The story of Thunder Sky (Part 2)

This is part 2 of the story of Thunder Sky and their experimental electric vehicles, part 1 can be found here. In my last article I introduced Thunder Sky and gave you an overview of their early history as well as details on their vehicles prior to 2007. In this article I will introduce you to the cars they made after 2007 and also go into detail on their interesting relationships with companies such as FAW, Krystal and MVP RV’s. I won’t go into detail on some of Thunder Sky’s other ventures but it would be an understatement to say that they’ve been involved in just about everything! Winston Chung has been recognized for his work by the United Nations and Thunder Sky donated 10 million dollars to University of California Riverside to establish a research center named ‘Winston Chung Global Energy Center’, produced LiYPO4 battery packs (using 1000AH battery cells) and also helped install the batteries in buildings. All very cool stuff but not really car related and so I won’t be covering it all in my article because it doesn’t really relate to vehicles. For more details please search on Thunder Sky’s website www.thundersky-winston.com.

Photo provided by Thundersky

The depth and variety of the applications of Thunder Sky’s batteries is truly impressive in both the commercial and DIY worlds. Their batteries have been used in everything from cars to buses, to trucks, to boats and even in buildings!

Relationship with First Auto Works (FAW)

In early 2009 Thunder Sky and FAW announced a deal with FAW to produce electric buses equipped with Thunder Sky’s Lithium-ion batteries. There is something further that I cannot confirm, but it seems that Thunder Sky was provided with or acquired two rather unique cars – a Hongqi HQ3 and CA7460L2.

Thunder Sky Hongqi HQ3 (EV8800), CA7460L2 and Nissan Civilians (EV6700) – photo provided by Thunder Sky

The earliest record I could find of these two cars is when they were shown in October 2009 at an event in Tangshan in Hebei Province. At the same event Thunder Sky also unveiled the world’s first charging station capable of fast charging 4 cars at once.

Hongqi CA7460L2

Now we come to the car that, a few weeks ago, started our quest to find out about Thunder Sky – the electric CA7460L2.

Thunder Sky Hongqi CA7460L2 – photo provided by Thundersky

Text on the side say “Go All Over the World with Lithium – Thunder Sky Lithium Battery Chinese Electric Vehicle”.

The CA7460 series of sedans and limousines were based on the Lincoln Town Car and were powered by the 4.6 liter Modular V8. For more on the original petrol-powered CA7460’s, be sure to check out this article.

Thunder Sky Hongqi CA7460L2

We don’t have too many official details on the technical aspects of the CA7460L2 and we are 99.99% sure that there was only one prototype ever made with registration plates from Hongqi’s hometown of Changchun in Jilin Province. Happily we do have some more pictures! These pictures were taken at the 25th World Battery, Hybrid, Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles Symposium in Shenzhen in 2010.

Thunder Sky Hongqi Ca7460L2 interior

The interior was relatively untouched except for a controller mounted on the transmission tunnel and a screen mounted in front of the radio.

Thunder Sky Hongqi CA7460L2 controller

We can’t confirm whether the controller controlled the “gears” (PRND etc) of the car but we would hope that the original column shifter could still be used for extra coolness!

Thunder Sky Hongqi CA7460L2 screen

The rear compartment of the CA7460L2 was fairly ordinary with the main feature being a table.

Thunder Sky CA7460 on CEV cover

The CA7460 appeared on the cover of the 2009 November/December issues of China Electric Vehicle Magazine (CEV). CEV was a magazine published by Thunder Sky that covered all aspects of the New Energy industry. Everything from renewable power generation to electric and hydrogen cars. They also covered their own prototypes, some of which are mentioned in these articles. I did not find out about this magazine until I began researching this second article. CEV was published 4 times a year from 2002 until the 2010’s. It is no longer published.

