UQM Technologies Inc was an American manufacturer of electrical motors, generators, motor controllers, fuel cell compressor systems and hybrid systems for passenger and commercial vehicles. Established in 1967 as Unique Mobility Inc, UQM was based in

Longmont, Colorado The City of Longmont is a home rule municipality located in Boulder and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Longmont is located northeast of the county seat of Boulder and north-northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. Longmont ...

. UQM's products were sold direct to

original equipment manufacturers An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

(OEM).

History

The company was involved in the late 1970s Unique Mobility Electrek vehicle, a 2-door 2+2 seater made of fibreglass-reinforced plastic and powered by 16 six-volt batteries. The Electrek featured regenerative braking and could reach a claimed maximum speed of 75 mph and an urban driving range of 75 miles. Given its contribution to the application of hybrid electric propulsion to small military boats, UQM received a $70,000 Phase I contract which was awarded by the Office of Naval Research from the U.S. Navy, in 2003. UQM provided ''PowerPhase'' propulsion systems for Zenith Motors shuttles, RegenNautics marine applications,

Hino Motors Hino Motors, Ltd., commonly known as Hino, is a Japanese manufacturer of commercial vehicles and diesel engines (including those for trucks, buses and other vehicles) headquartered in Hino, Tokyo. The company was established in 1942 as a corpora ...

electric city buses and Proterra electric composite buses, among others and has been used by several

concept cars A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or m ...

such as the

Audi A1 e-tron The Audi e-tron is a series of electric and hybrid cars shown by Audi from 2009 onwards. In 2012 Audi unveiled a plug-in hybrid version, the A3 Sportback e-tron, released to retail customers in Europe in August 2014, and slated for the U.S. in ...

and

Rolls-Royce 102EX The Rolls-Royce 102EX, also known as the Phantom Experimental Electric (EE), is a one-off electric prototype version of the Rolls-Royce Phantom VII. It was created by Rolls-Royce to gauge the response of customers and other stakeholders to an elec ...

Electric Phantom. The PowerPhase Pro system entered production in October 2011. The German company

Ruf Automobile Ruf Automobile GmbH (stylized as RUF) is a German car manufacturer. Formerly using Porsche bodies in white to build cars, today they build vehicles on their own bodies and chassis. They also manufacture performance parts for various Porsche mo ...

modified a

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and origin ...

into an electric version called

eRuf Model A The eRuf Model A is a late-2000s all-electric concept sports car built by German automobile manufacturer Ruf Automobile. The car was powered by a UQM Technologies propulsion system (a UQM PowerPhase 150). The car has a top speed of and was cap ...

, using UQM's 150kW PowerPhase motor. In 2008,

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

made aviation history by achieving the first manned flight of a

fuel-cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requi ...

-powered aircraft which used a UQM motor. In 2010, UQM received a visit from vice-president Joe Biden to promote the $45 million of Stimulus Act money the company received. In 2019 the company was acquired by

Danfoss Danfoss is a Danish multinational company, based in Denmark, with more than 40,043 employees globally. Danfoss was founded in 1933 by engineer Mads Clausen. History Beginning (1933–1966) In 1933 Mads Clausen (1905–1966) founded ''Dansk ...

References

External links

* {{official, https://uqm.com * https://www.uniquemobility.org/ Manufacturing companies based in Colorado Longmont, Colorado Motor vehicle engine manufacturers Engine manufacturers of the United States Companies formerly listed on NYSE American