 |
||
Electric Car Design:Is it really that different? During my research of finding the right electric vehicle for my family I started to realise that the cars design is just as important as what you put into it.
Electric car design has a HUGE impact in an all-electric vehicle as things like air resistance and weight are very important to get the range you want. There are also things to consider in electric car design like where to put the mountain of batteries and how to make it actually look good! What do I do to keep the weight down?  There are lots of ways to keep the weight down in a car and luckily car companies try to do this with the ICE (internal combustion engine) cars too especially manufacturers like Lotus in England.
They specialise in lightweight sport cars and have shared a lot of that knowledge with electric car companies like Tesla (with the Tesla Electric Car) and ZAP.
With an electric car the weight of the body has to be very light as the amount of batteries in it adds tremendously to the weight. The more weight you have the more power you need to go the same distance. Imagine it’s like you’re hiking up a hill, if someone asked you to hold a heavy rock because…. I don’t know they’re kind of weird and into rocks or whatever, it might not be too heavy for now but over time it’s going to add up, tire you out and stop you from getting as far as you want. So basically the lighter they are, the better it will perform just like any other car! What safety features are different in an electric car?  There’s no real change to the look or shape of the electric car because of the different safety features but first of all a car needs a lot of power.
No matter what it is that powers it, like diesel or electricity or even hydrogen, if there is that much power needed there is always going to be safety concerns.
Electric cars have many circuit breakers in place that shut off the flow of electricity when they detect a collision or a short circuit or even if water gets into the system. In the event of a crash the high voltage wires are usually coloured bright orange so fire fighters know where they are. Nobody should be any more frightened of getting into an all-electric car than an ICE car or be scare of going out driving in the rain as they’re completely safe, they’re just different, and that’s the one thing that scares people most. What size electric car would be the best?  The size of the car will, like any car, usually depend on what it’s being used for.
Most electric cars you would see on the roads are usually fairly small though.
That’s mainly because most electric cars you see on the roads still only have a small range and lowish top speed so are mostly for city driving, and who wants a big car in the city anyway?
Normal sized cars are around though and vans, trucks and even buses are electric these days, although I haven’t seen an 18 wheeler electric truck yet, but there’s bound to be someone out there trying it! Where do I keep the batteries?  Electric car batteries are usually always kept as low as possible to the ground.
This is to keep the weight close to the ground which is a plus in any car.
So they would mostly be spread out under the car to cover the biggest surface are on the ground of the car.
This has to be taken into account in the design as there isn’t always a lot of space in a car so it’s a question of a game of Tetris almost to fit the batteries in as best as they can! Should electric cars look like an ICE car?  I think at the moment a lot of electric cars coming out are going to have to look like an ICE car to get mainstream.
I think over time though that electric car design will change and people are going to start adapting the look of the electric car as people start to realise how much more flexibility they have, and flexibility should be a designers dream shouldn’t it?
 I think that that’s about all on electric car design and I just want to see people coming up with some affordable good looking cars in the future.
I see that even Pininfarina the great Italian designers known for their Ferraris even designed their own electric car called the Bluecar so I think designers are really waking up and seeing that electric cars are the their best chance to be creative and show their skills which I’m looking forward to! Back from Electric car design to Electric Cars Back from Electric car design to All Electric Vehicles Homepage. |
|
|
|
Enjoy This Site?
Then why not use the button below, to add us to your favorite bookmarking service? |
||
|
| ||