Smart products often come in small, think-different types of packages, from pills with wireless modules that broadcast from inside the body to the kinetically chargeable cell phone batteries recently patented by Nokia (News - Alert).

 

Rick Woodbury, founder and chief evangelist for Commuter Cars Corporation in Spokane, Wash., is a passionate champion of his company’s tiny but powerful Tango electric vehicles. Woodbury claims that the Tango is “the world’s fastest urban car,” capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds with a top speed of 135 mph on the test track.

 

What makes it the fastest urban car, according to Woodbury is the combination of the snappy acceleration and its deliberately radical ultra-narrow body design, giving the Tango an ability to get through and around traffic, particularly where lane splitting is legal. An eye-catching 39 inches wide, it is narrower than many motorcycles meaning that two Tangos can drive side by side in a single lane with plenty of clearance to spare – or can double up in parking spaces.

 

The compact frame also gives the Tango an edge over many electric vehicles when it comes to range per charge; a Li-ion battery equipped Tango can go more than 150 miles on a single charge. Woodbury believes that for commuting purposes, using far less-expensive lead-acid batteries giving a 40 mile range is a better option, as the average round trip commute in the United States is only 24 miles. That range puts the Tango in the sweet spot of most American commuters. Lead-acid batteries, like lithion-ion, can be re-charged overnight using a standard 110V electrical outlet.

 

Beyond its battery life and performance, the ultra-narrow design is intended to have a transformational impact on traffic, putting single commuters into just-big-enough, clean electric vehicles to save on energy as well as to reduce highway and urban congestion. Woodbury envisions a future in which municipalities would support dedicated “narrow car” commuter lanes and parking options; he sees the potential for special cars on commuter rail trains where Tango drivers could drive their cars to the train station for longer commutes, and then drive aboard and off the train for the last few miles to their office, creating a service similar to water ferries that carry cars today.

 

Two Tangos were on exhibit at the North American International Auto show in Detroit this February, and Woodbury says that they attracted lots of favorable attention from visitors wanting test drives as well as from the media. Even without building a future-facing infrastructure of special traffic lanes and parking options, today’s Tango offers an innovative and eye-catching advantage over more traditionally-sized electric car for dealing with traffic and parking. The Tango is road-ready, but current models are in limited production with resultant high price points.

 

A break from mainstream thinking is often a hard sell to the investor community, where Woodbury is trying to raise capital to move his company from prototype and customized build-to-order manufacturing to full commercialization. So far, no multi-million dollar investors have been won over to the huge potential in radically smaller, high performance Tango design opportunity, but Woodbury remains optimistic. With $50 million in funding, he would be able to start production on a lower priced version of the Tango—5,000 units over two years. To bolster his case for market demand, he has launched a survey on the Commuter Cars Web site to poll consumers about their priorities. It’s worth registering your opinion.