Jason Fagone has a well written article up on Wired:
Big Automakers Won't Build the Car of the Future, Small Inventors Will | Wired Opinion | Wired.com
Here's my comment from that article:
A part of the discussion that is missing is a chicken and egg thing - expectations of buyers and the willingness of car makers to build something new and different. Witness the fact that most/all EV's have a "grill" even though they don't need one. This is partly because many EV's are conversions, and partly because most buyers are squeamish, and won't even consider something "weird.
All design is compromise, and with less available energy onboard an EV, aerodynamic efficiency is far more important when you need the range. Gasoline is so energy packed, that it has made engineers lazy, in my opinion.
The design of an EV also has to start with the placement of the battery, for Cg considerations and for making it work with the needs of a practical car. Other important pieces in building an EV is heat for the defroster and keeping the people inside warm. There is a HUGE excess of heat on every ICE - indeed this is the red flag pointing to their horribly low efficiency.
EV's need direct heating windshield defrosters, like Ford and others had in the 1980's: a molecule thick coating of gold on the glass that defrosts it in seconds. Heated seats and/or heated vests (like motorcyclists use) can keep the people in the car toasty warm for just a few 10's of watts, instead of 1,000's. Also, thermal insulation in the body can go a long way to reducing both heating and cooling loads.
Really low aero drag requires that the boxy mold be broken. The EV1 and the VW XL1 have narrower rear wheel tracks. Tapering the sides of the car can save as much as 40% of the overall drag. Covered rear wheels *at least* is also required. And covering the front wheels is also very helpful - see the 1938 Schlörwagen aka "Pillbug". (
Schlorwagen Photo by NeilBlanchard | Photobucket ) It has a Cd of 0.18 and that would be considerably lower with an electric drivetrain; because of the much lower cooling required. This can save up to ~10% of the aero drag.
I know of at least two awesome cars that were being built for the X-Prize that didn't get to compete; for various reasons including the rash of regulations and paper work:
Dave Cloud's 'Dolphin' is an aerodynamic wonder forged from a heavily modified Metro, that has two seats and goes over 200 miles on *lead acid* batteries.
Ken Fry's 'The Zing!' is a tandem two seater tadpole trike built from scratch, and is a true serial hybrid.
I'm looking forward to seeing both Jason Fagone and Kevin Smith (of Illuminati) and Seven next Monday, the 9th at MIT!