Welcome to Shockwave Motors
Home of the Predator EV3© Roadster
"Imagination Is More Important Than Knowlege."
Albert Einstien
With the help of a team of experts, we are developing a "purpose built" electric car. We started with a clean sheet of paper and an open mind. The Predator EV3 Roadster© is designed from the ground up to capitalize on the efficiencies of an electric car; with an eye on a sporty design.
The Design Team has been working diligently to ensure all aspects of the Predator EV3 Roadster© meet the highest design and engineering standards. Meet the Design Team. Note: The streaming video on this site was created to provide high quality viewing and may stream poorly on a dial-up connection.
We've also included video of the first road test of the initial version of the rolling chassis. While we did not break any speed records, we were please that operating on just 25% of our designed power, we hit a top speed of just over 40 miles per hour!
We firmly believe that wherever possible, simple designs are the best and think it should be a crime for "Detroit" to sell a car that you have to remove a tire in order to change the battery, or remove an engine mount and shift the engine to change a spark plug. We recognize that many people like highly engineered cars that can do everything, including make a pot of coffee for them. In fact, a marketing company reported (June 2004) the number one option that people would like to see in their car was a microwave oven! That's fine for them; however, this car is for a smaller group of people, those who like to hug the road and experience the wind in your face thrill of a roadster.
With this philosophy mind, here are some of the key design considerations:
Custom Chassis - Ground-up design, with three wheels - not four! The goal is to create a highly efficient EV able to carry two to three passengers at highway speeds, with a daily range of approximately 100 miles. The use of three wheels reduces rolling resistance at slow speed and the aerodynamic design reduces drag at higher speeds. The low center of gravity will produce a stable ride with no more possibility of a roll-over than you would find in a conventional car. The weight distribution goal is 40/60 percent front/rear.
Drive Motor - A direct current, high voltage, series wound motor. We've tested other motors, such as shunt and compound wound, and found they did not deliver the efficiency of a good series wound motor over a variety of driving conditions. These motors are efficient, durable, and affordable! The goal is to keep the design simple. While an argument can be made that high voltage, alternating current systems are more efficient and provide better overall performance, we don't believe the improvements in performance are worth the trade-offs of higher costs and increased complexity.
Battery - High voltage, means high performance. The Predator EV3 Roadster© is designed around a 144 volt system. Weight is always an issue with electric cars; therefore, readily available 12 volt, deep cycle batteries will be used for the battery pack. Battery weight, while at a minimum, is still about 35% of the total vehicle weight.
Auxiliary Power Trailer (APT) - The final stage of development will include the creation of a mobile generator trailer to be attached, as required, to boost the range of the car for extended trips. The single wheel trailer will attach at two points on the vehicle's rear bumper (using two hitches instead of the traditional single hitch configuration). This approach is called "series hybrid" and relies on the internal combustion engine strictly as a power source for an electric generator. In a "parallel hybrid" system, the engine also provides some of the motive power, as well as electricity generation.
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