Upcoming Economy Cars

[Wonderboy]

Look at those taillights! They're almost as big as my balls! While designing them they were probably thinking "well, we have to make cars slightly good again - we figure people will be keeping these for a bit longer, so lets take two of the most damage-prone areas of the car and make each of them $600 to replace so we can make some money at least."

Why don't they just release the Ka in the US, which has already been in production for over a decade now (aside from the new 2nd gen. Fiat re-design). Not to say that isn't fugly either.... but the taillights are of reasonable size . Why are headlights now big enough to have their own orbit now too? FUGLY.

[Bicycle Bob]

For appearance, I'd put it well ahead of an ATV, a 1960 Rolls Royce, a Hummer, an average Hot Rod, or what I call the Honda Pillbox, and they call the Element.

[joey]

Indeed; since turning my eye toward FE, I almost always find smaller cars more aesthetic than larger ones.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

Here's an Aptera 2h competitor that has come out of the woodwork:


(click on image for link)

It's a serial hybrid with very reasonable claims being made. It's great to hear about new design; and they seem to have gotten several things right! The aerodynamics start out right, but seem a little schizophrenic with the good shape and full underpan -- but then having the open wheels; especially the rears with the separate fenders. Overall, cool stuff!

I love the fact of it being a serial hybrid -- this seems to be the obvious and best choice for the immediate future when longer range is required. The Aptera 2h is the only other one I know of that is an (intended) production car -- it is purported to get a minimum of 130mpg! There was/is the converted Mini with four 160HP hub motors, and a little 2 cylinder 250cc engine to charge the batteries -- 640HP and ~85mpg possible! What not to like?

[Bicycle Bob]

I'd love to find those tires elsewhere, but how serious can anybody be about an unstreamlined hybrid? "Like my new car? I paid an extra $10k to drag those silly styling features around without having the mileage go down."

[Frank Lee]

Looks like they had one guy do the front and another do the back, and they didn't talk to each other.

[theunchosen]

The rear does look odd for Aero. . .

The fenders covering the rears probably help and the tires look thin enough that maybe it doesn't matter that much. It also appears the wheels are slanted outwards(?) If thats the case they may have been trying to avoid increasing frontal area with fenders that would have to come out at an angle to protect the Cd, but would detrimentally increase frontal area.

As to somewhat early on in this thread, I agree Carbon fiber ought to scale up considering There are mass production capabilities for parts that are carbon fiber.

A CF monocoque two seater with a 1 liter, with tandem seating could easily have a very low Cd, low frontal area, driveability, and incredible FE. Since its CF as long as both passengers aren't severely overweight you could get away with like a 500cc engine.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

Here's a very promising looking prototype based on a car from Ford, called the S-Max MPV:


(click on image for link)

I like the cooling exhausts just behind and above the front wheels (though a web site says they are non-functional), the shape of the rear roof, the location of the side mirrors, and the nose also looks pretty close to ideal. AND it's a serial hybrid! 67mpg seems pretty darn good, too -- especially for a 7-seat MPV!

video link on Capstone's website -- may be slow loading

[The Atomic Ass]

Originally Posted by Wonderboy

Look at those taillights! They're almost as big as my balls!

This made me spit my drink all over my monitor.

[Clev]

Originally Posted by Wonderboy

Look at those taillights! They're almost as big as my balls!

No, you're looking at the license plate lights. The taillights are the red ones.