Hongqi HQ3 (EV8800)

The EV8800 was the only one of the two “modern” Hongqis converted by Thunder Sky to have a proper model designation. It was of course based on the Hongqi HQ3 (more on that car here)

Thunder Sky Hongqi HQ3 (EV8800) – photo by Remko Tanis (flickr)

Here is the electric HQ3 seen in 2010 at Thunder Sky headquarters. The HQ3 was equipped with a 74kWh battery giving a maximum range of at least 300km and a top speed of 140km/h. Normal and maximum power outputs were 40kW/110Nm and 80kW/220Nm respectively. Unlike most of Thunder Sky’s earlier cars this one actually had proper license plates of Shenzhen. The official designation for the HQ3 was EV8800. Sadly it never reached serial production.

Thunder Sky Hongqi HQ3 (EV8800) – photo by Thunder Sky

Relationship with Balqon

Balqon is a company that specialises in the design and manufacturing of electric vehicle drive systems, particularly for heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks. Balqon faced financial difficulties as a result of the 2008 financial crisis and Thunder Sky stepped in 2010 by investing 5 million USD into the company and became its largest shareholder.

Balqon XE20

Balqon’s most well-known vehicles are these port trucks. Initially Balqon used lead-acid batteries but later after their relationship with Thunder Sky began they used Thunder Sky batteries that proved to have far greater capacity and were much lighter.

Balqon M100 mule

Balqon also produced a few electric International Durastar 4000-series chassis based truck and bus platforms. These also used Thunder Sky batteries.

Balqon Kystal electric bus

Krystal used Balqon’s 4000-series chassis as a basis for this prototype electric bus. It had a range of around 90 miles or 145km when fully loaded. It used a 150hp electric motor driving the rear wheels through the Allison transmission that fossil-fueled 4000’s were equipped with.

Balqon Kystal electric bus

At the 26th World Battery, Hybrid, Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles Symposium in Los Angeles Balqon unveiled their Freightliner based MX30 Class 8 tractor unit. It was designed for delivering cargo between ports and rail yards and other short trips requiring the movement of heavy goods. It had an unloaded range of 150 miles and a (loaded) top speed of 70mph (110km/h). Like the 4000-series based chassis the MX30 had an electric motor driving the rear wheels through a conventional automatic transmission rather than a simple direct connection via a single reduction gear. This meant that a smaller, less powerful motor could be used.

Balqon MX30

Balqon also produced an electrified Ford E450 chassis for use by conversions companies for use in buses and RV’s. To our knowledge only one company produced a vehicle using this chassis as you shall find out in a moment.

Balqon E450 drivetrain

Relationship with Krystal

Krystal coach was once the largest limousine manufacturer in the world. Sadly it struggled to survive the 2008 financial crisis and the following downturn in demand for stretched limousines until it was essentially bankrupt by late 2010. In 2011 an affiliate of Thunder Sky called Krystal Infinity stepped in to purchase what was left of the dying company. Krystal worked with Thunder Sky to produce two prototype electric vehicles. One was a Lincoln Navigator Limousine called the Krystal T.S. (for Thunder Sky) Luxury Electric Vehicle and the other was a luxury shuttle bus. All told Winston Chung invested $28 million into Krystal.

Thunder Sky Lincoln Navigator – photo by Thunder Sky

The Navigator was equipped with a 120kWh battery and a 200kW electric motor powering the rear wheels.

Prince Maurits with the Thunder Sky Lincoln Navigator -photo by Thunder Sky

The Navigator was exhibited at EVS25 where the Dutch Prince Maurits saw it and several other Thunder Sky vehicles.

The conversion carried out by Krystal involved redesigning the rear end to resemble a sedan.

The interior was similar to other stretched Navigators with a set of drawers, captain chairs and a TV.

Thunder Sky Lincoln Navigator engine bay – photo by Thunder Sky

The engine bay was filled with electronics.

