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By making the cars different, they can make them better fitted for electric cars. IE, Teslas put their batteries in the bottom frame. Will VW put them in the t
by briffle 9y ago
By making the cars different, they can make them better fitted for electric cars. IE, Teslas put their batteries in the bottom frame. Will VW put them in the trunk and engine bay? how will that change the driving characteristics with the weight changes from the gas model. Will all wheel wells become larger, to handle electric motors for some of the options?
- wil421 9y agoThe German car companies are usually great at weight distribution, BMWs are almost all 50/50. Mercedes are pretty close to that, not familiar with VW models. I'd worry more about the battery capacity than where to put it. I'd argue it's a harder engineering challenge to distribute weight in an ICE than an EV.
- joshvm 9y agoA big problem with ICEs is that you need a large and heavy component (the engine) somewhere practical and accessible. In most consumer vehicles you can't put it anywhere but the front or the rear because the passengers get in the way. Making the car aerodynamic helps here, because you end up with dead space in the hood/trunk which you can put stuff in. Of course Tesla uses this for luggage. Putting the batteries underneath is a natural solution, giving you a nice low centre of gravity. Virtually all the stuff in the engine bay is unnecessary on an EV. If you have a motor for each wheel, you can distribute weight very evenly. There are also advantages for cooling, possibly. A long, thin, cuboid gives you more surface area than a squat cuboid.