The future of convertibles in the electric era?

Ectophile

MEM62 said:

They will come but it will be a while.  Batteries are heavy and take up a lot of space so, until the technology has improved, electric convertibles are not practical.  

If the vehicle was designed from scratch as an EV, then the batteries are all under the floor.  So there's no reason they can't saw the roof off and make a convertable.

At the moment, most manufacturers are fixated on selling "crossover" or "SUV" type vehicles (mostly without the four wheel drive).  Only when that market is totally saturated will they start to move on to the more niche vehicles.

Stubod

...MX5 E ?......can't wait...!!!!

DrEskimo

Stubod said:

...MX5 E ?......can't wait...!!!!

This series on YouTube will help you convert your own MX5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAE2IVBs-o0&ab_channel=ZeroEV

Goudy

There a couple of Tesla Roadsters on Autotrader, if you have £100k+ to spend on a 10 to 12 year old wind in the hair EV.

Sea_Shell

Goudy said:

There a couple of Tesla Roadsters on Autotrader, if you have £100k+ to spend on a 10 to 12 year old wind in the hair EV.

Yeah... I'll have two!! 😎

It seems to me that the whole swing towards EV and eventually autonomous cars, is going to make travel from A to B a soulless experience in the future.

Unless you can afford something "unique" we're mostly going to have the choice of box A or box B.

We'll be like drones being ferried from A to B.


Either that, or we'll end up like Cuba, keeping our then 30+ yr old cars going... assuming we can still get fuel.

There's always the hover conversion...they just missed 2015 by a few years! 😉

Grumpy_chap

This would do me:
https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/roadster

Might even be available in time for my mid-life crisis

motorguy

Sea_Shell said:

Goudy said:

There a couple of Tesla Roadsters on Autotrader, if you have £100k+ to spend on a 10 to 12 year old wind in the hair EV.

Yeah... I'll have two!! 😎

It seems to me that the whole swing towards EV and eventually autonomous cars, is going to make travel from A to B a soulless experience in the future.

Unless you can afford something "unique" we're mostly going to have the choice of box A or box B.

We'll be like drones being ferried from A to B.


Either that, or we'll end up like Cuba, keeping our then 30+ yr old cars going... assuming we can still get fuel.

There's always the hover conversion...they just missed 2015 by a few years! 😉

Frankly thats how i view most of the EuroBoxes out there at the minute anyway.  Most of them result in a fairly soulless experience.  And in fairness, a lot of people are happy with that - they just see a car as a means of getting from A to B.

I dont get the drive (ha!) towards autonomous cars.  I'm not sure what it really achieves - free up more time for work?  More time to be on social media?  Not sure i get the point really.  

I could probably see out my driving days with petrol cars if i wanted to.  Will see if / when an EV comes along that piques my interest.

Thrugelmir

Ectophile said:

MEM62 said:

They will come but it will be a while.  Batteries are heavy and take up a lot of space so, until the technology has improved, electric convertibles are not practical.  

If the vehicle was designed from scratch as an EV, then the batteries are all under the floor.  So there's no reason they can't saw the roof off and make a convertable.

The additional bracing required to strengthen the body needs to be factored into the design. Adds to the weight of the vehicle as well. 

ElefantEd

motorguy said:

I dont get the drive (ha!) towards autonomous cars.  I'm not sure what it really achieves - free up more time for work?  More time to be on social media?  Not sure i get the point really.  

Better safety record? Even though there are occasional horror stories about autonomous cars crashing or doing something unexpected, humans are even worse. Robots also probably don't deliberately jump red lights or look at their phones because they are in a hurry/tired/bored. Which isn't to say they can't and shouldn't be improved.

No-one turns a hair at autopilots onplanes (including landing) - they are simply better than human pilots and less prone to error.

Most people view cars as a method of getting from A to B and I would wager most don't particularly enjoy driving. Most modern cars are very similar to each other anyway.

molerat

Sea_Shell said:

Either that, or we'll end up like Cuba, keeping our then 30+ yr old cars going... assuming we can still get fuel.

Fortunately (or unfortunately for this scenario) in this country cars have to be at least semi roadworthy !