Ben Freeman

Philadelphia, PA (USA)
Role(s):
Founder/Owner/Principal

Ruskin Dorf Inc

Find More Startups Startup
Location: Philadelphia
Industry: Transportation
Year Founded: 1990
Number Employees: 1-10 people
Description: As per a business plan I will send after we talk, I am asking for equity funding for a company whose purpose will be to build, sell, rent and lease solar electric vehicles. I have built more than twenty prototypes and working vehicles. While the vehicles I have built and which are shown on my website (see (URL removed)) are salable and worthwhile, their main value was to help me visualize the unique solar car on which I have a patent pending (12/154,571 in the US and a global PTO application). Although it would take many millions to even prepare to enter the car market, the federal government and most states allow for what is called a “low speed vehicle.” This is essentially a car that cannot travel more than 25 (or thirty in a few states) Miles Per Hour. Even besides the easier to meet safety and other standards required to sell these vehicles, it is far easier to build a solar electric vehicle with a limited speed and range than it is to build one that can compete head on with a full speed car. My experience building similar vehicles makes it comparatively easy for me to supervise the building of the type of “low speed” solar electric car that I envision (if we meet I can show you a Styrofoam prototype that turns the patent drawing applications into a three dimensional model of what I have in mind). What is especially interesting about a “low speed” car is that there is a natural niche market for them which can be reached with comparatively minimal marketing cost. Once we prove that the people that live in places where they rarely travel more than twenty five miles per day are willing to buy our “low speed” car and that these cars can deliver quality and value to these customers, then the major automobile companies may be interested in purchasing (or paying royalties on) our patent for the same type of vehicle built with a sixty miles per hour maximum speed and a hundred and twenty mile per day maximum range. Because the extensive solar panel array integrated into my patented vehicle design makes it possible to achieve a decent range with the use of much less expensive lead acid batteries, our vehicle will cost no more than a gas driven car. It will be far less expensive than electric cars whose equal or greater range is based on the use of far more expensive (and more dangerous) lithium ion batteries. Once one focuses on the fact that hydrogen cars cost almost a million dollars per vehicle and that biofuels have serious problems of their own, one will realize that using lead acid batteries with solar panel assist for a very small lightweight electric car is only inexpensive and viable alternative to gas driven vehicles. Not only are improvements in solar panel design probably going to increase the percentage of solar power converted to energy over the coming y ears, but most observers believe that the cost of solar panels is going to come down. When one considers these facts and the further fact that my design creates a very safe car and may be the best way to maximize the ability of solar panels to provide most of the energy needed to power a car, you can see that the future for this vehicle is virtually limitless. Yours truly, Ben Freeman (Phone # removed)