It...
It made me feel slightly seasick just watching the video...
Nissan has demoed its latest take on the electric car, which takes the word ‘futuristic’ to a whole new level. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Technical details about the Land Glider – which we assume is a concept – are scarce. But we do know that the vehicle continues Nissan’s Zero Emission e-car …
Why do the manufacturers not concentrate on cars people will actually want. I would happily buy an electric car as a 2nd car (commuter vehicle) if it was an attempt at actually making a good electric car, rather than ridiculous waste of money that will never make it anywhere near production.
Lets face it - electric cars require less servicing and maintenance, and this is where the majority of automotive company profits are derived; this is why the manufacturers are slow to introduce them... but when the first big manufacturer produces a good, normally priced electric car, the others will be forced to follow suit or lose market share in the long run as this 'first mover' takes all the customers.
Gary.
Given that these would be round profile tyres, they look rather narrow, to my eye: barely more than 120/70s - and I doubt this car weights in a at much less than a quarter tonne.
I'm guessing all four wheels are driven, which probably rather changes the dynamics we'd expect from a standard combustion-engined vehicle, but I still wouldn't want to trust a round-profile tyre, of those dimensions, with a mass that great in anything less than a flat calm and sunny day - especially since a lot of that mass could be unsprung.
Not only would it make you seasick to drive on windy roads, imagine cutting a line on a sharp curve and nailing a pedestrian walking on a sidewalk as you lean into the poor unsuspecting person.
An on ice this car would be a real kick.
Nissan and the rest of them need to focus on making a car we can afford to drive not this latest batch of TECHNO buble crap that will never see the light of day.
I just don't see the necessity for leaning into corners like that. I assume it's not a fast vehicle, given the zero-emissions bit, so corners would be tame to begin with. I could see if you were blasting through some mountain roads, and didn't want to have your body pressed constantly against one side or the other of the cabin, but with wheels like that you'd surely be in full under steer before the lateral acceleration got too tiring.
And as someone else mentioned, the unsprung weight is probably quite high, which would kill braking and handling.
Having read some of the comments about feeling seasick, I take it none of you have ridden a motorcycle?
Motorcycles 'tilt' quite a lot when cornering as you may have noticed. however because the vector forces of gravity pulling down and inertia pulling you to the side, when combined with the tilt of the bike it pulls you down on the seat giving you the sensation of just a downward force.
In one of these you would feel less sloshed about from side to side than you would in a car tackling the same corners.
Your coffee cup would not spill a drop!
I'll get my coat, it's the one with carbon kevlar inserts....
This would not give you motion sickness. Dear lord where do some people get these ideas from?
And the nonsense about potholes. Deary me. And as for 'skinny tyres' - there is more to life than fitting a set of 10" Pirellis to a car in order to make it stick tot he road. Christ alive..........
I would definitely love to give it a whirl, if only to compare the experience with my Ducatis.