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

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?

historical inertia.

Plus the fact that with such an expensive thing as a motor, given that
the cost is pretty much the same for a llttle un as a big un, its easier
to shove a big un in and throw some bent tinplate around it and still
have performance.

...is the right answer...

So why is it suddenly going to get 30% market penetration based solely on
a powertrain technology that also requires massive infrastructure
investment?

It wont be sudden. Fortunately. Cos the infrastructure isn't all there.

However the demand is almost certainly there. I'd say that 5 years on it
will be around 20-30%, depending on what oil prices do.

ramping up to around 70% plus in ten years.


below a certain level. weight reduction isn't that mileage saving
anyway..its all aero/size on the motorway.

Yes and no.