VW is finally going to give us the electric Combi. Fantastic, but they must keep the faith.
The original Combi was iconic for a number of reasons.
* It was simple compared to other vans.
* It was easy to work on - easily repaired
* It was affordable
* It didn't change its styling from year to year.
It should be not only possible but really easy to produce an electric Combi that excels in all of these. Styling is simple. Once it is designed simply don't change it. This is a vital factor in making a car become iconic. It also allows better pricing. It is expensive to re-tool your body presses each year.
Electrics by their nature are far simpler that petrol cars. Make very very sure that everything that might have to be done on the car is very simple to do. The engine should be removable by undoing 6 nuts and sliding in a new or reconditioned one. Batteries should be exceedingly simple to replace (for instance when new technology results in an even better battery). CV joints should be doable by a modestly competent home mechanic and so forth. Go over the rest of the car (exclusive of the propulsion system) and make sure every part is easy to work on.
And don't put in everything that bumps and squeaks. We are not looking for luxury in the combi. Just a good ride in an affordable vehicle which has great range and is inexpensive to maintain. At the very least, make all the flash options just that.........options.
If your engineers simply can't resist a challenge than get them to work on a way to clad the whole roof with solar cells such that they all give their full power despite not being co-linear or being partially shaded.
No one expects to be able to drive only on solar. That is unrealistic but what a nice bonus and a way to get you out of trouble if you have ignored the charge of your battery. It happens.
Keep the faith and you will sweep the market. Such a car is not for everyone but many of us want to have a smaller footprint. Many of us want a car that we are proud to drive.
And for #@%^&; sake, don't make it self driving. We like to drive. Besides we don't want to be spied on all the time or worse still have our vehicle hacked and therefore come under the control of someone else. Even worse, we don't want the various secret service organizations to be able to decide to drive our car over a cliff or into a tree. In short, we don't want our car even to be connected to the WWW.
The original Combi was iconic for a number of reasons.
* It was simple compared to other vans.
* It was easy to work on - easily repaired
* It was affordable
* It didn't change its styling from year to year.
It should be not only possible but really easy to produce an electric Combi that excels in all of these. Styling is simple. Once it is designed simply don't change it. This is a vital factor in making a car become iconic. It also allows better pricing. It is expensive to re-tool your body presses each year.
Electrics by their nature are far simpler that petrol cars. Make very very sure that everything that might have to be done on the car is very simple to do. The engine should be removable by undoing 6 nuts and sliding in a new or reconditioned one. Batteries should be exceedingly simple to replace (for instance when new technology results in an even better battery). CV joints should be doable by a modestly competent home mechanic and so forth. Go over the rest of the car (exclusive of the propulsion system) and make sure every part is easy to work on.
And don't put in everything that bumps and squeaks. We are not looking for luxury in the combi. Just a good ride in an affordable vehicle which has great range and is inexpensive to maintain. At the very least, make all the flash options just that.........options.
If your engineers simply can't resist a challenge than get them to work on a way to clad the whole roof with solar cells such that they all give their full power despite not being co-linear or being partially shaded.
No one expects to be able to drive only on solar. That is unrealistic but what a nice bonus and a way to get you out of trouble if you have ignored the charge of your battery. It happens.
Keep the faith and you will sweep the market. Such a car is not for everyone but many of us want to have a smaller footprint. Many of us want a car that we are proud to drive.
And for #@%^&; sake, don't make it self driving. We like to drive. Besides we don't want to be spied on all the time or worse still have our vehicle hacked and therefore come under the control of someone else. Even worse, we don't want the various secret service organizations to be able to decide to drive our car over a cliff or into a tree. In short, we don't want our car even to be connected to the WWW.
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