By Justin Schneider, Herald Bulletin Online Reporter/Manager
justin.schneider@heraldbulletin.com
ANDERSON - "No photos allowed," proclaims a sign on the workshop door.
If that sounds a little harsh, it's for good reason: This workshop belongs to Bright Automotive. The Anderson-based startup represents the best hope that the city will again produce automobiles, and it is trying to grab a piece of the emerging and increasingly-crowded electric vehicles market.
On Aug. 5, Bright officials could only stand by and watch as the U.S. Department of Energy Awarded $416.1 million to seven Indiana companies through its Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative. Bright CEO John Waters, who was invited by President Barack Obama to attend the announcement in Elkhart, literally stood and watched.
Bright had applied for $18 million through the grant to bring its hybrid-electric vehicle to market, but was passed over in favor of companies, including Pendleton-based Remy International.
So one can hardly blame Bright for protecting its intellectual property from the prying eyes of its competition. On a recent Friday morning, however, Lyle Shuey made an exception.
"That's what's nice about being the vice president of marketing and sales," Shuey said. "I am the rules."
Bright occupies much of the east wing of the Flagship Enterprise Center, with a workshop on the first floor and office space above. And while Shuey steered the camera away from Bright's battery cells and other top-secret projects, he didn't hesitate to show off the advanced dynamometer, which allows the Idea vehicle to run indoors at high speeds.
"We can simulate virtually any road conditions, except turning," Shuey said, standing in front of the same prototype that traveled to Washington, D.C. in April. "We can see if there's slippage between the front and back wheels."
Walking around the vehicle, he draws the handle of what looks like a gas pump out of a port on the driver's side, revealing instead an electrical attachment connected to a 220-volt outlet. The Idea is not a full-electric but what he calls a "bridge vehicle."
It can run up to 30 miles on a full charge or operate solely on gasoline, eliminating so-called "range anxiety," the fear that the user will get stranded by a drained battery with no ability to charge it. The Idea uses Bright's parallel road-couple architecture, in which an internal combustion engine powers the front wheels, while an electric drive system powers the rear wheels.
"It's a show car, but it's also a fully operational vehicle," Shuey said. "There's no range anxiety. I want to take this vehicle cross-country."
Bright spent just a year developing the Idea and the workshop still reflects that process. Three 1/8-size clay models remain (from the 10 or 15 the company created) alongside a half-size clay model and two nearby rollboards plastered with variations and permutations of the car.
A buck and a mule can also be found in the Bright workshop. The "buck" is a scale mockup of the vehicle in wood that Shuey said helped reveal design flaws. The "mule," meanwhile, is a Dodge Caliber retrofitted with Bright's powertrain. It's an example of vehicle conversion: swapping a car's conventional systems for more fuel-efficient alternatives.
Bright is actively pursuing conversions and is shopping its engineering expertise to other companies. Shuey said the company has already entered into discussion with prospective customers. Bright CEO John Waters spoke at Plug-In 2009, an alternative transportation conference that ran Aug. 10-13 in Long Beach, Calif.
Not to say that the company has given up on mass-producing the Idea.
Through assistance from the federal government, Bright hopes to produce 50,000 of its plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle by 2012, with the commercial fleet market as its target. Shuey said a grant for $17 million through the Department of Energy's Transportation Electrification Program has also expired, but Bright hopes to land $450 million in low-interest loans as part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.
"We're continuing to make the case that the DOE ought to be providing the loans to Bright," said Don Marshal of Washington-based Rational 360, which represents Bright. "This is an opportunity for the Obama administration to fulfill two of its goals. To provide economic development and recovery in an area that GM left and to put 1 million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015."
Shuey said complying with the DOE's desire for full disclosure has meant a seemingly endless series of meetings. Recent editorials in The Indianapolis Star and Washington Post said Bright's success would be well worth the effort.
"But what may be the city's most promising development effort is a business incubation center," the Post wrote. "Among its tenants is a company called Bright Automotive, a plug-in-car start-up. It has only 30 employees - a far cry from the city's former automaker - but Bright has applied for a $450 million loan from the Department of Energy so that it can start manufacturing. ... If they are successful, it's possible that Bright could help reverse years of decline in Anderson."
Bright has 31 employees, according to Shuey, but that number could grow to more than 5,000 should funding become available. If government assistance fails to come through for Bright, Marshal said, the company will pursue investment in the private market.
"Our hybrid was created for a very specific purpose," Shuey said. "We want to change the economy by getting our vehicle to commercial fleets."