How should future cars look? What should they be like? How smooth, how tall, and how spacious should they be? For almost a century, the vast majority of automobile designers have been forced to deal with an internal-combustion engine and gearbox. Gasoline, diesel, and hybrid powertrains require room to turn and breathe.
We're so used to searching for a driveshaft tunnel and giving up knee room in exchange for a set-back engine that it never occurred to us that anything could be different. But in the future, especially the near future, with an emphasis on electric cars built on new, dedicated platforms.
Early EV companies modified existing platforms to accommodate electric powertrains where gasoline engines and transmissions had previously been used. Even Tesla's initial attempt was a Lotus Elise with its 1.8-liter inline-four but without the engine. Limiting designers' possibilities for placing the battery and motor by building on a non dedicated.
Engine and battery packs were often stacked beneath the rear seat, which is why early electric vehicles had less knee room or carrying capacity than gasoline counterparts.
Many designers like to get away from the tyranny of the middle tunnel. Consider trying to decorate a room with an undulating hardwood floor. Furniture would be pushed to the side, leaving the center of the area unusable. Designers typically conceal the hump in cars by placing a shallow console in front.
Car enthusiasts were a chorus of groans when early discussions about electric vehicle design went around the idea that designers would be enslaved to the wind tunnel, attempting to achieve a coefficient of drag that made everything look like an owl pellet on wheels. This terrible prediction hasn't come true.
If Tesla gets credit for popularizing the frunk, Ford is going to take it a step further with the F-150 Lightning. The electric version of America's most popular vehicle doesn't fall in line with many of the EV design concepts we've discussed. It's not an EV-only body.
Ford's study revealed that truck buyers desired a more modern look than today's internal-combustion trucks, but not so futuristic as to be unrecognizable as a truck. There were some lighting changes and a few aerodynamic improvements, but not so many that the Lightning doesn't read as an F-150 first and foremost.
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