How can SkyTran vehicle costs be so low?
What about the vehicle costs? Train, Monorail and Light Rail people never include the costs of the vehicle into their PER MILE costs! It's important, however, because we need so many SkyTran
vehicles to make the system useful.Vehicle costs for the first full scale functional MagLev SkyTran vehicle may well cost $5,000,000 in development funds. The next 10, once we know what we really want, shouldn't even cost $200,000 each. When a factory is producing a 100,000 vehicles or more per year the economies of scale should bring this average down to $3,000 per vehicle, eventually less!
If you are now thinking this guy is mildly sane, off his rocker, in la la land with that figure, lets study the costs in a brand new $13,000 automobile and see what we don't need, and what we can do without to reduce that figure by $10,000 down to $3,000.
First of all SkyTran Incorporated builds and operates the machines. We are not selling them to the public or to to dealers. Therefore, we do not need a dealer network with fancy sales offices and sales people, nor expensive TV and print advertising. The $13,000 is a marked up price so the dealers can pay employees salaries; pay the salesmen some commission; pay the rent, phone and electric bills; pay for all those local classified ads AND hopefully make a reasonable profit and survive to the next month. If the markup is 20% that means we are already down to $10,400 to the dealer. If the manufacturer makes only 5% profit on each car it sells to the dealer then we are down to $9,880. The difference is already $3,120, which is almost a third of the $10,000 targeted cost reduction.
Now the real fun begins! We can toss out everything that is an essential part of an automobile that is totally unnecessary in a MagLev SkyTran . Keep in mind that both the costs to manufacture each part plus the labor costs to install and check out each part would be totally eliminated!
We don't need:
| A steering
wheel, Shift levers, Throttle or Brake pedals, Assorted linkages, Rear view mirrors, Internal combustion motor, Transmission, Drive shafts, Differential, Radiator, Tail pipes, Mufflers, Catalytic converters, Fuel gage, Water temperature gage, Speedometer/odometer, Wheel rims, Tires, |
Suspension
structures, Shock absorbers, Spare tires, Roll down windows, A separate trunk, hinges, locks and interior lighting, A glove box Three extra doors, hinges and locks, Running lights (headlights, turn signals, brake lights, side running lights and associated electrical switches and wiring), Adjustable seats (you don't need to see out over the steering wheel to safely drive it - you are a passenger!), And most importantly - 2,900 pounds of processed and manufactured materials (from the typical 3,100 pound car), |
You get the idea? Take a guess at the new price after removing all these items? I'll stick with mine.
The new Ford Taurus weighs 3,133 pounds empty. What percentage of its life will there only be one person in it?? 90%?? Are we humans so stupid that we think we really need a 3,133 pound machine to to safely move our 170 pound (average) mobile organic containers that contains our delicate brains, sensor systems, and reproductive systems around at a mere 60 MPH??? Maybe we should use those organic computers (brains) and figure out how to make something far safer out of a whole lot less material! I'm trying.
Think how much longer the family car would last if it only was used for trips involving moving 3 or more and just to haul large goods solo (weekly groceries, etc). Or are we doomed to "cool" cars forever because our reproductive systems exert more voting rights in the organism than the logical brain??? Perhaps an even more important issue is - can we still be eligible for any Recycling awards if we simply eliminate a ton and a half of assorted materials in the first place?
OTHER FACTORS
The power train of a SkyTran
vehicle is extremely simple in
comparison to the modern automobile's internal combustion engine and drive
train. If it was electric motor powered you would have only one finely
balanced spinning mass and no sliding friction. Mechanically, MagLev is even
simpler. A MagLev linear electric motor driven system only has one moving
part - the vehicle itself. There is no contact at speed, no friction, and
that means an almost unlimited useful life.
A SkyTran vehicle would contain a sophisticated electronic control system. Although development costs for electronics are not insignificant, reproduction costs of electronic components in high volume is extremely low. Pocket Calculators, Laser Compact Disc Players and VCR's are great examples.
The SkyTran chassis and body parts would be molded composite materials which can be produced with very little labor.
SkyTran vehicles would be used over and over again each day by many people. The cost of building each SkyTran can, thus, be recovered very quickly by virtue of its high percentage time in service. Private automobiles, on the other hand, spend most of their economic life depreciating in parking lots and garages.
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