a Momo steering wheel.

01:38This is actually used by race cars, the Motec Dash.

01:41Four-point shoulder harness. The pilots of commercial aircraft use these exact harnesses.

01:46With a comfortable and easy-to-drive interior, what is it like to drive a car like this?

01:52It handles really well. We know it has a super low center of gravity, being that it has a dry sump engine that's opposed.

01:59So it's got a lower center of gravity than just about any other car.

02:02I've had it up to 120 miles an hour or so.

02:05The length is 102 inches, the same width of a semi-truck, so it can park perpendicular to the curb.

02:16This is the chassis, and this is the roll cage that is certified by FIA for a 200-mile-an-hour race car.

02:24There's about four times more impact protection here than there is in a standard production car.

02:29To me, this car is safer than any other car on the road, because it can avoid accidents better than any other car.

02:34This has the same roll over threshold as a 911 Porsche.

02:37It turns instantly, unlike a motorcycle, which has to counter-steer before it can turn to avoid a collision.

02:43The Tango debuted in 2005, and after actor George Clooney bought one, the car became a runaway success.

02:49Due to the nature of the build, the company can only produce a certain amount.

02:55It took ten employees about three years to get nine and a half cars built, and this is number ten.

03:01It's been quite a few more years, but also it's a lot more complicated.

03:05We've spent a couple of years just developing the new lithium pack for this one.

03:10But there have been constant upgrades over the years just to get the lithium batteries and the management systems to handle them.

03:16This is the car that we sold to a customer in Perth, Australia, and it's in the process of assembly,

03:27but mostly it's waiting on completion of the battery pack.

03:30The battery box is here. The whole bottom of the car is battery.

03:34There's 90 kilowatt hours of battery in there, which will give us about 300 miles of range.

03:39With all the work needed to create these slender vehicles, the production costs can't be that cheap.

03:44These cars have cost an average of $420,000 each to build.

03:48And unsurprisingly, out on the road, this car gets a lot of attention.

03:56Hi, sure, of course.

03:59This is so cool that you got this done. I'm so impressed with you. I mean, that's an amazing thing.

04:04We get so many reactions from people watching it. It's amazing.

04:07Sometimes we have two people, both the driver and a passenger, both photographing the car as we're going down the highway.

04:13It grabs a lot of attention.

04:15I hope you enjoyed this video while completing the�� ליahnter and on the other one.

04:21You can see all the other videos.

04:23While we have two people coming out here, I have to access it to a house portion of the people existinger.

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