Huh? The size and location of the battery and motor in electric cars allows for even more trunk space for a given automobile size. So far, only the hybrids with an internal combustion engine, gas tank, electric motors and battery array are the ones that seem to take up too much room.
In fact, the Tesla Model S's trunk is so large that they were able to place a couple extra seats back there.
It is a lot of fun. If you are on the west cost and get interested in the Idea, I know the guys at www.EVWest.com. They sell a kit for the VW platform and have a complete bolt on kit for the Bug. It can literally be installed in a long weekend. They are probably the best guys in the business.
I admit that the restoration and conversion was a bit expensive and probably not a good investment, but this is a real Acapulco Edition of the VW Thing. In it's current restored condition they can fetch about $25,000 on eBay. I still have the original engine and could easily convert it back to stock as the car's sheet metal, pan and tranaxle are largely unmodified...
In general it cost about $15K worth of part to do a conversion like this one but I doubt it would even truly make economic sense (restoring classic cars never will)
Thanks for that So Cal link. I think I'll go visit those guys some day. In my opinion, it would be worth converting a VW, whether a squareback, bug or Thing, just to keep driving that torsion-bar sprung, 4-wheel-independent, rear-engine experience a bit longer. So yeah, I think it's worth the $$ if you've got it, if only to keep experimenting with the platform. Your videos bear this out.
A lot of people don't realize what a great road car Porsche developed in that original VW chassis, running gear and body configuration. And hats off to Hans Ludwinka of Tatra for the air-cooled, rear-engine-on-a-backbone-frame as well, Porsche's inspiration.
I hope Jony and the engineers at least look into the Porsche-VW story as an object lesson in how a revolutionary car also has to come out of a revolutionary manufacturing process, followed by a novel service-after-sale process. It prefigures Apple's approach to the way they already do business, and it's the missing piece of the puzzle that Detroit (and the current automotive writers) never ever got. (Well, after Ford did the assembly line thing, anyway.) It's engineering as if process and people mattered, and the economy of post-war Germany rode on the wave. Now maybe Apple's about to do it for electricity and the world.
I'm assuming they're going to do a world People's Car eventually, by the way. Highly energy-efficient, completely recyclable, nothing wasted, etc.
People's Car?
Pflehh!
I forgot that you specialise in making people spit coffee out of their mouths.
As more and more people use electric cars, I can see the price of charging at various locations getting more and more expensive. If there is a buck to be made somewhere, it will eventually be exploited. Unless, of course, the advent of the electric vehicle is the harbinger of socialism.
This can be a concern, but electricity is cheap to make and getting less expensive by the day thanks to the droping price of solar. If the utilities try to raise the price too much they quickly reach a point where buying your own solar/batteries is more cost effective. So, the laws of basic supply and demand more or less dictate that they cannot gouge you too much...
One the other hand, there is no limit to how much you can be charged for fuels like, Gas, Natural Gas and Hydrogen. Since you cannot make these yourself easily (like home solar) you are literally at the mercy of how much they chose to charge you for these energy sources...
Thanks for that So Cal link. I think I'll go visit those guys some day. In my opinion, it would be worth converting a VW, whether a squareback, bug or Thing, just to keep driving that torsion-bar sprung, 4-wheel-independent, rear-engine experience a bit longer. So yeah, I think it's worth the $$ if you've got it, if only to keep experimenting with the platform. Your videos bear this out.
A lot of people don't realize what a great road car Porsche developed in that original VW chassis, running gear and body configuration. And hats off to Hans Ludwinka of Tatra for the air-cooled, rear-engine-on-a-backbone-frame as well, Porsche's inspiration.
I hope Jony and the engineers at least look into the Porsche-VW story as an object lesson in how a revolutionary car also has to come out of a revolutionary manufacturing process, followed by a novel service-after-sale process. It prefigures Apple's approach to the way they already do business, and it's the missing piece of the puzzle that Detroit (and the current automotive writers) never ever got. (Well, after Ford did the assembly line thing, anyway.) It's engineering as if process and people mattered, and the economy of post-war Germany rode on the wave. Now maybe Apple's about to do it for electricity and the world.
I'm assuming they're going to do a world People's Car eventually, by the way. Highly energy-efficient, completely recyclable, nothing wasted, etc.
