renault @ Frankfurt : 4 other ugly cars, but electric cars

[Laurentiu]

To be honest ,in my case , I wouldn't give a mule's a$$ about how my vehicle looks as long as it would drive well, have excellent safety and get 100+ MPG..
It could even look like this turtle

[The Atomic Ass]

Originally Posted by AJI

Surprises me how little love there seems to be for these electric concepts, given not only how important they are (Renault is making a massive commitment and taking quite a risk releasing four EVs all at the same time), but also that most of the criticism seems to be aimed at their styling, in a forum that likes the Prius and likes Geo Metros and Honda Civics covered in bits of coroplast...

The first three don't look too bad, modern, perhaps not aerodynamically efficient, but not bad. The Twizzy OTOH, looks like a golf cart with giant spinner rims, AND makes a sound like a toy radio-controlled car. Whatever electrics should look like, they shouldn't sound like that. Pass.

[alohaspirit]

the ducka-ducka-ducka-ducka-clack-clack-clack-clack sound kinda sux

but if that could be smoother, id like it even more

lose some of the futurized styling (rims), change the gay name twizzy

make it affordable and im good to go

[Christopher Jordan]

I like the delivery van- Kangoo I think- being extremely functional. Electric vehicles hit a wall when GEMs, Lidos, Zaps, and Zenns began self-destructing. I see the few left in welding repair shops. Now, none are available *new* in my town- mail order only I think. Green Vehicles is opening in Salinas, CA. (about 30 miles from here). I wish them luck.
Th!nk is building in the U.S.; so I hope Renault does too someday.

[Laurentiu]

I like the design of their vans line-up. That's one think I hated when I was in the states, the boxy, terrible shape of the vans, the typical Fords and GMCs, those Econolines or whatever they are called... To be honest it felt like going to Cuba and seeing the Lada's and '50's cars everywhere...stuck in the past. no offence intended to anyone

Renault vans

[AJI]

Originally Posted by cfg83

AJI -

The Flow Illustrator is a tricky animal. The thread on it is a monster to read.

Flow from under the car will always be bad. My interpretation is that the curving downslope is too much, aka like a VW Beetle. I think it needs to be extended like so :

I say this because I think I am seeing a "virtual kamm-back" (or boat tail?!?!?) forming in the swirls. Notice that this makes it look like the new Prius and Insight. More interior volume too!

Articles I have read state that the Zoe does deploy a spoiler at highway speeds (just like the new VW Beetle), so maybe they are accounting for what I think is needed.

I think you may be right. I noticed the turbulence in that particular area too, though to my eyes it appeared to be being caused by airflow from the underside - so perhaps the spoiler you mention has a hand in actually stopping turbulent air affecting the attached air coming off the roof.

Originally Posted by alohaspirit

the ducka-ducka-ducka-ducka-clack-clack-clack-clack sound kinda sux

It's perhaps worth remembering that the Twizy driven in the video is the only one in existance, and it's essentially a concept car, not remotely ready for production. The drivetrain does sound a bit rough but no doubt that's to do with the infancy of the project. I doubt they'd release such a noisy beast onto the market...

Originally Posted by Laurentiu

I like the design of their vans line-up. That's one think I hated when I was in the states, the boxy, terrible shape of the vans, the typical Fords and GMCs, those Econolines or whatever they are called... To be honest it felt like going to Cuba and seeing the Lada's and '50's cars everywhere...stuck in the past. no offence intended to anyone

Renault's vans are quite nice as vans go, as are Peugeot and Citroen's efforts - the market for small vans like that is massive in Europe so it helps to be good at them.

The US vans have their own appeal I think, but technologically they're far, far behind European vans. Ford's top-line Transit with the 3.2 TDCi engine produces similar torque to Ford's 5.4-litre V8 used in the E-Series, and no doubt achieves better fuel economy too.

[Laurentiu]

Ya, I suppose they have their "classic" look but good thing you mentioned the engines because that's exactly where I was aiming...Ok, the design/look might not be too bad, although aerodynamically they probably struggle at high speed, but the engines are all mostly gas-guzzling V8's mostly gasoline driven..Diesels fit the bill much better, with lower fuel consumption and with the max. torque typically available at much lower rotational engine speeds. Of course nothing sounds better than those V8's .
While being in the US, the small company I was working for had arranged transportation because our workplace was located in another city, 20-30 miles away and we were being transported back and forth in these Econoline's. The seating arrangements were simply atrocious and hard to get in/out, good thing most of the time there was only few of us. I'm comparing this to the Iveco's, Merc's Renault's that dominate the market here in Europe. And of course those Diesel engines make a big difference. A friend of mine (Romanian) owns a small shuttle company and uses Mercedes Sprinter as his work horse. I rode many times in his vans when I was a student and made friends with most of the drivers. They were telling me about the fuel consumption and those vans, equipped with 2.2/2.7 turbo diesels engines were getting very good mileage, 8l/100km (30MPG) average fuel consumption.