Electric Krystal Luxury Shuttle Bus

The bus was based on an International Durastar 4000-series chassis. The bus was powered by two Siemens electric motors powering the rear wheels through a shared gearbox. The body was 102 inches wide and up to 38 passengers could be transported at a time. The battery had a capacity of 312kWh and the bus had a range of around 300km. Note that this Krystal bus is likely not the same bus as the one present when I discussed Balqon. The drivetrain is different.

Relationship with MVP RV

MVP RV was a company that made motorhomes, toy haulers and caravans. Like many companies in the leisure vehicle industry (including Krystal) they faced financial difficulties as a result of the Great Recession in 2008. Founded in mid-2008 by executives from another RV company, MVP faltered shortly afterwards in 2009. Winston Chung soon showed an interest in taking over the company to produce RV’s and buses for the Chinese market, as well as continue providing for the US market. Part of his plan was to launch a range of electric RV’s and buses that would be produced at MVP’s factory. All told MVP RV produced two electric prototypes – a Class A and a Class C motorhome.

Class A motorhome
MVP RV Winston (exterior)

The most well-known electric MVP was this – a class A motorhome called Winston, named after Winston Chung himself. It was equipped with a 900kWh(!) battery and could run for 300km on a single charge with a top speed of 70mph (~110km/h)

Interior of the MVP RV – photo by Thunder Sky

The interior of the RV was furnished rather beautifully.

Thunder Sky MVP Class A RV – photo by Thunder Sky

The RV took part in the parade along with the CA7460 and Navigator at the 25th World Battery, Hybrid, Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles Symposium (EVS25).

Prince Maurits and Winston Chung in the MVP RV – photo by Thunder Sky

The Dutch Prince Maurits had a meeting with Winston Chung in the RV at EVS25.

Class C motorhome
MVP RV ETahoe

In 2011 MVP also produced an electric Class C motorhome based on their “Tahoe” model. The drivetrain came from Balqon and was based on their electrified Ford E450 chassis. Called the “eTahoe“, it used an 86kWh battery pack and production models were slated to get a 332kWh battery pack. Sadly the eTahoe never made it to production.

Relationship with Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters Inc.

Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters Inc. (GFMI) is a company specialising in the building of prototype and concept vehicles for some of the world’s largest automakers. More recently, GFMI has been specialising in electric vehicle drivetrain integration and Thunder Sky has become a partner with them in this area. Winston Chung invested $24 million into Gaffoglio before 2012 and GFMI has constructed at least 3 prototype electric vehicles using Thunder Sky batteries.

London Taxi

Two of the most unusual vehicles converted by Thunder Sky are these London Taxi Limousines called the EV2012 (There was also an EV2012 bus). It is likely that the Taxi had this name as a reference to the 2012 London Olympics.

Thunder Sky London Taxi

The taxis were presented to the public in 2011 at an event at the University of California Riverside. Thunder Sky and its founder Winston Chung have a strong relationship with this university. The taxis were 5.63 meters in length and weighed almost 3.5 tonnes. They were powered by 150kW electric motors and had 90.75kWh batteries. Top speed was 50mph or 80km/h. Maximum torque was 650Nm.

Thunder Sky London Taxis EV2012

The taxis were obviously stretched versions of the London Taxi. Both were right-hand drive with the orange one wearing the registration BJ09CFA and the white one BF09TXE. Based on my research they were both black to start with and were used as normal taxis before being stretched and converted. Winston Chung apparently used the orange one to get to a function at the Bolboa Bay Club in the US.

Electric Bus

The stretched London Taxis may have been unusual, but this bus is absolutely insane! (In a good way). It was created by Gaffoglio for Thunder Sky and the prototype was unveiled in 2017.

Thunder Sky Gaffoglio electric bus “China Dream” – photo by Thunder Sky (picture taken in China)

The bus was designed and built by Gaffoglio and used Thunder Sky batteries. The design called for extensive use of carbon fibre. The battery pack likely had a capacity of around 300kWh and gave the bus a range of 170 miles or 270km. Plans were in place to use a new generation of batteries to give the bus a range of 1,000 miles or 1,600km. We’re yet to see that come to fruition.