While I have worked on old air cooled VW's over the (mostly for friends), this was the first car I completely disassembled and rebuilt. It is amazing how well these 40 year old systems work in this car and how easily and inexpensively they can be repaired....
This can be a concern, but electricity is cheap to make and getting less expensive by the day thanks to the droping price of solar. If the utilities try to raise the price too much they quickly reach a point where buying your own solar/batteries is more cost effective. So, the laws of basic supply and demand more or less dictate that they cannot gouge you too much...
One the other hand, there is no limit to how much you can be charged for fuels like, Gas, Natural Gas and Hydrogen. Since you cannot make these yourself easily (like home solar) you are literally at the mercy of how much they chose to charge you for these energy sources...
Never underestimate the exploiters of the capitalist system.
I forgot that you specialise in making people spit coffee out of their mouths.
Enjoy your fantasy communist dreamland.
It gives me great pleasure to respond to your comment.
"People's Car" is a conventional term for the class of vehicle represented by the Ford Model T, the Volkswagen (literally, "people's car" in German), the Fiat 500 Topolino, and let's not forget the Citroën 2CV, which was designed to help French farmers get their produce to market.
Jay Leno rescues the term from your sort of benighted conservative sniffery in the fourth paragraph here, talking about his prize 1937 Topolino:
There are two things to take away from considering this topic:
One is the high degree of engineering that is put into making a car that will serve multitudes well and reliably. With the Volkswagen, for example, it was recommended that you roll down the window a bit before closing the door, so airtight was the passenger "cabin." That was in the owner's manual, and it was true. It hurt your ears to try to close the doors without cracking a window. Remember, it was a Fiat 500 that Jony Ive drove when he attended design school.
The other thing to take away is how little you know about nearly every technical topic your comment on, and how unhelpful your comments are, except as a foil to the truth of whatever matter is before us. In this, you resemble none so much as Polonius in Hamlet, except he was an old man and you are a very young man, but old before your time. You really should get out more, see the world, open your mind.
It gives me great pleasure to respond to your comment.
"People's Car" is a conventional term for the class of vehicle represented by the Ford Model T, the Volkswagen (literally, "people's car" in German), the Fiat 500 Topolino, and let's not forget the Citroën 2CV, which was designed to help French farmers get their produce to market.
Jay Leno rescues the term from your sort of benighted conservative sniffery in the fourth paragraph here, talking about his prize 1937 Topolino:
There are two things to take away from considering this topic:
One is the high degree of engineering that is put into making a car that will serve multitudes well and reliably. With the Volkswagen, for example, it was recommended that you roll down the window a bit before closing the door, so airtight was the passenger "cabin." That was in the owner's manual, and it was true. It hurt your ears to try to close the doors without cracking a window. Remember, it was a Fiat 500 that Jony Ive drove when he attended design school.
The other thing to take away is how little you know about nearly every technical topic your comment on, and how unhelpful your comments are, except as a foil to the truth of whatever matter is before us. In this, you resemble none so much as Polonius in Hamlet, except he was an old man and you are a very young man, but old before your time. You really should get out more, see the world, open your mind.
As a rule of thumb, it is a better use of one's time to permanently block any whose comments continually offend. Everyone wins.
As a rule of thumb, it is a better use of one's time to permanently block any whose comments continually offend. Everyone wins.
Why block you? I just glance over your comments. You can do the same with mine.
Like I said, it was a pleasure to respond to Bibi's ignorant commie-baiting comment about people's cars. Something tells me you didn't find the answer agreeable.
Why block you? I just glance over your comments. You can do the same with mine.
Like I said, it was a pleasure to respond to Bibi's ignorant commie-baiting comment about people's cars. Something tells me you didn't find the answer agreeable.
I do not think that @SpamSandwich was criticising your reply. Incidentally, I wouldn't, if it interests you to know. " src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />
I do not think that <a data-huddler-embed="href" href="/u/20865/SpamSandwich" style="display:inline-block;">@SpamSandwich</a>
was criticising your reply. Incidentally, I wouldn't, if it interests you to know.
Thanks, it does interest me. I agree with you that I don't think he was criticizing my reply. But I have a feeling that he found the idea of a people's car unsavory, and found my usual long-winded answer in need of deflation. That's all. God forbid he should have to read something about social-development manufacturing projects, even if they're capitalist or state-capitalist (the Nazi VW) based.
