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“consumed 8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers – 20 and 40 percent less fuel than the reference vehicle.” How efficient are modern vehicle designs in terms of d
by tppiotrowski 5y ago
“consumed 8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers – 20 and 40 percent less fuel than the reference vehicle.”
How efficient are modern vehicle designs in terms of drag? Are we 90% efficient or do we sacrifice a lot of mpg’s for attractive body styling?
- bagels 5y agoNowhere near 90% efficient. Door handles, side mirrors, vents, grilles, exposed wheels, several inches of ground clearance.
- tppiotrowski 5y agoNice that EVs don’t need grilles. Hopefully the Tesla door handles catch on as well.
- Plasmoid2000ad 5y agoInteresting to me that even what initially looks to someone largely ignorant to aerodynamics like me as a very low effort design, like the Nissan Leaf, actually has some fancy aero design hiding in plain sight. The handles are distinctly non-Tesla style, very pronounced, but they've tackled the wing mirrors actively by shaping the air with the headlights. https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=6836 https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=6836 I expect as we see more small EVs (Small by non-US car sizes) built on native EV platforms, we'll start to see more adventurous designs for aerodynamic reasons as you can't hide a large battery in a small cheap car.
- mnw21cam 5y agoHow are you measuring efficiency? Because as I see it, when travelling along a level surface, 100% of the engine power is going towards overcoming drag, so the efficiency should therefore be 0%. What is that 90% a proportion of?
- bagels 5y agoThe question was not really well defined. But just looking at drag force, there are a lot of things that can be done to reduce it by more than 10%, they're just unpalatable, impractical, or simply haven't been implemented. Also a lot of energy is lost to heat, even in electric cars if you're looking at the whole car and not just the aerodynamics.