Car Design student Final year project

Hi all,

  I am a huge fan of Electric Vehicles and would love to own one in the near future.

So I am currently studying Automotive Design at Coventry University. My final major project is on a sustainable approach to automotive manufacturing and Design. I am currently doing research and thought the best place to get users opinions on current EVs would be on here. I hope to produce a vehicle that has barrels of consumer appeal and change perceptions of EVs for all those non early adopters.

If it’s ok I will post up some opinion related questions in an appropriate section for your thoughts.

Many thanks
Alex

Well hopefully people like yourself can come up with a viable vehicle that people will adapt to. With the current battery technology available this will be a huge obstacle. My feelings are that until a miracle battery comes along electric vehicles will never make mass appeal due to peoples misconceptions.

Hi thanks for the reply.

Unfortunatly I cannot currently see there being any major leap forward in terms of a miracle battery but more incremental improvements on our current Lithium-ion etc making them cheaper, lighter and more effective.

I would like to know what motivates people currently to buy or in some cases build an electric car. If car companies can capture this feeling we will see an increase in EVs. The more people the industry can get on board the sooner it will all move forward.

Have you seen the new “liquid metal” battery?

No I haven’t but I will have a look sounds interesting.

One of my tutors gave us a lecture on Ambri storage. If I remember correctly it was for large scale energy storage similar to this. But I guess if it could be made smaller it could work as is fairly cheap. I will have a look at some other storage possibilities first.

However my research is ultimately to capture the feeling of electric motoring and to make it more desirable for a lager sector of the population through design.

Sorry, I meant to add a link to my last post but I got sidetracked. Anyways, here it is…

http://www.electricforum.com/cars/batteries/4730-new-liquid-metal-battery-new-solution.html

Hello! Newbie here!