Thunder Sky Gaffoglio electric bus “China Dream” – photo by CarDesignTV

The rear of the bus, whilst not as striking as the front is nevertheless a thing of beauty as well with lovely rounded edges.

Driver’s seat of the Gaffoglio bus – photo by Thunder Sky

Of course besides its electric powertrain the another unique aspect of this bus is the central driving position. The reasoning behind choosing this design was fairly simple, it was chosen in order to make it easy to produce the bus for right and left-hand-drive markets as all that would be required would be to put doors on the left or right sides of the bus for those respective markets. Of course there would be nothing stopping them from putting doors on both sides! That would certainly be a bonus for cross-border buses running between Mainland China and Hong Kong and Macau where passengers could be let off at the curb regardless of where they were.

Thunder Sky Gaffoglio electric bus “China Dream” – photo by CarDesignTV

The interior was less revolutionary though did incorporate some nice mood lighting and a rather nice seat design. The bus was designed to seat 42 passengers.

Electric postal vehicle
Thunder Sky Postal Vehicle – photo provided by Thunder Sky

Thunder Sky has commissioned Gaffoglio to design a pure electric postal vehicle. The vehicle has a chassis made of high-strength aluminum while the body is made of aerospace grade carbon fibre to reduce weight. The vehicle weighs just 2,600 pounds or just under 1,200kg. The vehicle would also be able to have its batteries swapped out very quickly, allowing for little to no downtime waiting for batteries to recharge.

Thunder Sky Postal Vehicle – photo provided by Thunder Sky

Like the bus the postal vehicle has a central driving position, meaning it could easily operate in left or right-hand drive markets. This would certainly make the vehicle appealing to postal services around the world.

Thunder Sky Postal Vehicle – photo provided by Thunder Sky

The vehicle would be able to track all of its assigned packages, communicate with a base and provide navigation assistance to the driver. Thunder Sky aims to make the driving experience far superior to other postal vehicles.

Relationship with Taiwan Huade

Huade Technology Co. is a Taiwanese company that specialises in the production of various electrical products such as touch screens and computers. They worked with Thunder Sky to produce electric buses for the Taiwanese market.

Prototype Huade electric bus

Here is one of the early prototypes in Shenzhen that was used to test the electrical systems. Keen readers will notice that the registration (test 0048) is the same as the one used by the EV-3 I introduced in the first article.

Huade electric bus – photo by LF Zhang (Flickr)

Here is one of the Huade buses in service in Taichung in 2015. As of today these buses have each covered more than 300,000km in regular service.

Ma Ying-jeou visiting Huade – photo by Thunder Sky

The introduction of electric buses in Taiwan was quite a big deal, so big in fact that former Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou paid a visit to Huade in Taiwan to see one.

Huade electric minibuses – photo by China Electric Vehicle magazine

Huade also produced these smaller buses for use in Taoyuan County.

Relationship with Elektrikcar

Elektrikcar is a company based in Michigan that worked with Thunder Sky to develop two prototype vehicles. They specialise in the development of electric vehicle drivetrains and systems integration.

Tucuxi

The Tucuxi is a 2+2 electric sports car equipped with a 200kW electric motor and a 70kWh battery pack made up of Thunder Sky modules. The Tucuxi was developed primarily in Indonesia where it was test-driven. Alibaba

Elektrikcar Tucuxi
Hydrogen Bus

Elektrikcar developed a fuel cell generator for use in electric buses to extend their range. Given the impracticalities of using a very large and very heavy battery to provide a long-range but sacrifice payload, a fuel cell could provide a large increase in range for comparatively lower sacrifice to payload. Their first prototype was based on a Volvo bus that was converted to electric operation and equipped with two fuel cell modules producing a combined 60kW to charge the batteries.

