Introducing The Minion

A friend and I over the last two years had been working on a custom build at his shop. I designed an aluminum body for my custom-built KMX-framed velomobile until I came to the conclusion that it was going to be too heavy for my application. We decided to build a car off of my design.

Semi-recent photos:





Earlier photos:





Regarding putting this together, my friend did the vast majority of the work, while he was generous enough to alot me some shop space for me to work on my velomobile project. This car is not yet drivable, as we're still waiting on components to arrive. For the prototype, it uses a 1500W 5T wind front-mounted Leafbike motor in the rear wheel, and 19" motorcycle wheels all around, with a 250A Kelly controller. The front suspension is from a Yamaha ATV. The plan is to run it with a 72V or higher battery pack. It is not expected to perform fast, perhaps golf cart-like acceleration with a 60 mph top speed. 60 mph in this may end up being scary on the first design iteration.

This platform is intended to spawn both car and velomobile designs from us once we know what we are doing. Even though this vehicle is not a velomobile, the vehicle itself was inspired by velomobiles, and the goal is to get mass and drag figures as close to that of a velomobile as possible while allowing safe and stable operation at highway speeds.

Once all the bugs are worked out, the idea is to build it into an all-wheel-drive 3-wheeler that makes more than 1 horsepower per pound of vehicle weight. That may not happen until the 2nd or 3rd design iteration. If we can keep the chassis light enough, this performance goal will be doable with ebike motors/controllers. I like to imagine such a vehicle ending up with a top speed around 100-120 mph, reaching it from a standstill within 4-5 seconds at full throttle. The technology to build something like this has been around for more than 5 years now, and is only getting better.

Looking good!

Nice fab shop too. That chassis building table is the only way to go. Keeps everything straight and level. :thumb:

Looks interesting
It seems like there are some other nice projects there too :wink:

Very cool!!

My friend got the steering operational:

Yep, that's what i'm talking about. The things you could do with this platform. Keep up the good work.

This platform is unoptimized and overweight for what we ultimately have in mind, but is being built as a learning experience. The next one will try to use more off the shelf parts to speed up the build process, but before we get to that point, we are going to get this one running and make a list of everything we like and dislike about it, and what needs to be changed.

If we're lucky, we'll have it driveable late in the year.

Will keep a watch on it. I have lot's of ideas of what would make me happy but it often does not mesh with reality. The frame if it had room for batteries in the middle as low as possible. Longer and wider than what's being sold. Don't care if it did not fit thru a door but gates and car stop post at green ways are an issue. Like the slingshot trikes but would want front suspension and front wheels not as far forward as not so wide. Think of Titanium as a main frame but i'm not an engineer and would need to learn a lot to keep the weight down and rigidity up. What you have here is the general idea.

I finally got what I needed for this build:

Also, some updated pics:

The front end looks like a full on race car. I've seen desert cars built worse.

Once we find all the bugs and flaws in this one, I'll design a better one that is more narrow and with enclosed wheels.

C. Michael Lewis' record-holding Electrathon car is an inspiration for what I have in mind.


So is the Milan SL velomobile.

I want to make an AWD EV with almost 1 peak horsepower per lb of vehicle, that only needs a 5 kWh pack to get 200+ miles range at 70 mph.

The Minion is not going to meet those lofty goals. But sub-400 lbs, maybe 80 kW peak, and getting 100 miles range @ 70 mph on a 10 kWh pack is doable. Which would still be quite monstrous.