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Not everyone has kids, watches TV, has a trailer, needs to pick up lumber, or even has luggage to carry. And yet, what does the automotive market offer for our needs/wants profile?
Not everyone has kids, watches TV, has a trailer, needs to pick up lumber, or even has luggage to carry. And yet, what does the automotive market offer for our needs/wants profile?
Porsches, Corvettes, Miatas, Smarts, Morgans, motorcycles, etc. and their sales numbers show that most people just won't choose them.
Not everyone has kids, watches TV, has a trailer, needs to pick up lumber, or even has luggage to carry. And yet, what does the automotive market offer for our needs/wants profile?
I don't understand why so many electric cars are FWD when there is no obvious packaging or energy consumption benefit to a FWD setup on an electric platform. I guess they just think customers are too used to FWD by now to go back to RWD?
I don't understand why so many electric cars are FWD when there is no obvious packaging or energy consumption benefit to a FWD setup on an electric platform. I guess they just think customers are too used to FWD by now to go back to RWD?
I think it could also be a combination of tunnel vision designers and or corporate parts bin engineering.
I don't understand why so many electric cars are FWD when there is no obvious packaging or energy consumption benefit to a FWD setup on an electric platform. I guess they just think customers are too used to FWD by now to go back to RWD?
Most of them were built on existing platforms with no way of putting the electric drive in the rear. Tesla and BMW made all new platforms that were RWD and AWD. Moving forward, you'll probably see much more RWD and more importantly AWD EV platforms arriving.
The lightest of these is 2300 pounds. I weigh under (unfortunately not too much under) 200 pounds. Why is my lightest-weight choice a vehicle that is at least a dozen times heavier than me?
You'll never have a 600-pound car, electric or otherwise, built in a form factor and at a price point acceptable to the average consumer that can still meet crash protection requirements. Even the purpose-built Ariel Atom which is little more than a skeletal frame with an engine, wheels, and driver controls weighs 1300 pounds.
If you want a 600-pound electric single seater, get an electric motorcycle.
You'll never have a 600-pound car, electric or otherwise, built in a form factor and at a price point acceptable to the average consumer that can still meet crash protection requirements. Even the purpose-built Ariel Atom which is little more than a skeletal frame with an engine, wheels, and driver controls weighs 1300 pounds.
If you want a 600-pound electric single seater, get an electric motorcycle.
You are unfortunately only too right. What I really want is something like a university student-team "Formula SAE" car, which is a small single-seater, powered by a warmed-over motorcycle engine. I have occasionally seen them for sale. There is now an electric version... maybe 40 hp (just a guess) but probably 4s 0-60 time.
Motorcycles scare me. Otherwise most of my needs would be met by a $3000 used Honda motorcycle, with conventional 4-stroke engine. However, it seems to me that motorcycle-style minimalism could be applied to a four-wheel sports car, provided that it is for one occupant and zero (and I do mean zero) cargo space. It would have the same ground clearance issues as a "slammed" riceboy conventional car. Assuming motorcycle-style safety gear, a 5-point harness and a true roll cage, I can't see it being any more dangerous than something like a 1950s MG, which is perfectly street-legal in my state.
Again, that car already exists in the form of the Ariel Atom except that it accommodates two occupants instead of just one. But that accommodation adds little to its 1,300-pound curb weight.
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