Battery Breakthrough Enables PMMC to Build World's Best Electric Vehicle

The Taiwan-based Pihsiang Machinery Manufacturing Co. (PMMC) recently introduced two new products, a battery and an electric vehicle (EV), that the company believes will certainly help reduce the global warming effect. The GREENRUNNER and GREENRIDER (both world-registered trademarks) pure EV boasts a self-developed advanced propulsion system and is powered by the patented C-LiFePO4 battery.

"The PMMC and its lithium-battery-making subsidiary, the Pihsiang Energy Technology Co. (PHET), have supplied the most successful EV ever in Taiwan," claims PMMC chairman Dr. Donald Wu. "A result of intensive efforts over the past few years, the GREENRUNNER is an achievement that conforms to our constant guideline: to make only the best. Our new EV and its battery pack are the prides of Pihsiang and Taiwan."

Pihsiang, established in 1984, is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) and is today one of the top three makers of medical electric scooters in the world. It has won numerous awards and commendations for its R&D, innovation, and operational excellence.

PHET is the world's only mass producer of C-LiFePO4 batteries using automatic production processes. It has been granted exclusive rights by Phostech Lithium Inc. for manufacturing, marketing, and distributing patented C-coated lithium iron phosphate-based cathode films and batteries for electric bikes, electric scooters, medical power chairs, and medical scooters. In addition, it is fully titled to supply such batteries to wherever they are needed. (whatever industries that need them.)

GREENRUNNER & GREENRIDER

Pihsiang has premiered three GREENRUNNER models: a two-seat, 2+2 seat, and mini pickup. Wu says that the vehicles are targeted mainly at urban transportation applications, or in-city commuting. The positioning is very clearly delineated so as to escape strong pressures from global automakers.

The use of aerospace-grade technology in key parts such as plastic/composite body parts (which have a temperature tolerance of -45 to 95 degree Celsius) and aluminum-alloy structures and parts keeps the overall weight of a GREENRUNNER to very light. This helps extend the vehicle's cruise range from the original 100 kilometers using a standard battery to up to 220 kilometers with an optional expanded-capacity battery pack.

Wu is a licensed aircraft pilot who says that he carries the principles of flying-that safety is the prime factor in every flight, and that an aircraft is not allowed to have any defects at all-over into the development of the GREENRUNNER. With the application of advanced design, he stresses, a smaller and lighter vehicle need not be less safe than a heavy one.

According to data provided by Wu, the GREENRUNNER has two C-LiFePO4 battery-pack options provided by PHET, including the GE1200 (general-purpose) and the EP1500 (high-performance energy cell). Road tests carried out by PMMC indicate that with power supplied by the bigger EP1500 pack, the EV can travel up to 152 kilometers at a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour.

The charging time also varies with fast-charge and standard battery models. Basically, the shortest charging times (using 230V power) for the GE1200 and EP1500 are only 1.1 and 2.0 hours, respectively.

The EV uses an AC traction brushless motor of the highest sophistication along with a transmission developed in-house by PMMC. "We can be sure that the GREENRUNNER is one of the world's best pure-electric urban commuter vehicles," Wu comments, "and that all of its sub-systems and key parts are very mature, including the world-patented fault-tolerant battery pack, dual-mode charger, controller, AC traction motor, drive-train, converter, and contactor."

Open to Partnership

"PMMC is not a specialized carmaker, although we are one of the top-three suppliers of medical electric scooters in the world and there is an urgent need for good EVs, especially with the soaring price of fuel," Wu points out, "so we do not exclude the possibility of cooperating with big automakers, especially in the United States. Such a partnership can be expected to achieve an all-win result rapidly: for automakers, which will immediately get technologically mature EV models for mass production-models that offer the best solutions and are even better than some developed by other players; for consumers, who will get the best product available in the market; and for PMMC, which will achieve its goal of making contributions to mankind."

Citing the results of a market survey carried out in the United States, Wu notes that 70% to 80% of those surveyed travel about 40 miles per day between work and home, at an average driving speed of about 40 miles per hour.

"The EV is a world-class challenge to interested players everywhere," Wu comments. "Any company that wants to play the game has to have a big R&D team, a broad range of knowledge, and clear thinking and strategies, and its products have to be sufficiently environment- and user-friendly." That's why Wu has spent about 95% of his waking time (he sleeps only three hours a day) working on batteries and EVs over the past two or three years, he says, because he wants to once again prove his ability to contribute to mankind.

More Contributions

By the time he reached the age of 30, Wu had already devoted himself to the development of various kinds of engine-powered agricultural machines such as carriers, sprayers, tractors, and tillers, mainly for slopeland agriculture, because he had witnessed the difficulty of such farming and was determined to make things easier for the farmers. As a result, PMMC soon became the largest engine-powered agricultural machinery maker in Taiwan, with products that were a great help to farmers in developing slopeland agriculture. Those machines helped Taiwan to become a major exporter of agricultural products several decades ago.

Even after he became focused on the higher goal of improving the quality of life for even more people and contributing more to mankind worldwide by developing electric scooters for seniors and the handicapped, Wu refused to give up the production of agricultural machinery. His switch in focus, Wu explains, came about because he realized that aged and handicapped people were often unhappy with their low mobility and that a new type of vehicle was needed to help them improve their lives. For over 20 years PMMC has been not only one of the world's top-three makers of such products, but also the most important inventor and innovator in the line. A good example of this is the company's development of the world's first four-wheeled medical electric scooters, which went far in resolving the vexing and long-standing problem of instability in such vehicles.

Wu derives happiness from the contributions he makes to the world. "I have received thousands of letters from invalids and seniors all over the world thanking me for helping them to move, think, and enjoy live much better than before," he explains. "I really enjoy that feeling, and that's what I want to keep doing."

Given this attitude, Wu's move into yet another frontier and his success with the C-LiFePO4 battery were not at all surprising. A few years after Pihsiang acquired a Taiwanese lithium battery maker (it originally turned out batteries for consumer applications), Wu turned the new (now known as PHET) subsidiary into the world's first volume producer of C-LiFePO4 batteries, which have been adopted by many major international customers and even used in Russia's space program. At the same time, Wu jumped into the development of EVs using these high-performance batteries.

"The major force that pushed me into LiFePO4 batteries and EVs was an early awareness of transportation problems in the era of high fuel prices," Wu says. "We are again trying to contribute something to mankind, but this time the need is more urgent."

Taiwan's EV Niche

"Taiwan has been under the technological control of foreign automakers for over 40 years," Wu points out, "and this has constrained the development of our automotive industry. But now our chance has come, because the EV represents a new technology and is one of the products for which Taiwan can fully control development. We hope the EV will soon becomes a niche product for the island, and that Taiwan will become the world's first and most successful exporter of such products."