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back to article Magna boils up EV kit for car makers

As the major car manufacturers slowly get to grips with the electric – or hydrogen – powered future of personal transport, a number of smaller, more dexterous automotive engineering firms are presenting their views of the way forward. Magna-Steyr Mila Magna-Steyr's Mila: the concept... A classic example is Canadian company …

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  1. Paul Murphy

    Is it plug in only?

    Because if it is then the market for it will be small.

    Make the batteries into swappable units, and allow one or more of the swappable units to be replaced by a petrol, diesel, fuel-cell, hamster or whatever additional energy source.

    Batteries and a solar cell will only be good for very local trips.

    Also the electric motor needs to drive it at 60mph at least, any less and it won't be able to keep up with modern traffic, so people will (again) not buy one.

    Aside from that it looks a good effort, though I do wonder if the design gets in the way of practicality.

    The next thing is to get the government to give an electric vehicle away when people reach 18 - don't give them an excuse to go petrol...

    ttfn

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  2. Matt

    crazy!

    surely, having rows of LED's running the length of the car is a bit Fast and the Furious! and certainly not something my mum would want on her runabout! a little inconvient if your inside the car and wondering how much power is left!!! AND all those LED's soaking up precious battery!

    speaking of which, streamlined mirrors with cameras... is the reduction in drag really less than the energy requirements for powering 2 cameras, ir arrays for low light scenarios and 2 displays?

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  3. b
    Thumb Up

    love it!

    that's a definite wow design, really like it..

    nice idea on wholesailing something that people can make their own and resell..

    rather like "white box" pc's?!

    wowsa, the car industry talking a leaf out of the pc biz!

    (yes i know about kit cars)

    cheers,

    bill

    p.s. stuff and nonsense: http://www.eupeople.net/forum

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Is it just me...

    who is actually considering a leccy car for my daily commute? at 7 miles a day it's gotta be worth the thinking about its not even far enough for your ordinary IC to warm up... I might even consider a new Baxi Ecogen boiler too! mainsgas powered car at 2p per mile.. loverly..

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  5. greg

    first small EV ever that actually looks good

    first small EV that I've seen that doesnt try and model itself on some whacky shitty design that the designers seem to think is standard for EV's. Great looker!

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  6. Gordon Ross Silver badge

    @Paul Murphy

    "Also the electric motor needs to drive it at 60mph at least, any less and it won't be able to keep up with modern traffic, "

    1 - It's a speed limit, not a target (as my driving instructor used to say)

    2 - I suspect it's aimed more for the urban commuter, not the motorway cruiser. When was the last time you drove above 60MPH in the middle of a town ?

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  7. Peter
    Go

    @7 miles

    At 7 miles you should be riding yer bike. If the roads are too dangerous, no designated cycle lanes, then bug your council.

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Why?

    Why do EVs almost always have to come with, errrm, challenging styling. Look at the way most mainstream manufacturers work when it comes to styling. Each new model is generally a small styling step forward from the last new model in the range. Sure it may be a massive step forward from the model it replaces, but there will have been several other new models from that manufacturer in the interim. People are much more likely to accept the styling if it's not a radical departure from the norm. And most of the time any new model's styling is not too radical a departure from what other manufacturers are doing. The other thing is that most manufacturers keep various styling cues throughout their range so when you see a new car you can identify the manufacturer.

    Ocassionally a car does come along that looks pretty radical. The 2003 Micra was just such a car, even though it still included several Nissan styling cues. These exceptions to the rule are generally absorbed into the process. So we fairly quickly saw the radical parts of the Micra's design being absorbed into other manufacturers models.

    Also why do manufacturers of EVs feel the need to include "radical" (read: gimicky) features. Like the cameras and battery charge indicators in this case. They are not there to perform any useful function, like the styling they are just their to grab attention and headlines. Unfortunately while they may grab attention all they do is divert it from the important features of the vehicle. Maybe I'm being cynical, but the end result of these tactics is usually to make me think that there's nothing particularly impressive about the important features of the vehicle.

    It's not like there's anything new about rear view cameras. I first saw those on a Nova kit car back in the seventies. And the battery charge indicator performs no function other than (a) to make you look a twat and (b) to warn other road users that you are about to conk out.

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  9. Peter D'Hoye
    Thumb Down

    Almost as square as an old Volvo

    I wonder why they even bothered to make it look streamlined on the top. It is just a fugly rounded square shape. Whatever happened to cx measurements? Why has only the top been streamlined and not the rest of the front.

    Or does this car go sooo slow that wind resistance can be left out of the calculation?

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  10. TeeCee Gold badge

    Badge?

    Not sure about a Saab badge on the rump being a plus.

    That would imply an interior and ancillary components from the fourpenny spares bin at GM.

    Get Merc to pin a Smart badge on it. That'll sell, as Smart buyers expect something in the "odd looking plastic thingy" vein, and they've had a bit of a gap in the range down there since the ForFour bit the dust when Mitsubishi pulled the plug.

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  11. Arclight

    Copper top

    Sounds like they nicked the idea off those Duracell batteries. I wonder if you have to press on either end of the car to check the battery charge as well

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  12. Charles Manning

    Flaccidity is misleading

    The quoted power of an ICE is the Maximum power and the ICE an only deliver that power for a limited part of the engine speed.

    Leccies can deliver power form zero rpm upwards and thus 1 leccy horse power is a lot more valuable than 1 ICE horse power.

    And what's this obsession with power anyway? What's the point of having Clarkson's wet dream if you're sitting in a traffic jam?

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    styling

    that's the nicest looking electric car I've ever seen. 50 kW should be enough. some are doing conversions of compacts with 10 kW (continuous) motors and getting performance equivalent to the original IC

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  14. David Stever
    Joke

    MS Windows

    I wonder of Microsoft will move to stop MS from calling the windows in their vehicles MS windows?

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