Everyone is talking about the new Slate trucklette, what with it being the new battery hotness and all, and I get it. I dig it, even. It is indeed a cool little machine, and I’m 100% with Jason on everything he opined this morning about its crank-window coolness.
It’s also got me thinking about what my idea of an ideal EV is, if only for me and only me.
While I have tremendous respect for what Tesla did with the Roadster and even more so the Model S to establish that EVs needn’t be weird little pods for ecology nerds and could instead just be good (great, even) regular cars that happen to be electric, I have to confess that I actually have a soft spot for the weird pod concept.
Take the Aptera in the top graphic, for example. I suspect it’s just too bizarre to succeed, but I love how it goes Full Jetsons as an aggressively aero teardrop-shaped two-seater rolling on three wheels. More of that, please.
I see myself using an EV most frequently to commute solo to an office (I work from home and hope to never have a commute again, but go with me on this). As such, I don’t need 300+ miles of range, and I certainly don’t want to lug around all that battery weight, either – or pay for it. A mere 100 miles of range would be plenty to get me around during the week, with a nightly top-off in the garage at hole.
Room for myself and a passenger plus a couple of carry-on bags would be all the space I need in my ideal EV, and I wouldn’t say no to a single-seater. Make it lightweight, fun, and futuristic. One can certainly go too small (and/or narrow, see below), but I love the idea of a driving what feels like a personal fighter jet on wheels.
But then again, I’m a bit of a weirdo. Let’s hear from you! Please, Tell Us About Your Ideal Electric Car.
Top graphic image: Aptera
Basically the Slate, scaled up to Ford Ranger size, and AWD.
because april 25th was recent. the perfect electric car will not be too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket to drive it
Already got it! An E-REV or really, just a really good PHEV like my Volt is the perfect amount of EV. I can do a substantial amount of driving for practically free, without the worry of range anxiety. The only anxiety I do develop, is when I should switch to the gas motor when I anticipate running out of range. I like to ensure it runs long enough to actually get up to temperature.
I currently daily a Ford Lightning. I love it for what it is, just bigger than what it needs to be. One of the biggest advantages of an EV is the packaging possibilities. What Lucid does is incredible.
I basically want a Lucid truck. Give me F-150 space, but in a smaller exterior package. Something like a 1.2-1.5x scale Telo Truck would work too. 5-6 ft bed with a cabin pass through. Big interior space. The Telo concept just goes too far in the micro direction. I don’t need it to be the size of a Mini Cooper. But I would like to be able to get in the vehicle without being a contortionist.
eGolf with tad more range. Of passat wagon with awd and 500km of range (over 400 in winter).
I think next time we shop EV:s we are getting a ID2 or used ID3 and diesel Multivan to handle the roadtrips. Here in northern Finland I’ve come to conclusion that big EV:s just do not fit my lifestyle that well, but really like them on commute, but they absolutely suck at winter long distant stuff. That said atleast our awd Enyaq has othervise been the best winter car I’ve had. The heatpump warms it up in a jiffy, the powertrain doesn’t seem to be affected at all by the cold. Only issue so far has been that there’s no trickle charging for the 12v system so it might start going too low.
I’d want a covered moped with room for groceries and a second person behind me.
1/3 the width of a car, two actual seats (not bicycle or motorcycle seats), windshield, top, locking grocery trunk or frunk. 75 mile range, 60mph max, under $5k.
Make it happen.
The cost point requires mass production.
The second person will entail the vehicle weighing at least 300 lbs. The range and performance specs would be very easy to meet with a focus on drag reduction.
To be considered a moped or motorcycle in the USA, it will require 2 or 3 wheels. If enclosed, it’s a lot easier and cheaper to design for 3 wheels.
Unfortunately, if you must hand build it due to lack of machine tools, the cost will go well into the five figures.
My ideal EV depends upon application, but I have the following in mind:
1- Commuter: This would be a one-seater 3-wheeled microcar sized and shaped like a velomobile. It would weigh under 150 lbs as an integrated glass fiber monocoque/roll cage structure. With a 3 kWh battery pack of high power density, it would drive an AMZ technologies hub motor in each wheel, making around 150 horsepower with AWD. It would have a 150+ mile range at highway speeds, accelerate from 0-60 mph in under 2 seconds, and top out somewhere around 120 mph. There would be enough trunk space to fit a suitcase or a week’s worth of groceries. No creature comforts of any kind aside from being enclosed. The overriding ethos of the design would be minimum possible operating costs, fun also being excessive but still secondary to being cheap. It would cost as much as an ebike to operate.
2- Sports Car: This would be an offset two-seater(ala VW XL1) with a titanium space frame chassis, glass fiber body, RWD, and an electric drive system from Lucid. It would be a tiny thing, no wider than a Ginetta G4, maybe 35″ height, ultra slippery with a drag coefficient around 0.15, and a battery pack no larger than 25 kWh. Styling cues ripped from Jaguar D-Type, Ferrari 250GTO, and other beautiful legends, so as to exude pure sex. Roll-up windows, no AC, no radio. Rear wheels are skirted, ala Honda Insight. This is a racing machine meant for hooning and jackassery. It would be geared for 200 mph top end. Finished vehicle weight would be around 900 lbs. Expected 0-60 mph time also around 2 seconds. Range, if you keep your foot out of it, could approach 300 miles at 70 mph, but you could also drain the battery in less than 5 minutes if you hoon the crap out of it.
3- Truck: A small pickup with 1-row seating, glass fiber body on a ladder frame chassis, able to fit a stack of 8’x4′ sheets of plywood in the bed. It will have decent aero for a truck, Cd value around 0.29 because it would be shaped like a Lotus Europa, except having a bed where the engine would have been, and elongated. It’s not an offroad machine, but is perfectly functional as a pickup truck. It has AWD using hub motors, and doesn’t need a lot of power. Weight of around 3,000 lbs with a 40 kWh battery, getting a 150 mile range.
4- Family hauler: A long-wheelbase, narrow sedan or wagon, with room to seat 5 or more. It would be much like the Mercedes Vision EQXX concept, except with less battery. Very slippery, with a Cd value of around 0.16. RWD with a Lucid drive system. Power widows, power locks, and power steering are fine here. 250 miles range on under 40 kWh of battery, curb weight around 3,000 lbs. In wagon form, it would have a rear storage area accessible by hatch, with a 3rd row of seating, the seats able to fold down.
ALL of the above would have all software open source, no infotainment, and would be mostly analogue. All functions would have physical buttons, switches, and knobs. No touch screens. The cars themselves would be designed to be repairable with basic tools by any of the worst dipshit sub-80 IQ drunken high-school-dropout incompetent assclown mechanics imaginable.
I like my vehicles SIMPLE.
1) LFP batteries for longevity
2) Heat pump which scrubs from the motors to boost winter driving range
3) 800v architecture to boost fast charging times.
4) The ability to preheat the battery while plugged in, and the ability to manually heat the battery to prepare for fast charging
5) 300 miles of range, fast charging under 20 minutes
Basically an updated version of the i3. Slightly bigger and more power, still rwd but with more normal tires. It it too much to ask for a 300hp rwd hot hatch, that is actually hatchback sized and not a 5000lbs crossover?