Amory Lovins: composite crusader - includes related article on the hypercar - Interview

Automotive Industries, Sept, 1998

Of course, the hypercar concept is not unique to Lovins or RMI. AI readers recall General Motors' Ultralite, the ultra-low-drag (0.19 Cd), ultra-lightweight (1,400 pounds), carbon-fiber-bodied concept unveiled in early 1992. Though it was fitted with a 2-stroke engine, the fully operable Ultralite was in fact a hypercar by Lovins' definition. It spawned GM's even more efficient, sophisticated hybrid concept called Freedom. Lovins claims RMI inspired GM's work.

"Amory gives himself a bit too much credit by saying he `drove' our technology programs at that time," comments Gary Dickinson, the former head of GM's Technical Staffs and later Delco Electronics boss. Dickinson, along with Advanced Engineering head Don Runkle, stylists Jerry Palmer and Chuck Jordan, and research chief Bob Frosh, invited Lovins to be the first outsider to see Ultralite before the '92 Detroit auto show. He credits Lovins as being "one of the voices" behind the car's genesis -- but so were the federal government's looming standards and GM's own internal challenge to build 100-mpg and zero-emissions cars, he recalls.

"Still, I'm inspired by Amory, because he wants to talk about what's possible," Dickinson says.

Automotive history has shown that outsiders with fresh ideas are often scorned by the establishment, whether it be Detroit, Stuttgart or Tokyo. When Lovins-the-outsider is criticized by industry "insiders," it is usually for the following issues. One is that RMI is in the business of creating intellectual capital, not making cars (or making anything for that matter), and has few people on its staff who have actually worked in manufacturing. Secondly, Lovins has a knack for equating what exists in a laboratory, or what's in long-term development at a little R&D shop somewhere, with something that's production-ready. Then there are the cost/volume disadvantages of current carbon-fiber composites, and physical issues like how to overcome the increased thermal loads on an ultra-low-drag bodyshell without a power-robbing A/C system. Lovins has ready answers for every question, but Hypercar skeptics remain.

"Amory's not wrong, he's just very idealistic," says Tom Moore, head of Chrysler's Liberty advanced engineering group. "He often doesn't take into account the profundities of mother nature." Moore cites the variable-cost disparity between a production Neon steel body-in-white (about $600) and that of Solectria's carbon-composite monocoque EV (estimated at $2,500). He also notes that 1,300-pound Hypercars will still have to share the road with 100,000-pound heavy trucks: "RMI hasn't addressed that reality," he asserts.

Technology mavens Moore, Dickinson, Runkle and others across the industry respect RMI's enthusiasm, hard work -- and even Lovins' provocation. But Lovins is passionate to get Hypercars on the road, and he appears to be plotting a new course towards that goal.

Late last spring, RMI invited a large group of prospective partners -- from small inventors and composite molders, to major materials suppliers -- to a meeting in Cambridge, Mass. Sources who attended the strictly private, three-day session tell AI that its aim was to create a "Hypercar consortium."