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First off, I appreciate the occasional healthy dose of skepticism. So while you made it clear that you are not trying to be rude, let me be just as clear in saying that I'm not just trying to bounce back with an argument. I carefully considered whether I have started this as you said "tail wagging the dog," but I think you may have limited your view of how a car is designed to be too narrow. Car manufacturers design cars in lots of different ways: some are built around an idea, such as maximum mpg; some are built around an established chassis or drivetrain; many are started from the artist's rendering and all sorts of combinations in between. Where I spend most of my time with cars is in the street rod world (My current car is a 49 Plymouth) and in this world generally the frame and body are your starting point and whatever you decide to keep until you can afford better. As an aerospace engineer most of my projects begin with a set of performance parameters. This is in no way intended to be a build log, it is the design stage; as I mentioned in my first post I want to design as much as possible while I have certain tools available. It is also not intended to be a unicorn coral as you put it.
I also didn't put all of the things I'm thinking about as its easy to lose focus that way. Mostly, I want to start with the body design, making it as efficient as possible. I want to make a car that requires as little to move it as possible. As for the drivetrain I want to either make it a series hybrid or full electric; most likely full electric. That being said I want the chassis to be versatile and able to accept a few different drivetrain choices ie strong enough to handle the batteries. This is not unusual as many cars come in hybrid or gas versions. I am going to use a fairly unmodified version of the spaceframe used in the GM Skateboard concept which was designed to support more than I would put into it. As for your last point, improving the aerodynamics of the body design are a technical issue and one that I've heard one particular aerodynamicist from GM complain that more designers dont do. But, if it makes it more real, I can move onto some chassis and drivetrain stuff while I work on the body sketchup model.
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