What is the name of your organization?
Blue Dot Motorworks
What is the name of your solution?
Plug-in Hybrid Retrofit Kits
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Our cost-effective and scalable Plug-in Hybrid Retrofit Kits can be installed on nearly any vehicle in about a day, reducing fuel usage by 80%.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Seattle, WA, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Road transportation is the biggest source of greenhouse gases by end-use. The global stock of vehicles cannot turn over fast enough for the sector to meet its carbon budget. Adoption is being thwarted by lack of charging infrastructure, and enough acceleration to reach our targets would require a doubling of the automotive industry at a cost of $40 trillion. Global battery production capacity would have to increase 250% faster than forecasted. Additionally, those extra new vehicles would incur a cost of tens of gigatonnes of embodied carbon and would require nearly $20 trillion of existing vehicles to be scrapped prematurely.
From the consumer level, most of the world cannot afford a new EV and it will be decades before a large enough second-hand market is established. Additionally, EVs do not serve some uses cases well, such as towing and travel to remote areas. Fleet operators are held back by the challenges of depot charging, such as the great expense, long timelines, and difficulties with permitting and interfacing with utilities. Rising fuel costs relative to wages is making personal transportation move expensive for those who can least afford access to current solutions, leaving such communities stuck with poor air quality.
What is your solution?
We at Blue Dot Motorworks have developed the Narwhal and Humpback to address all of the problems identified above. Electric retrofitting of existing vehicles has long held the potential to decarbonize transportation less expensively and more efficiently. However, every approach to date has relied on bespoke engineering and componentry for any particular vehicle, driving cost out of the realm of practicality (typically starting at $40,000). Additionally, the processes are complex, varied, and time-intensive, further increasing cost and requiring installations to be performed in-house, a difficult business model to scale.
Our technology, converts vehicles into plug-in hybrids. They provide enough electric range to make the daily driving of the vast majority of drivers emissions-free. They make maximum use of the extant systems of the vehicles, eliminate the problems of range anxiety, towing, and poor charging infrastructure, and minimize the drain on battery production resources. Multiple innovations have been patented to render the products “vehicle-agnostic,” so they can be mass-produced at a significantly lower price. The installations are simple, consistent, and fast, enabling the use of 3rd party installers and unlocking rapid growth to scale.
These solutions give us a fighting chance at decarbonizing transportation fast enough to avert a climate catastrophe.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Those served fall into three categories: communities vulnerable to climate change; disadvantaged communities who are priced-out of solutions for improving air quality; and individuals and organizations who are not well served by current electrification options.
Decarbonizing fast is the key to avoiding severe climate change, which will most impact the most disadvantaged communities. Being globally pooled, emissions reductions anywhere will reduce these disproportional burdens. Technologies that can accelerate decarbonization by reducing the cost and resources required are of paramount importance in protecting such communities. Blue Dot’s technologies achieve this by leveraging the sunk cost and embodied energy in existing vehicles, while minimizing the materials, manufacturing, and infrastructure required to electrify as many miles as possible.
At the local level, low-income cities around the world are plagued by poor air quality resulting from old vehicles. The low purchase price of the Humpback and Narwhal, when coupled with financing, typically results in fuel savings that exceed the loan payment, providing air quality improvements at no out-of-pocket cost.
Lastly, many individuals and organizations are held back from going electric by the cost or limitations of EVs. Blue Dot technologies fill in the gaps in the current solution set.
