Introduction

Like many companies that have managed to make their name in the production and sale of electric automobiles, Commuter Cars is a small start-up company that was created not too long ago in the United States.  However, their Tango car design has really helped revolutionize the way that people look at the potential of future automobiles and that in turn has made them a big part of the push towards electrification.

Company History

Commuter Cars was founded in the earlier part of the decade in Spokane, Washington.  That is where the head office for the company continues to exist and where it is expected to exist for the foreseeable future.  It was a company that was founded by father and son team Rick and Bryan Woodbury.  The two continue to be the principle people involved with this company, a fact that makes Commuter Electric Cars somewhat unique as far as small start-ups are concerned. 

These types of companies tend to have their founders pushed out relatively quickly, especially in market conditions that are as volatile as those that are tied to the production and sale of electric vehicles.  However, the existence of a viable product from day one is what has really driven this company more than anything else and that is likely why they have not experienced the same internal strife as some of their fellow American start-ups.

The Tango Series

The only series of cars currently produced by Commuter Cars would be the Tango series of cars.  Although many cars are either in production or under development for this series, all of the Tango cars essentially look the same and carry many special characteristics about them that you will not see anywhere else in the world of cars.

The first thing to be aware of with Commuter Cars is that absolutely every automobile they have manufactured and every automobile they plan to create has been and will be powered fully by electricity.  This is a lot rarer than you may think at first because even companies that are famous for electric vehicles have some sort of development with either hybrid power or hydrogen power.  Commuter Cars is fully about electric vehicle development and that is something that is not likely to change at any point in the future.

The second point about the Tango series specifically is that all Tango cars have an amazingly small frame.  In fact, the width of a Tango car is less than one metre, making it an ultra-thin car.  It is about 2.5 metres in length so it looks small but relatively normal from the side.  You have to be staring down the length of the car in order to see just how thin this particular series of cars actually is.

According to the creators of the Tango, there are actually many things not missing from this car that you might think would indeed be missing from an automobile so thin.  For example, the Tango has more space around the driver’s seat than many normal cars as they devote some space from the lack of a passenger side in the car to increasing the cabin size relative to the driver and the rest of that space goes into making a much smaller overall frame.  Additionally, there is actually more safety material lining the sides of these cars than you might think from the size.  Safety, size, leg room and many other aspects that are classically lessened in smaller cars relative to trucks and SUVs are actually not that diminished in Tango automobiles and that is something that the company takes great pride in pointing out.

One last thing worth pointing out about the Tango series in general is that it is a very easy series of cars to recharge.  One of the main goals of Commuter Cars in creating this product line was to figure out a way to maintain performance in engines while at the same time making it a lot easier to charge than automobiles powered by electricity had been up to that particular point in time.  The end product of that is a car that can be charged to majority in 1 hour with a dryer outlet and full power in 3 hours on the same outlet.  200 amps on an off-board charger will give you a 4/5ths charge in 10 minutes, making this car one of the most ridiculous as far as recreating and holding charge is concerned.

Tango T600

The only vehicle that Commuter Cars has been able to manufacture successfully to the present day has been the Tango T600, a luxury version of the Tango automobile.  Although this has been their only car so far, it has been a very good start and has drummed up enough interest that they are expected to bring future cars onto the market soon enough.

As previously mentioned, the Tango T600 is a luxury vehicle and that means that it is built for gorgeous looks and high performance.  With the same charging characteristics as those that were mentioned above, the T600 is capable of sustaining a maximum speed of 150 mph while at the same time sustaining a full charge on a range of 40 miles on normal lead-acid batteries.  Switch over to the lithium-ion batteries and the range more than triples to 150 miles although it does cost an extra $25,000 or so in order to make that switch happen. 

In addition to great speed and range features, the T600 is capable of going 0-60 in 4 seconds, something that really knocks the pants off most of the other electric cars out there.  You wouldn’t expect a car this size to be able to do that on an electric engine, but the lower frame weight offsets the engine weight and that is why acceleration curves of that strength are possible.

Although these statistics are impressive, it is worth keeping in mind that the T600 is a luxury vehicle.  That means that the creators of the car were able to pull out all of the stops in making it as good as possible secure in the knowledge that this would be a low-production vehicle that was only sold to high-end customers.  At the end of the day, this car ended up retailing for $108,000 and while people like company spokesperson George Clooney could easily afford that, it is well out of the price range of the average person around the world.

Future Cars

 Future Commuter Cars vehicles will focus on the same Tango design but will attempt to bring down the price as much as possible.  Two examples of confirmed models that will be doing this are the T200 and the T100.  The T200 will be a mid-range automobile that retails for $40,000 and the T100 will be a discount economical model that will retail for an impressive $19,000. 

In the case of both cars, it is expected that the statistics will be less impressive than those of the T600 in line with the lower price.  Those stats are not available yet however in practical terms and for that reason only time will tell whether Commuter Cars will be able to hit the mainstream markets or whether they will suffer the fate of other US electric start-ups and be unable to transfer their great luxury car into a more affordable low-end version.