What if the Tesla Model S had Fender Skirts?
'But there's always something to improve on.
Back in 2011, General Motors studied whether fender skirts would be a viable way to improve fuel economy. Its engineers found that to incorporate them, cars would need narrower tires in the back, running higher tire pressures simultaneously. (The original Insight ran 165-width tires all around, with the rears mounted narrower than the fronts.) Both options could mess with a car's handling abilities, especially on a powerful, rear-driven machine like the Model S. Of course, said GM's Ed Welburn, designers could widen the rear bodywork to fit both larger rear tires and fender skirts—but doing so would actually cut down on aerodynamic efficiency.
Plus, it costs extra money. In the cutthroat money-squeezing hell of the automotive production trenches, that is never a positive.
Plus, it might look, you know, weird. Homebrewed fender skirts are one thing, but Tesla owners have dabbled with their own Photoshopped versions themselves. "Wow, I think the technical term there is fugly," said one critic. "I wouldn't drive that car even if it went 1,000 miles on a charge."
But hey, if a team of whip-smart engineers can eke out every last drop of wind-cheating aero, all in the name of range extending, then why not? Maybe there's a future where the Model S proudly bears an ancestral resemblance to the Insight, the Figoni et Falaschi-bodied Delahaye-bodied Delahaye, the 1972 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency. (But not the Chrysler PT Cruiser.) And maybe the trend will ignite like a SpaceX rocket, and the fender skirt will proudly make its return back to America's highways and byways.
Elon, Franz: have your people call our people.'