Looks cool, but just another paper invention. 100-to-1 odds that even one is never actually built.
I also love how it has some sort of self-cleaning surface. That must be right above the dilithium chamber and warp nacelles.
One of the advantages of the VW microbus is that it was actually affordable, unlike this thing if it every actually is built.
It also looks flimsy as paper. That big bubble cockpit looks like it would shatter like an eggshell in any substantial collision.
actually i think it looks like most any cabover passenger vans. from old ford econolines to dodges, i think there was even a jeep version at one point. personally i think it looks like a unimog and dymaxion had a baby…
Put some tracks on it and can you say Chariot?
Danger will Robinson!
So often these concept cars turn out to be carbon copies of something that was actually built in the 60’s. The last time we saw one of these articles, the car was an exact copy of a King Midget.
The bumpers (at least that’s what I think they are) seem like an afterthought.
It’s also kind of weird that it’s an electric vehicle apparently designed to replace a Range Rover (high wheel base, off-road tires, roof storage), but where the hell are you going to recharge your electric vehicle out in the savannah?
If it’s meant to replace the VW Bus, then it should have covered tires to reduce wind resistance, lower it about a foot, remove all of that crap from the roof, and magically invent some kind of cheap but powerful battery.
This just seems ill suited for any potential application.
It is clearly an artists experiment that looks cool. Those tires are awful. Bald big balloon-y sidewalls and that thick center tread strip? The VW taught us that LP tires and a sidewall you can roll on is necessary to keep these things feeling like they might stick to the ground. Take an old Bus from 14" stock wheels to 16.5" ones and a LOT changes.
Excellent art. The fenders are like functionless, vestigial elytra.
The designer doesn’t really hit the target with this one, but it’s a great start on designing an off-road-capable van. Remember the MudMaster C and how cool that could have been? Or even the Delica Exceed. Would be nice if car companies actually tried to design something that’s not exactly like what everybody else is making.
Battery research is going to crazy places right now. We’ll have production electric cars with better endurance than gasoline in the next 10 years. Just the other day someone announced a prototype that they say can run for 18 hours at highway speeds.
On the web page, it mentioned a small engine that could be used to recharge the battery… plus the solar cells on top.
Just to pick on something completely different about the design… I can’t imagine having to clean out all the stuff that would end up falling into that space that appears to be between the dash and windshield. And if you didn’t clean it, it’d be quite obvious.
Well, it apparently took VW a long time to learn that lesson since it wasn’t until 1963, 14 years into production, that VW moved to a 14" wheel. Before that, they used 16" wheels until 1955, and 15" from then until 1963.
Mmmm, looks so cute I could just eat it.
Well, sure, but we’ve been hearing press releases like that for a long time. Even Thomas Edison made one.
Meanwhile my partner’s 2014 Nissan Leaf has the same battery problems as my 1973 Elec-trak - the batteries are too heavy, too bulky, too expensive, take too long to charge and don’t last long enough. Sure, the 2014 LiFePo are an improvement over 1974 Pb-H2So4, but it’s just incremental.
I have high hopes that you are right anyway. Elon Musk is really changing the game. Right now I don’t think you’d see another round of battery invention suppression like the last one - or at least, the existence of Tesla Motors makes that far less likely.
This one?
I’d buy a Leaf if it wasn’t so fugly.
I want my next car to be electric, maybe the Tesla X if it’s vaguely affordable, but an electric VW bus would be great.
I don’t like the VW Bulli though (too small, seating wrong) and it seems like vapourware anyway.
I agree with all of that! Except I am willing to accept fugly since there’s no affordable alternative yet.
Electrified VWs have been legion, but the air-cooled models have difficulty handling the weight of a decent range battery pack without pretty extreme reconstruction. The later water-pumper VWs (like the NSU-designed Rabbit) make very successful conversions, though, and there actually are some slick VW bus conversion kits kits if you are OK with high expense and/or limited range.
Heading out, good night all.