Thunder Sky Elektrikcar Hydrogen bus – photo by Thunder Sky
Thunder Sky Elektrikcar Hydrogen bus interior – photo by Thunder Sky

The interior of the bus was furnished with wooden floors and luxurious yet sporty looking armchairs.

Volkswagen Santana Vista (EV7700)

The mighty Volkswagen Santana was also converted by Thunder Sky some time around 2009, about 1 year after the Santana Vista was first released. Its official designation was EV7700. It had the same battery and powertrain as the Hongqi HQ3 based EV8800 – a 74kWh battery and a motor with normal and maximum power outputs of 40kW/110Nm and 80kW/220Nm respectively. Given that the Santana is much lighter than the HQ3 I would expect the range to be greater than the claimed 300km of the HQ3.

Thunder Sky Volkswagen Santana EV7700

A rather peculiar detail is the exhaust pipe that has been left in place. Perhaps Thunder Sky wanted to create a super stealthy EV that no one would suspect?

Thunder Sky Volkswagen Santana EV7700 Interior

The interior of the EV7700 is identical to a regular Santana Vista – even the gear lever for the manual transmission has been left in place!

Thunder Sky Volkswagen Santana chargeport

The charging connector for all Thunder Sky vehicles seemed to be this style of plug around this time.

Thunder Sky Volkswagen Santana EV7700 engine bay

The engine bay of the EV7700 filled with batteries.

The Santana appeared on the cover of China Electric Vehicle Magazine in the 2009 March/April issue alongside a bus made by FAW in Wuxi that was powered by Thunder Sky batteries.

Thunder Sky Santana Taxi
Thunder Sky Santana taxi (similar to Shenzhen colour scheme) – photo by Thunder Sky

Thunder Sky also created these electric taxis based on the Santana. The first is a more generic style but the second (red) one was painted in a colour scheme very similar to Shenzhen taxis of the day. They were likely used to market their batteries for such purposes and given the Santana’s popularity as a taxi in many cities in China an electric version could very well have been a good idea. Sadly it never caught on and the BYD E6 has a large chunk of the market for electric taxis now.

Buses

Like they did before 2007, Thunder Sky produced multiple prototype electric buses after 2007 and well into the 2010’s.

Thunder Sky EV6700
Thunder Sky EV6700

In the last article I showed you the Toyota Coaster based EV6700. Thunder Sky continued development of the EV6700 with this prototype based on the Nissan Civilian. It had nominal and maximum power outputs of 45kW/110Nm and 90kW/210Nm respectively. The battery pack had a capacity of 108kWh. The EV6700 had a range of around 280km and a top speed of 100km/h.

Thunder Sky Hongqi HQ3 (EV8800), CA7460L2 and Nissan Civilians (EV6700) – photo provided by Thunder Sky

At least two EV6700’s were made.

Higer KLQ6129G
Higer KLQ6129G

This was a Higer (Suzhou King Long) KLQ6129G converted to electric power using Thunder Sky batteries. This was likely a part of their EV2009/EV2012 series of buses. Though the Higer is not shown on their website, a similar low-floor city bus is shown. The EV2009 had nominal and maximum power outputs of 125kW/796Nm and 320kW/2355Nm respectively. The battery pack had a capacity of around 307kWh. The EV2009 had a range of more than 300km and a top speed of 80km/h.

King Long XMQ6123Y
King Long XMQ6123Y

This appears to be an older EV2008 like the ones I discussed in the last article. Unlike those EV2008’s this one does actually have proper registration plates and not test vehicle registration plates.

