20 ms·

An electric Miata seems like a no brainer.

magila 7y ago
One of the big selling points of the Miata is it's light weight. Mazda has gone to pretty extreme lengths (for such a low priced car) to keep the weight down. A heavy battery wouldn't fit with that at all.
- Spare_account 7y ago
  The selling point of the Miata is the handling. If they can re-create the agility (cornering) of the internal combustion Miata, the weight is secondary.
  - otherme123 7y ago
    The agility can only be done with a fine tunning of weight vs power. Mazda Miata sacrifices pure power, and thus max speed, to get "fun". If you add weight to a car you get more inertia, killing the handling and the fun. This is know since forever. Read the history of Karajan and his Porsche. He wanted a fun and sporty car tailored to him, but he didn't ask for more power. He requested less weight, and they even removed the radio, the back seats and the door handlers to get there. The only way to get the cornering and fun of the ICE Miata is to get a EV Miata that weights about the same. Then get the 50%/50% weight distribution (this is easy with EV) and there you go.
- tomatotomato37 7y ago
  A battery is a range-weight tradeoff, so it is possible to get a light EV car; it'll just have shit range is all. While not ideal for the Miata as it still has to vaguely work like a commuter car, it's still a viable idea for a RX-derivative that leans more heavily into enthusiast territory like the Lotus Elise
  - jsight 7y ago
    Its funny you mention the RX series. I think an RX-8 like car with an electric drivetrain would actually be a lot of fun. It would weigh a few hundred pounds more, but the increase in torque and the low CG would mostly make up for it.
    - elihu 7y ago
      I'm actually working on an RX-8 conversion right now. AC motor (netgain hyper9), I'm keeping the transmission and clutch, lithium iron phosphate batteries under the car where the gas tank was and in the engine compartment. I agree that it would be great if Mazda revived the RX-8 as an electric vehicle. Especially if they kept the stickshift.
      - jsight 7y ago
        Oh, that is an interesting project. I've been tempted to do something similar with an older Miata, especially after seeing a pretty decent conversion of one using Leaf packs. The RX-8 would be much more complex, IMO, but I bet it would be a lot of fun to drive as an electric. Are you blogging about your efforts somewhere? I'd love to follow them.
        elihu 7y ago
        No, I'm not blogging about it. I might write something up eventually. A Miata would likely have been an easier conversion, and it's probably what I should have done, though a convertible is kind of a tough sell when you live in Oregon and with RX-8s you can get a pretty recent car for not much money. (RX-8s with engine problems that no one wants to spend the money to fix are quite common.) One thing to be careful of is weight balance. I'm told that if you have too much weight in the back, it makes the car a lot less safe in corners because it's easier to recover from front-wheel slip, whereas if the rear wheels break loose first you'll probably spin out. So far, making battery boxes seems to be the biggest/most awkward task. I've never done welding before, and so I'm learning aluminum TIG welding. It took awhile to get the hang of it, but it's going alright now.
newnewpdro 7y ago
I'm waiting for it... hopefully when it does arrive it doesn't have all the touchscreen and autonomous/surveillance b.s. that seems to have become prevalent in EVs.
- elihu 7y ago
  Mazda has said that they've decided not to have touchscreens in any of their cars going forward. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20200335 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20200335 I don't know what their stance is on built-in surveillance technology.
  - cptskippy 7y ago
    I think surveillance either via passive black box logging or active cellular reporting is the new normal going forward. From a liability perspective it's a no brainier for companies. It also affords them a lot of valuable data from an actuarial perspective with regards to supply chain, warranty, and maintenance. For the consumer the benefits are negligible, especially when that information is held private to the manufacturer.

One of the big selling points of the Miata is it's light weight. Mazda has gone to pretty extreme lengths (for such a low priced car) to keep the weight down. A heavy battery wouldn't fit with that at all.

Spare_account 7y ago
The selling point of the Miata is the handling. If they can re-create the agility (cornering) of the internal combustion Miata, the weight is secondary.
- otherme123 7y ago
  The agility can only be done with a fine tunning of weight vs power. Mazda Miata sacrifices pure power, and thus max speed, to get "fun". If you add weight to a car you get more inertia, killing the handling and the fun. This is know since forever. Read the history of Karajan and his Porsche. He wanted a fun and sporty car tailored to him, but he didn't ask for more power. He requested less weight, and they even removed the radio, the back seats and the door handlers to get there. The only way to get the cornering and fun of the ICE Miata is to get a EV Miata that weights about the same. Then get the 50%/50% weight distribution (this is easy with EV) and there you go.
tomatotomato37 7y ago
A battery is a range-weight tradeoff, so it is possible to get a light EV car; it'll just have shit range is all. While not ideal for the Miata as it still has to vaguely work like a commuter car, it's still a viable idea for a RX-derivative that leans more heavily into enthusiast territory like the Lotus Elise
- jsight 7y ago
  Its funny you mention the RX series. I think an RX-8 like car with an electric drivetrain would actually be a lot of fun. It would weigh a few hundred pounds more, but the increase in torque and the low CG would mostly make up for it.
  - elihu 7y ago
    I'm actually working on an RX-8 conversion right now. AC motor (netgain hyper9), I'm keeping the transmission and clutch, lithium iron phosphate batteries under the car where the gas tank was and in the engine compartment. I agree that it would be great if Mazda revived the RX-8 as an electric vehicle. Especially if they kept the stickshift.
    - jsight 7y ago
      Oh, that is an interesting project. I've been tempted to do something similar with an older Miata, especially after seeing a pretty decent conversion of one using Leaf packs. The RX-8 would be much more complex, IMO, but I bet it would be a lot of fun to drive as an electric. Are you blogging about your efforts somewhere? I'd love to follow them.
      - elihu 7y ago
        No, I'm not blogging about it. I might write something up eventually. A Miata would likely have been an easier conversion, and it's probably what I should have done, though a convertible is kind of a tough sell when you live in Oregon and with RX-8s you can get a pretty recent car for not much money. (RX-8s with engine problems that no one wants to spend the money to fix are quite common.) One thing to be careful of is weight balance. I'm told that if you have too much weight in the back, it makes the car a lot less safe in corners because it's easier to recover from front-wheel slip, whereas if the rear wheels break loose first you'll probably spin out. So far, making battery boxes seems to be the biggest/most awkward task. I've never done welding before, and so I'm learning aluminum TIG welding. It took awhile to get the hang of it, but it's going alright now.

newnewpdro 7y ago

I'm waiting for it... hopefully when it does arrive it doesn't have all the touchscreen and autonomous/surveillance b.s. that seems to have become prevalent in EVs.

elihu 7y ago
Mazda has said that they've decided not to have touchscreens in any of their cars going forward. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20200335 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20200335 I don't know what their stance is on built-in surveillance technology.
- cptskippy 7y ago
  I think surveillance either via passive black box logging or active cellular reporting is the new normal going forward. From a liability perspective it's a no brainier for companies. It also affords them a lot of valuable data from an actuarial perspective with regards to supply chain, warranty, and maintenance. For the consumer the benefits are negligible, especially when that information is held private to the manufacturer.