The Natural Philosopher gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

about 40kg for enough steel to take the torque and vibration of a big
IC engine, and connect the stresses to the suspension pickup points.

How, exactly, were you planning to have this electric car deal with
suspension loadings and collision impacts?

with a minimal torsion box, of which te major part would probably be
integrated with the battery carrier cell.

Thats for the suspension anyway. you only neeed connect the cell to the
whhels..thats the only bit with any mass apart from the passengers.

As far as the passenger cell goes, I'd probbly take a leaf out of racing
practice, and make a roll /side impact cage and some crumple zones, and
encase that with foam plastic and moulded ppalstic panels, for
lightness.

Fine. So why isn't that being done with a _lighter_ internal combustion
drivetrain?