The Why, the What, and the How of Retrofit Plug-in Hybridization
Blue Dot Motorworks, a Seattle-based startup, is developing a family of bolt-on retrofit systems to convert existing vehicles in to plug-in hybrids. The motivation for this approach lies in the slow turnover of the global vehicle fleet. For example, if non plug-in vehicle production were completely phased out by 2027, a dramatically more aggressive strategy than anything being adopted anywhere, the resulting vehicle emissions would consume 230% of the remaining 1.5 C carbon budget. Closing the gap with additional new EVs would: cost $38 trillion; require 700% more battery production than predicted; destroy $15 trillion-worth of existing vehicles; necessitate 2.8 million additional chargers; and emit over 3 Gigatonnes of CO2 in the production and scrapping processes.
Retrofitting existing vehicles as plug-in hybrids addresses all of these issues. The missing link is a technology that can be scaled to the magnitude of the challenge. Blue Dot Motorworks has achieved scalability through vehicle agnosticism. By taking a deliberately un-integrated approach, leveraging common vehicle interfaces, keeping the installation process simple and consistent, and baking adaptability in to the product architectures, the systems can be mass produced at the lowest possible price and installed by third parties. Blue Dot Motorworks has performed multiple rounds of prototyping and has demonstrated the feasibility, practicality, usability, and performance of the approach. They are now seeking their first round of external funding to commercialize the technology.
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- Date: 16 Feb 2022
- Time: 06:00 PM to 07:15 PM
- All times are (GMT-08:00) America/Vancouver
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- Co-sponsored by ITS Canada, http://www.itscanada.ca/
- Starts 12 January 2022 11:23 PM
- Ends 16 February 2022 05:59 PM
- All times are (GMT-08:00) America/Vancouver
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Tom Gurski of Blue dot Motorworks
The Why, the What, and the How of Retrofit Plug-in Hybridization
Biography:
Tom Gurski has innovated and rigorously engineered solutions to bring beneficial technologies to life over a 22 year career. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and has made impacts across multiple sectors including alternative energy, medical devices, global sanitation, and electric mobility. Throughout, he has honed skills in mechatronics, machine design, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, structural engineering, and systems engineering. He thrives as a system integrator and holistic thinker, and is an inventor on 20 issued and pending patents.
Tom began his career working on Stirling-cycle generators. This provided a strong foundation in the application of many engineering disciplines, as the products involved: high pressures, high temperatures, and high speed reciprocating machinery; the integration of electrical, structural, and fluid systems; and highly optimized thermodynamic and fluid dynamic performance.
Tom then transitioned into the medical device space, where he advanced into mechanical leadership positions while continuing to hone skills in the application of engineering to product development. He served as lead mechanical engineer on multiple therapeutic and in-vitro diagnostic instruments, and contributed to the bring-up of manufacturing lines.
Tom next pivoted into global sanitation, where he first led a team to develop a series of pumping and processing systems to improve the safety, ecological impact, and economics of emptying pit latrines and septic systems in low income countries. He constructed economic models of various business cases and used them to drive the development of the most appropriate and impactful technologies.
In 2014, Tom founded Carbyne Enterprises, an engineering consultancy providing product development services across a variety of sectors, including medical devices, global sanitation, robotics, and e-mobility. In 2015, he began parallel development of Blue Dot Motorworks technology. In the ensuing years, Tom singlehandedly conceived, designed, engineered, fabricated, assembled, and tested all of the technologies that give BDM its competitive advantage. He also performed significant research to establish the environmental, economic, and logistical benefits of the retrofit plug-in hybridization approach, as well as the market analysis to demonstrate the multi-trillion dollar opportunity.
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Address:Seattle, Washington, United States