this should be perfect for all the school run nazi's who have to drop Tabitha and Reginald off at the school, they can park where ever they want and simple bounce other peasents out of the way

oh hang on......

..sketch a picture of an undrivable car, put some green bullshit in the blurb, hey presto, concept vehicle.

This is just a rehash of a gas guzzler, how do I know? Why else does it have an exhuast pipe built into the rear?

What exhaust pipe? If you were thinking of the square bit at the back, I think thats a mega-USB socket for charging it.

Finally, a glimpse of what the electric car *could* be, instead of these silly castrated models like the prius. Electric drive isn't just about emissions, there could be numerous advantages as well. The independent wheel motor configuration shows this off, while avoiding the stupid unsprung-weight problem of in-wheel motors featured on other models.

The electric drive system removes the complexity of transmission, differentials, and transfer cases, increasing drive by wire options, and reducing overall complexity in moving parts. This could eventually bring the price of the car down overall.

The only mistake is that the batteries reside under the chasis, making them hard to replace. They should move these up under the bonnet, and allow them to be interchanged with a gas engine / generator combo, fuel cell, or whatever other power source can fit in the compartment.

Then you'd have a sporty electric car that would last a real long time, probably for a pretty reasonable price!

you will know one of these is new when you open the door to the aroma of a fresh pack of three!

Anon because I will probably annoy the fetishists.

Now with forged-titanium windscreen-wipers to reduce weight to a class-leading 4.4999 tons.

Interesting concept I guess, but hardly practical in a city, so I guess they will sell millions :-(

ttfn

James Bond has has retractable spikes on his tyres since the 60's. Old news.

And it looks as if that thing has no brakes...

Some say that the original power source was going to be exploding I-Pods

And he also wanted the tyres to be floatation devices in case of flooding

Paris - 'Cos all we know is that she is (probably) not the Stig

Electric motors mean you don't NEED brakes. Use regen braking, or if harder braking is needed, apply a slight reverse power to the braking system.

Done it myself with half-ton vehicles (about the weight of a caterham or similar) using actual road tyres and electric motors.

@voodootrucker - If you think the Prius is about emissions, you're mistaken. While it's emission footprint of usage is low, the construction emissions footprint is significantly larger than a convention car. To the point, I believe it takes 100,000 miles for the total emissions footprint to beat that of a hummer. When the battery pack needs replacing, it often drops back behind the hummer. Cars like the Prius aren't about enviromentalism, but about looking like the driver cares. If they took the electrics out of a Prius, the efficiency of the car might actually be improved - all that weighty electric kit for usage mostly at low-speeds, it's daft. First rule of economy, remove excess weight.

@AC 13:24 - perhaps it's there for the sake of 'appearance' (cars without it look strange) and perhaps for a sound generator. One of the biggest problems for electric cars is their lack of sound for announcing their presence. Or it could be a removable tow-bar point. Plenty of things it could be.

Make the doors out of thick enough rubber for them to be usefully strong and this thing will went a sh***ing f***load.

"And it looks as if that thing has no brakes..."

What, apart from the "regenerative braking units" clearly marked on the drawing?

Mounting the battery pack under the vehicle keeps it safely out of the way of the owner/occupants of the vehicle, but allows easy change with a lift and some dollies at the shop.

It's not as if you're going to horse the battery pack out yourself and somehow start replacing 15,000 AA NmHi cells yourself. You don't rebuild your own engines now, do you? (caveat: some infinitesimal percentage of you do, I'm aware of that.)

Do concept cars have to look shit? Is it because they could apply all this technology to a normal looking concept but it wouldn't look like the future? More like today?

It's as if they gave specifications to some designers and told them to create a futuristic looking car. So they design a spaceship... With wheels...

Not that you really can make an SUV look like something you might want...

The technology, that would be nice. Most of it has been though of before though.

...think its looks absolutely awesome!

I presume the rubber body panels would just be a skin, there would still need to be side impact bars in the doors and such like, unless the panels were 4ft thick! Imagine though... no more dents and dings from morons opening their doors in car parks ever again! :-)

Whoever said there is no brakes need to get themselves down to Specsavers! I can see brake calipers and brake discs (the black things in the middle of the wheels), the regenerative braking units are the blue things just inboard of each wheel (the drive shafts go through them)... the give-away is the line from "Regenerative braking units" to the (blue) unit at the front!! Perhaps the illustrator shouldn't have gone to the effort of making the parts different colours... stupid comments from stupid people wouldn't have sounded as stupid! ;-)

// Boffin or illustrating the need for spectacles? The latter in this case.

RE: What's With the Tires

Two things:

1 - Depending on the length of the studs, it could mean that those of us who live someplace that endures several months of randomly-occurring ice- and snow-covered streets could have instant studded snow tires without the annoyances of driving on them when the roads are clear.

2 - Customer lock-in.

Smells like a pack of three and looks like a pimp mobile - awesome it just can't get any better

You see huge, rubber electric SUVs. I see really, really serious fuckoff dodgem cars! Ideal for those of us who are 45 going on 10.

Suddenly the future looks like it might be fun after all. A dozen of these, a few mates and the supermarket carpark at night is a dream come true.

Cars with regenerative braking actually do need traditional friction brakes, according to our good old, always reliable friend, Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_braking#Limitations

The only thing worse than a Wikipedia-quoting pedant (me) is someone who doesn't even bother to read Wikipedia before replying (Andrew and Andy.)

...i suppose it'll be available through any "Skin Two " outlet?

And with a large tub of Vaseline, you need never worry about those tight parking spaces ever again.