Seating position in electrics - any good?

[Fly2High]

I just saw on EE that the Mach-E has a ground clearance of 5.7" yet the floor is jacked up due to the batteries being stored in the floor so you end up with an SUV seating height.

With the current trend to store batteries in the floor, is this what we will expect to get in the future - a high seating position?

I get it that placing those heavy batteries in the floor helps lower the Cg and improve handling.

How many like it in their sports cars and possibly in a future real Mustang?

Sponsored

 

[FreePenguin]

so basically lego shaped batteries? add some here, remove some there, all working in some sort of connection.

 

[pyrophilus]

Not really. The way they describe it is that the batteries would actually be load-bearing members in the frame of the car. That way they can remove some of the traditional metal support structure, and where the weight savings come into play.

So I guess when the batteries die, you can forget about replacing them? The Hybrid cars already are worthless when their batteries run down as cost of labor and packs is more than the value of the car, but at least it's not impossible and if one knows how to DIY swap it, it is still valuable. I doubt the "structural batteries" are going to be designed to be easily replaceable.

As for mustang, if it went electric, and I had to get it, I'd rather give up a lot of trunk space if it means trunk space and gas tank space equaling battery pack, rather than a tall seat.

Plus, electric cars have fronks as well as trunks. I would gladly give up the fronk if it means we can have front bank and rear bank of batteries to have a normal interior seats.

 

[Bikeman315]

You will get a high seating position in a SUV/CUV (kinda the point). In a car it’s not a problem.

 

[pyrophilus]

The batteries need to evolve for sure. Every couple of weeks I read about a new "breakthrough". The tech needed to actually make EV's truly viable seems to be in the perpetual limbo of 5-10 years away.

Yes. It seems like the batteries (or the lack of innovation/evolution/revolution in energy storage) seem to be the bottleneck in the emergence of many new (viable) technologies.

During my grad school years, I found that many of my chem professors were/are into energy storage research, and some have very interesting research, but there is not as much research grant available as one would think. The US Dept of Energy spends a ton of money on research, but it's directed to a few labs (their own DOE labs) and many of them are particle or quantum physics research not aleays relating to energy storage.

This isn't (shouldn't) be a Republican/Democrat thing. It should be a science thing. If we threw billions at energy research (and not all/most of it at a few large corporation/institution, but many, many multimillion dollar Grant's for many/ALL researchers), I am sure we'd have innovative solutions in a shorter time.

 

[Norm Peterson]

You will get a high seating position in a SUV/CUV (kinda the point). In a car it’s not a problem.

A high-ish seating position (and the vehicle height required to accommodate it) is among the top three reasons I don't want an SUV/CUV. Regardless of how it may be powered. Sitting like you're in an office chair or formal dining room chair may be fine if you're only a passenger, but it's not so good for the driver who needs to work the pedals.

The height of the battery packs has to come from somewhere. That's not a problem in an SUV and probably not a huge one in a CUV. But with a conventional sedan or coupe roof height it's going to get in the way of footwell room/height, probably more so for rear seat positions. At minimum, front seat and bracket designs would be affected. Porsche appears to be avoiding the placement of batteries where front seat occupants would need to put their feet unless they were willing to sit much closer to the floor than is the case even in a Mustang (which I suspect would be a deal-breaker for most people).


Norm

 

[Fly2High]

If the trend is to have the battery in the floor, even in the SUV, then I wonder if the SUV craze will change. Many claim they buy an SUV to battle the snow and want/need the ground clearance. If the Tesla Y/3 and Mach-e are examples of what is to come, they are all under 7" ground clearance. They will get their high seating position but no clearance.

As for sports cars, I would love it if the Mustang was even lower than what it is in the S550. The current ground clearance is fine. I just want the seat to be lower and the roof to drop accordingly.

Sponsored