Hi, this is Daniel Kim, founder and CEO of Lit Motors. This will be the first in a series of newsletters where I will be sharing our current progress and vision with you. As the acting VP of engineering and CTO, I have been so focused on developing the vehicle with the engineering team that I feel I have unintentionally lost touch with our pre-order community and others eagerly awaiting our finished product. Which is why I want to personally share our latest engineering progress with you.
Our latest prototype, EP4, is primarily an engineering prototype. Think of it as our version of the Wright Brothers' Flyer of 1903, the first of its kind. We built this prototype as a testbed to develop and improve our core technology, the gyro stability system. This improved gyro system accomplishes three things:
First, it balances the vehicle while the vehicle is stationary. This is a capability that we developed with our previous prototypes, and have continually improved as we have progressed through the prototyping process.
Second, it resists outside forces to maintain balance. Our previous prototypes could resist impulse forces similar to those that would encounter in a collision. Now we have addressed sustained forces imposed on the EP4, where it is able to lean into the force to establish a new “zero point”. In other words, EP4 can counteract against the more subtle forces that it would experience during your daily commute, like high speed winds and shifting cargo. This new gyro system is capable of outputting 4-5,000 ft-lb of torque, which is a 5X improvement from our previous system.
And third, our gyro system will enable us to implement a steer-by-wire system, a key feature necessary for a car-like interface on a two-wheeled vehicle. This is the technology we are focusing on now. It will likely be the most time-consuming and difficult part to develop, but it is the key to creating a vehicle that anyone can drive.
We have made big steps in developing our revolutionary technology. As you can tell, our vehicle still needs quite a bit more work before it will be ready for production. We will be optimizing a production line and finalizing our gyro system throughout 2015. We are not happy to have to push back production and we are sorry for the delay. But we are committed to creating a quality and safe vehicle that we can be proud of and that you will love.
I am also pleased to announce we are working on enhancing our old design. The design team has worked with the engineers around the clock over the last 8 months, and we wanted you to be the first to get a glimpse of our new design. We envisioned a new design that would evoke emotions of both a luxury sports car and a high performance motorcycle, while also building new characteristics and a language that is unique to Lit. During the design process we realized that we are making a whole new category of vehicle, which we now refer to as an Auto-balancing Electric Vehicle, or AEV for short.
I will continue to update you with more footage of the capabilities of EP4 as we refine the controls system and driving experience. By continuing to document our progress and identifying what challenges lie ahead, we hope that you will have a good idea of where we are in our journey and what is to come. As a show of good faith, we are making all pre-orders refundable, regardless of when you put in your reservation.
We believe that we can positively shape the future of transportation. We appreciate your early support in making Lit Motors a reality, and we hope you will be patient with us as we bring the AEV to production.
Sincerely,
Daniel Kim - Founder & CEO of Lit Motors