Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
1–10 of 37 posts
Re: Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
#2specific section - https://the-race.com/formula-1/newey-in-depth-aborted-ferrar...
"We now have electric SUVs – huge 4x4s with electric! Ludicrous. It just makes no sense whatsoever. It would just be nice to see cars getting a bit more efficient – whatever the propulsion unit might be, but in terms of the aero, weights, engine size. All these government organisations pat themselves on the back for the improved safety regulations but just like in F1 it makes the car very heavy. Also things like on the combustion engine having such low emissions from a cold start – again that puts weight into the car. The regulators don’t seem to think about that. They want utopia, a car with no emissions and is very efficient"
Re: Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
#3Automakers started making ultra-heavy flagship EVs as a way to make electric cars cool and attractive.
But then it feels inertia took over and now we're getting all of these unreasonably heavy and powerful EVs in some sort of magazine specifications arms race.
Some of these gigantic EVs are approaching 10,000 lbs. I'm not excited to have random drivers piloting their 9,000 lb electric SUVs with 1000 HP doing 0-60 in the 3-4 second range. That's an unbelievable amount of kinetic energy that someone can deploy in a matter of seconds while surrounded by cars weighing 1/3 as much.
Re: Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
#4Honestly, I feel like the submission title is overly editorialized. The part about the auto industry supposedly moving in the wrong direction is barely a paragraph all the way to the end. This is mostly about Newey's career.
Re: Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
#5specific section - https://the-race.com/formula-1/newey-in-depth-aborted-ferrar... "We now have electric SUVs – huge 4x4s with electric! Ludicrous. It just makes no sense whatsoever. It would just be nice to see cars getting a bit more efficient – whatever the propulsion unit might be, but in terms of the aero, weights, engine size. All these government organisations pat themselves on the back for the improved safety…
In the end a car, electric or not, is a 1.5T complex machine that transport most of the time 80kg of human and that stays immobile 95% of the time.
You can turn it the way you want, the issue is the concept itself.
A bus is more logical, a bike is more logical, a train is more logical, even a commercial plane is more logical.
Re: Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
#6specific section - https://the-race.com/formula-1/newey-in-depth-aborted-ferrar... "We now have electric SUVs – huge 4x4s with electric! Ludicrous. It just makes no sense whatsoever. It would just be nice to see cars getting a bit more efficient – whatever the propulsion unit might be, but in terms of the aero, weights, engine size. All these government organisations pat themselves on the back for the improved safety…
In the end a car, electric or not, is a 1.5T complex machine that transport most of the time 80kg of human and that stays immobile 95% of the time. You can turn it the way you want, the issue is the concept itself. A bus is more logical, a bike is more logical, a train is more logical, even a commercial plane is more logical.
>a 1.5T complex machine
The article talks about massive cars with lots of weight - 1500kg is on the light side of the story.
Re: Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
#7Automakers started making ultra-heavy flagship EVs as a way to make electric cars cool and attractive. But then it feels inertia took over and now we're getting all of these unreasonably heavy and powerful EVs in some sort of magazine specifications arms race. Some of these gigantic EVs are approaching 10,000 lbs. I'm not excited to have random drivers piloting their 9,000 lb electric SUVs with 1000 HP doing 0-60 in…
This feels a bit like cherry picking? I mean, the heaviest EV is the Hummer EV at 9000lbs compared to the original Hummer at 8000lbs. Most other EVs are of course heavier but not garishly so (e.g. Tesla Model 3 coming at around 4000 lbs, which is about the same as a BMW M3).
The point about the acceleration being stronger is fair, but I don't think this means overall EVs are much more dangerous than ICE cars.
Re: Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
#8specific section - https://the-race.com/formula-1/newey-in-depth-aborted-ferrar... "We now have electric SUVs – huge 4x4s with electric! Ludicrous. It just makes no sense whatsoever. It would just be nice to see cars getting a bit more efficient – whatever the propulsion unit might be, but in terms of the aero, weights, engine size. All these government organisations pat themselves on the back for the improved safety…
In the end a car, electric or not, is a 1.5T complex machine that transport most of the time 80kg of human and that stays immobile 95% of the time. You can turn it the way you want, the issue is the concept itself. A bus is more logical, a bike is more logical, a train is more logical, even a commercial plane is more logical.
And walking is more logical.
Re: Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
#9Honestly, I feel like the submission title is overly editorialized. The part about the auto industry supposedly moving in the wrong direction is barely a paragraph all the way to the end. This is mostly about Newey's career.
He also never says that electric is not the right direction.
Here's the quote:
> “We now have electric SUVs – huge 4x4s with electric! Ludicrous. It just makes no sense whatsoever. It would just be nice to see cars getting a bit more efficient – whatever the propulsion unit might be, but in terms of the aero, weights, engine size. All these government organisations pat themselves on the back for the improved safety regulations but just like in F1 it makes the car very heavy. Also things like on the combustion engine having such low emissions from a cold start – again that puts weight into the car. The regulators don’t seem to think about that. They want utopia, a car with no emissions and is very efficient.”
To me he's saying that SUVs make no sense (rightfully so), not electric cars.
Re: Top F1 designer says auto industry moving in wrong direction with electric cars
#10Automakers started making ultra-heavy flagship EVs as a way to make electric cars cool and attractive. But then it feels inertia took over and now we're getting all of these unreasonably heavy and powerful EVs in some sort of magazine specifications arms race. Some of these gigantic EVs are approaching 10,000 lbs. I'm not excited to have random drivers piloting their 9,000 lb electric SUVs with 1000 HP doing 0-60 in…
This feels a bit like cherry picking? I mean, the heaviest EV is the Hummer EV at 9000lbs compared to the original Hummer at 8000lbs. Most other EVs are of course heavier but not garishly so (e.g. Tesla Model 3 coming at around 4000 lbs, which is about the same as a BMW M3). The point about the acceleration being stronger is fair, but I don't think this means overall EVs are much more dangerous than ICE cars.
(Deleted naïve physics of uncommon case.)