Higer Scania A80
Higer Scania A80

This rather striking bus is based on the Scania-Higer A80. It has the Chinese flag incorporated into the paintwork and various symbols of the CCP. The Scania logo on the front has been replaced with a Thunder Sky logo. It is likely that this bus uses the drivetrain from the later generation for the EV2008 series of buses produced by Thunder Sky. If so it would have had nominal and maximum power outputs of 150kW/683Nm and 300kW/1370Nm respectively. The battery pack had a capacity of around 350kWh. The later EV2008’s had a range of more than 300km and a top speed of 110km/h.

Vehicles produced by other companies that used Thunder Sky batteries

In this section I will introduce to you a number of vehicles that used Thunder Sky’s batteries but were not produced by Thunder Sky themselves and Thunder Sky did not play as large a role as in projects in the last section. Please note that in the grand scheme of things this is only a small portion of every vehicle that has ever used Thunder Sky batteries but in my mind they are perhaps the most interesting, or the only ones I could find! Thunder Sky batteries have long been a popular choice for EV conversions by EV enthusiasts.

OSCar eO

In 2012, Latvian motorsport company OSC built an electric four-wheel-drive rally car to compete in the 2012 Dakar Rally. This was the first time that an electrically-powered car had ever competed in the Dakar Rally. It has also competed in the Silk Way Rally and the Africa Eco Race. The project certainly sparked (no pun intended) a lot of interest in Latvia with even the Latvian government showing their support for the project.

OSCar EO

The car was called the OSCar eO and it was based on OSC’s OSCar O3. In truth it was not a pure electric vehicle but a series hybrid or a plug-in range-extender hybrid. It used a 51.2kWh battery pack made up of Thunder Sky modules and a Nissan VQ35DE 3.5 liter V6 petrol engine as a generator. The battery pack could be charged from mains power or by running the generator. The generator and electric propulsion system was first tested in a Nissan Navara pickup.

OSCar eO team holding Thunder Sky modules beside the eO

The eO was propelled by two electric motors with a peak output of 335kW (150kW nominal) and up to 800Nm of peak torque (440Nm nominal). For more technical specs please check out DRIVEeO’s website and for more photos be sure to check out their Flickr!

Superbus

The Superbus was the brainchild of Astronaut Wubbo Ockels. Several companies were involved and provided their expertise and indeed the bus itself generated quite a lot of media buzz. I myself remember reading many articles about it in the early 2010’s.

Superbus – photo by Thunder Sky

The Superbus was to be a high-speed intercity luxury “bus” that would carry 23 passengers at a cruising speed of up to 250km/h with a range of around 210km. Maximum power output was 400kW (source).

Superbus – photo by Thunder Sky

A working prototype was completed in 2010 and was promptly shown to people all around the world through media and through tours to other countries such as the UAE. Celebrities and CEO’s such as Virgin’s Richard Branson got to see and ride in the Superbus. Sadly the visionary behind the project Wubbo Ockels passed away in 2014 and the project appears to have stalled since.

Imperial College London SRZero

Thunder Sky did not convert this car themselves, rather it was a project carried out by Imperial College London. ICL elected to use Thunder Sky’s batteries in their converted Radical they called the “SRZero” and promptly drove it from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego – a distance of 26,000km. The project was also known as Racing Green Endurance.

Imperial College London’s Radical SRZero
Radical SRZero – photo provided by Thunder Sky
Batteries for the SRZero

The SRZero was equipped with Thunder Sky batteries that had a combined capacity of 54kWh. Thunder Sky were apparently the only company that would support the project. For more on this car please check out this article, to cover all of ICL’s adventures with this car in this article would take an eternity.

Closing words

Writing these articles about Thunder Sky has taken a lot of time and work given the sheer number of vehicles that were covered and the research involved. I would like to thank everyone who helped me including my colleague Erik for some of the older photos in the first article and Tycho who first found out about the company. I would also like to extend a very big thank you to Hannah from Thunder Sky for providing me with lots of pictures and information and for providing feedback on drafts.

 

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Paul

Another meticulously written article, Sam; the contents of which contained a wealth of new (for me) information. A great read. Thanks!