It always irritates me when another poster says just put someone on the ignore list after you've already weighed the cost-benefit case for replying to a known troll or attention seeker. Benjamin Frost revealed that some sheltered youngsters seem to be unaware of the concept of the people's car, which was responsible for the two best-selling cars (and in their way, best cars) of all time, the VW and the Model T. Shocking ignorance.
Thanks, it does interest me. I agree with you that I don't think he was criticizing my reply. But I have a feeling that he found the idea of a people's car unsavory, and found my usual long-winded answer in need of deflation. That's all. God forbid he should have to read something about social-development manufacturing projects, even if they're capitalist or state-capitalist (the Nazi VW) based.
It always irritates me when another poster says just put someone on the ignore list after you've already weighed the cost-benefit case for replying to a known troll or attention seeker. Benjamin Frost revealed that some sheltered youngsters seem to be unaware of the concept of the people's car, which was responsible for the two best-selling cars (and in their way, best cars) of all time, the VW and the Model T. Shocking ignorance.
Not sure how my comment got interpreted as a slight or insult, it wasn't meant as such.
They could make a car that charges itself using a motor from www.r-charge.net, or they could make a car that never needs charging using a motor from www.searlmagnetics.com.
Comments
?Car or not, I would like to see Jony Ive as the 'star in a reasonably priced car' on Top Gear.
You forgot to mention the frunk.
Front trunk.
It is a lot of fun. If you are on the west cost and get interested in the Idea, I know the guys at www.EVWest.com. They sell a kit for the VW platform and have a complete bolt on kit for the Bug. It can literally be installed in a long weekend. They are probably the best guys in the business.
I admit that the restoration and conversion was a bit expensive and probably not a good investment, but this is a real Acapulco Edition of the VW Thing. In it's current restored condition they can fetch about $25,000 on eBay. I still have the original engine and could easily convert it back to stock as the car's sheet metal, pan and tranaxle are largely unmodified...
In general it cost about $15K worth of part to do a conversion like this one but I doubt it would even truly make economic sense (restoring classic cars never will)
Thanks for that So Cal link. I think I'll go visit those guys some day. In my opinion, it would be worth converting a VW, whether a squareback, bug or Thing, just to keep driving that torsion-bar sprung, 4-wheel-independent, rear-engine experience a bit longer. So yeah, I think it's worth the $$ if you've got it, if only to keep experimenting with the platform. Your videos bear this out.
A lot of people don't realize what a great road car Porsche developed in that original VW chassis, running gear and body configuration. And hats off to Hans Ludwinka of Tatra for the air-cooled, rear-engine-on-a-backbone-frame as well, Porsche's inspiration.
I hope Jony and the engineers at least look into the Porsche-VW story as an object lesson in how a revolutionary car also has to come out of a revolutionary manufacturing process, followed by a novel service-after-sale process. It prefigures Apple's approach to the way they already do business, and it's the missing piece of the puzzle that Detroit (and the current automotive writers) never ever got. (Well, after Ford did the assembly line thing, anyway.) It's engineering as if process and people mattered, and the economy of post-war Germany rode on the wave. Now maybe Apple's about to do it for electricity and the world.
I'm assuming they're going to do a world People's Car eventually, by the way. Highly energy-efficient, completely recyclable, nothing wasted, etc.
People's Car?
Pflehh!
I forgot that you specialise in making people spit coffee out of their mouths.
Enjoy your fantasy communist dreamland.
As more and more people use electric cars, I can see the price of charging at various locations getting more and more expensive. If there is a buck to be made somewhere, it will eventually be exploited. Unless, of course, the advent of the electric vehicle is the harbinger of socialism.
This can be a concern, but electricity is cheap to make and getting less expensive by the day thanks to the droping price of solar. If the utilities try to raise the price too much they quickly reach a point where buying your own solar/batteries is more cost effective. So, the laws of basic supply and demand more or less dictate that they cannot gouge you too much...
One the other hand, there is no limit to how much you can be charged for fuels like, Gas, Natural Gas and Hydrogen. Since you cannot make these yourself easily (like home solar) you are literally at the mercy of how much they chose to charge you for these energy sources...
Thanks for that So Cal link. I think I'll go visit those guys some day. In my opinion, it would be worth converting a VW, whether a squareback, bug or Thing, just to keep driving that torsion-bar sprung, 4-wheel-independent, rear-engine experience a bit longer. So yeah, I think it's worth the $$ if you've got it, if only to keep experimenting with the platform. Your videos bear this out.
