Science Forums 2

[alexander]

Reading the other thread here on electric cars, i remembered my peeve and things stopped making sense again.

So last year i was going to buy a new car, i looked at quite a few cars, i really wanted a nice clean car, eventually ended up settling on a Mazda 3 (2.3, stick, love it), but the reason i went with a non-hybrid and not an electric car is mainly due to my peeve with them, why the hell are they so damn ugly.

So why does the term Hybrid, or Electric turn a car into an ugly beast? What, does the term electric mean that you can drop all the sleek engineering, stop worrying about aerodynamic drag coefficients, and build a really ugly box on wheels? Ofcourse this does not apply to the fully electric lotus, X1 and Tesla Roadster, but they are all 80k+ cars, i was going to spend no more then 25.

You know, in the age of aeronautic design principals, where every .1 of a drag coefficient translates directly into efficiency, why is it so damn difficult to design ONE car that will be appealing, both visually externally, comfortable internally, and pocket-friendly, because you know what, people, when looking for a car are not only looking for the highest mpg, but also a car they can feel comfortable in, and all the damn hybrids fail horribly!

I mean, Prius, ugly, Zap cars, uber ugly, Zenn, uuugly, GEM, ugly, Reva 2, gah, pointless, why why make cars that appeal to the visual perception and make people want to buy them because they look good, they run well, they pollute a lot less?

Which got me thinking, if a hybrid gets a 50 miles per gallon, if you decrease its drag coefficient by a couple of points by designing a sleeker body and lowering the car, change to using thinner tires with an auto adjusting camber suspension, lighten up the car as much as possible by using polymer body panels where possible, make things easily replaceable, easily serviceable, use as little as you need inside for comfort, i mean some firm foam-filled bucket seats with cloth lining (basically like my maza seats, they are not super expensive, pretty light and they are damn comfy), make it plug in, coat the roof sections with the latest paint-like photovoltaics and use latest biodegradeable battery technology, how much more world-friendly would this car become, and how much one would increase that "mpg" value, and cetainly increase it's buyability?

Really is it possible to design such a car with a price tag under 25k? I think it is, let's discuss it here...