green light distrikt

www.RacingGreenEndurance.com

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Green Light Distrikt is a burgeoning international community fostering innovative entrepreneurship in aspiring minds for a cleaner, brighter future.

We host monthly EnergyBars on the second Wednesday of every month @ Adam Street Club.

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Welcome to EnergyBar at the Adam Street Club with Alex Schey


Introduction

My name is Alex Schey, and I’m 24 years old;

I graduated from Imperial College with a Mechanical Engineering degree in 2009;

I wanted to do something different with my life i.e. not the normal graduate job!

I wanted to follow my passions and use them to help change the world;

So, what could I do??


Introduction

My passion was (and still is) energy, and how this fits with the future of electric and hybrid vehicles;

At uni I was involved in several projects looking at this area;

I realised that the technology was there to build amazing electric cars;

Problem was, the general public were not aware of the possibilities;

Because of cars like the G-Wiz!


Introduction

So, I wanted to do something to change the public perception of EVs;

I also wanted to do something to help stimulate education in science and technology in young kids;

I put together a team of like-minded individuals, forming the Racing Green Endurance (RGE) team;

We set about scheming how we could achieve this.


Racing Green Endurance

The concept was simple;

We wanted to build the world’s longest range electric car;

And take it on a journey to prove to the world the EVs can take anything we throw at them!

We wanted people to take notice, and for that we needed an amazing adventure, and a very sexy car…

So we chose the Pan-American Highway…at 26,000km long, it’s the longest road in the world!


Racing Green Endurance

Great, but how on earth would we be able to afford something like that?

So before anything, we embarked on a massive sponsorship drive, and approached over 100 companies for support.

Despite the tough economy, enough people saw the benefit of what we wanted to achieve;

35 companies and some private individuals sponsored over £700,000, so we were good to go!


The SRZero

We now had to design and build a world-beating car;

Starting in August 2009, we designed and built the SRZero in just 9 months!

Range of over 500km;

Top speed of 160km/h;

Acceleration of 6.5s 0-100km/h;

It wasn’t easy to build, but we now had a car as cool as the journey!


The SRZero

First drive took place on March 21st

2010;

SRZero road legalised on April 30th;

First EV round the M25 twice on one charge in early May (240 miles);

First EV London to Paris on one charge (290 miles) end of May;

SRZero flown out to Alaska on June 25th!

The adventure begins…


The Pan-American Highway

So just to recap;

Attempting to drive the longest and hardest road in the world;

In an open top sports car;

Without a windscreen;

With a ground clearance of 3 inches;

Crossing the second highest mountain range in the world…3 times!

14 countries; some of them very dangerous! Perfect recipe for adventure!


The Pan-American Highway

Started driving south on July 2nd from the Arctic Circle;

Driving through Canada and the US was generally easy, and we didn’t have many problems;

Beautiful scenery, lovely roads, and everyone spoke English!

We get to Texas in under about 20 days of driving, and with 8,000km done, we were feeling confident…

But Mexico is where the problems really began…


The Police


The Road Conditions


The Rain


The Crash


The Finish


The Finish

This trip lasted 5 months, 70 days of which were driving, and received truly global exposure!

A BBC documentary series was made:

8 x 22 minute episodes; Aired on BBC World News on Jan 1st

2011; An audience in 220 countries; Audience of 70 million per week.

DVD produced and now being sold online;

Website with a dedicated following in 189 countries;

National and local TV, newspaper, radio and magazine in over 30 countries.


What came next?

• We gained much experience from RGE and previous projects, and wanted to commercialise this;

• So we took a risk!

• We politely declined the job offers, and we set about creating a business for ourselves;

• We created Vantage Power in January 2011, and initially took on consultancy jobs to get ourselves on our feet;

• But our goal was to create something new and special, and get it out there on the market!

• After a few ups and downs, a lot of research and talking to people, we settled on how we would achieve our vision……


What came next?

A low cost, highly fuel efficient,

robust and reliable hybrid powertrain for

buses!

The crucial difference? The USP? Our hybrid

system will be retrofitted!

Lower upfront costs to the bus operators with

huge gains in fuel efficiency.

£17,000 and 34 tonnes of CO2

saved per year per bus!

Applicable to buses aged 2-8

years old; market in the UK is about

15,000 buses!

Last thought: just imagine when

this is taken international, and

into other vehicles…


Thanks for listening!

Any Questions?

green light distrikt - alex schey - energybar march 2012

Technology

sports car

sexy car

srzero road

longest road

future of electric

green endurancegreat

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