Imagine a car that could last junk car buyers forever, you never have to buy a new one – well at least not a whole new car. Well, the Online Think Tank has conceived such a concept and let me go ahead and explain how it works. Each person will buy their first car, which will have an identical frame and motor. Each car will be a specific size and you only pick the body style. If you are a teen you can pick a trendy type, a young male college student – perhaps a sports car or Mini-SUV. A mother might buy a hybrid body style between a mini-van and an SUV.
Since the frame will be made strong with carbon nano-tubes and a component based fuel cell, which can be upgraded later for efficiency, it will be used throughout life. Each frame will have six attachment points to put on a different body as your lifestyle or needs change. This is a take off of the “common cockpit” strategy being developed by the NASA SATS program.
Each body will also be made of carbon nano-tubes and when you are done with one, you can list it on eBay, by area and color, quality of interior. When someone else wants it, they can buy it or trade for their current body. Interiors that change with trends and styles in society, can be changed without changing the whole car. As body styles go out of flavor, they can be melted down, by removing the less dense carbon nano tube windshields and windows.
In Europe they have the End of Life Program, where vehicles bought are sold with a fee to include the cost to recycle them. In this carbon nano-tube automobile longevity program, our dumps and landfills will not be filled with junked automobiles. With standardized frames, that are lightweight, super strong and efficient we will not have to deal with so much waste.
This program also means that we can easily transfer our technologies from gasoline, diesel, hybrid, ethanol to hydrogen fuel cell using various types of chemical compounds, eventually ending up with vehicles that can be powered by in-home hydrogen cell converters. We can also do this with over-the-road trucks and heavy equipment. There are similar strategies used now in aviation, as new and more efficient jet engines are developed, they simply put the new engines on the existing airframes.
Although this concept is not totally new and has been discussed at length in various industry sectors, it really makes sense for carbon-nano tube automobile bodies, frames and in conjunction with our fuel cell propulsion future. Always great to talk with you; have a great day. Sincerely, Lance.