A lot of people don't realize what a great road car Porsche developed in that original VW chassis, running gear and body configuration. And hats off to Hans Ludwinka of Tatra for the air-cooled, rear-engine-on-a-backbone-frame as well, Porsche's inspiration.
I hope Jony and the engineers at least look into the Porsche-VW story as an object lesson in how a revolutionary car also has to come out of a revolutionary manufacturing process, followed by a novel service-after-sale process. It prefigures Apple's approach to the way they already do business, and it's the missing piece of the puzzle that Detroit (and the current automotive writers) never ever got. (Well, after Ford did the assembly line thing, anyway.) It's engineering as if process and people mattered, and the economy of post-war Germany rode on the wave. Now maybe Apple's about to do it for electricity and the world.
I'm assuming they're going to do a world People's Car eventually, by the way. Highly energy-efficient, completely recyclable, nothing wasted, etc.
While I have worked on old air cooled VW's over the (mostly for friends), this was the first car I completely disassembled and rebuilt. It is amazing how well these 40 year old systems work in this car and how easily and inexpensively they can be repaired....
This can be a concern, but electricity is cheap to make and getting less expensive by the day thanks to the droping price of solar. If the utilities try to raise the price too much they quickly reach a point where buying your own solar/batteries is more cost effective. So, the laws of basic supply and demand more or less dictate that they cannot gouge you too much...
One the other hand, there is no limit to how much you can be charged for fuels like, Gas, Natural Gas and Hydrogen. Since you cannot make these yourself easily (like home solar) you are literally at the mercy of how much they chose to charge you for these energy sources...
Never underestimate the exploiters of the capitalist system.
It gives me great pleasure to respond to your comment.
"People's Car" is a conventional term for the class of vehicle represented by the Ford Model T, the Volkswagen (literally, "people's car" in German), the Fiat 500 Topolino, and let's not forget the Citroën 2CV, which was designed to help French farmers get their produce to market.
Jay Leno rescues the term from your sort of benighted conservative sniffery in the fourth paragraph here, talking about his prize 1937 Topolino:
http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/2007/02/01/hmn_feature7.html
There are two things to take away from considering this topic:
One is the high degree of engineering that is put into making a car that will serve multitudes well and reliably. With the Volkswagen, for example, it was recommended that you roll down the window a bit before closing the door, so airtight was the passenger "cabin." That was in the owner's manual, and it was true. It hurt your ears to try to close the doors without cracking a window. Remember, it was a Fiat 500 that Jony Ive drove when he attended design school.
The other thing to take away is how little you know about nearly every technical topic your comment on, and how unhelpful your comments are, except as a foil to the truth of whatever matter is before us. In this, you resemble none so much as Polonius in Hamlet, except he was an old man and you are a very young man, but old before your time. You really should get out more, see the world, open your mind.
Would love an Apple Car like Teslar , still waiting for a full blown Apple television.
As a rule of thumb, it is a better use of one's time to permanently block any whose comments continually offend. Everyone wins.
Why block you? I just glance over your comments. You can do the same with mine.
Like I said, it was a pleasure to respond to Bibi's ignorant commie-baiting comment about people's cars. Something tells me you didn't find the answer agreeable.
Why block you? I just glance over your comments. You can do the same with mine.
Like I said, it was a pleasure to respond to Bibi's ignorant commie-baiting comment about people's cars. Something tells me you didn't find the answer agreeable.
I do not think that @SpamSandwich was criticising your reply. Incidentally, I wouldn't, if it interests you to know.
Thanks, it does interest me. I agree with you that I don't think he was criticizing my reply. But I have a feeling that he found the idea of a people's car unsavory, and found my usual long-winded answer in need of deflation. That's all. God forbid he should have to read something about social-development manufacturing projects, even if they're capitalist or state-capitalist (the Nazi VW) based.
It always irritates me when another poster says just put someone on the ignore list after you've already weighed the cost-benefit case for replying to a known troll or attention seeker. Benjamin Frost revealed that some sheltered youngsters seem to be unaware of the concept of the people's car, which was responsible for the two best-selling cars (and in their way, best cars) of all time, the VW and the Model T. Shocking ignorance.
Not sure how my comment got interpreted as a slight or insult, it wasn't meant as such.