I’ve always wondered why electric cars are designed to resemble regular cars so closely, even though they don’t require the same components like the internal combustion engine. It seems like this would be an opportunity to create a more practical and efficient design. Can someone explain why electric cars are shaped the way they are?
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The biggest reason is crash safety. While there is no engine in the hood, it still creates a crash crumple zone to protect passengers from a head-on collision. Same for rear protection and the trunk/hatch area. And also aerodynamics, with wind drag even more important to EV’s due to range/range anxiety compared to ICE vehicles. Also, it’s what consumers are used to, so they don’t need to completely re-learn everything related to driving a new vehicle. And roads, parking, etc. are all designed for such sizes/shaped vehicles.
You’ve got two factors working for the car’s bodyshape. First is the tooling for the original cars and second is the validity of ICE car design.
While we could shape electric cars to look like anything it’s just way cheaper to take an existing car factory and merely change the engine that gets installed. Trying to develop new frames, bodies, and furniture and create production lines for them would be expensive and it’s just easier to reshuffle the electric engine components to fit inside a conventional car design.
The second factor is that the modern car design…Isn’t Bad. There’s been a marked move for better aerodynamics for decades and it’s resulted in an acceptably efficient body shape for the typical modern car. There’s also well known and refined safety features, established maintenance proceedures, and a healthy aftermarket that you want to stay cross compatable with.
tl;dr it’s more cost effective to keep EV cars looking like IC cars.
There’s a ton of regulations around the world that must be complied with.
There’s laws on the position/color of headlights, the heights of bumpers, the angles of windshields, accessibility concerns, seatbelt placements, airbags, where license plates go, the positions for mirrors, pedestrian crash safety, crumple zones, rollover safety, overall width, fender coverage of tires, etc.
The Volkswagen XL1 is a perfect example of manufacturers being able to do it, but not being able to make it compliant with all the regulations, which is why it was only available in a few markets.
1. People don’t like change – cars should look like cars to appeal to the most people and sell lots of cars. What kind of engine doesn’t matter.
2. Cars need to be a certain size to fit all the standards that have been established for safety and function. Picture a car as wide as two lanes on a highway for example, chaos.
3. Electric engines are more sensitive to drag because they need lots of batteries for range and batteries add lots of cost. Less drag, less batteries, cheaper car. Certain shapes cause less drag, those shapes look like cars.
4. Electric cars ‘use the opportunity to create better design’ all the time. Sit in the back middle seat of an ICE and an electric car. Notice the electric car doesn’t have an annoying hump in your way? Notice the electric car has more trunk space where an engine usually is? etc. etc.
Aerodynamics is the same regardless of the propulsion source.
The other significant factor is that major countries’ regulations for automakers already assume certain car size measurements. E.g., in Japan the taxation of a car is based on its size. It’s much easier for electric car manufacturers to just comply with the regulations, rather than trying to debate with the government to change them.
Mainly aerodynamics and safety. Having a hood to absorb impact in case of a crash is important with or without an engine. A hood also streamlines the aerodynamic profile of the vehicle which increases range. A long wheelbase also provides better handling and stability.
As a question I don’t think there’s a perfect answer unless you’re a car designer.
Aerodynamics, safety etc are all important but the changes in car shape over recent years is more about what sells well.
You could make an aerodynamic and safe car (put storage at the front behind some compression zone) and have the engine elsewhere) but people have a predetermined expectation of what a car looks like and deviating from that appeals to only a fraction of the market.
There we see changes in car design that we call radical etc but reality are anything but.
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