[Freespirit27]

This is from an old science project programe I saw as a kid. I can't seem to find a representative figure/ image online. So, this is a round shape car with independent motorised (reversible motor) wheels. Each wheel has about 180° freedom of movement and independent controls and suspension. This permits the vehicle to even spin on its axis by aligning the wheels along the circumference.
Just imagine a large inverted hemisphere or a bucket with wheel arrangement on four quadrants.

This is the nearest 3 wheeled image I could gather. Just imagine it as a 4 wheeled version and make it look more cool than comical Maybe add a sunroof for more fun!
Steering will have to be servo based joystick type controls which allows the driver to just tilt the stick in the direction of advance and a few buttons for a spin manoeuvre clockwise or anti-clockwise It will make a great city runabout.

[Ravi Parwan]

replace the sunroof on top with solar panels.
5 feet by 5 feet Solar cells will provide top up charge for the batteries and should help in range extension. you can also use these to power the AC for precooling the car without feeling guilty or anxious about range reduction.

[lina]

Before thinking of things to do with the new space, the first thing EVs, especially dedicated EVs should do is give a good back seat. I have tried the backseats of my own car (ZS), Ioniq and EV6 and they are all terrible. Absolutely no excuse for such a bad rear seat in the EV6 and Ioniq. I cant imagine why this is so hard. Anyway you are selling SUVs. Make it a little taller!

Apart from that the most obvious use of the space is a frunk. A nice big frunk so that there is protection from impact as well as ample storage space.

Middle seat in the front or option of having a bench seat in the front.

[ashkamath]

Originally Posted by GoBabyGo

If possible, instead of front frunk (under the bonnet), EV manufacturers can provide provision of a power bank, which can charge the EV upto 5% to 10% in case of emergency. The power bank will charge simultaneously when someone charge her/his EV and can have idle back up upto 45 to 60 days.

A few days ago, I saw an YouTube video where the driver of a Tesla, stranded roadside, flags down an ICE car and requests for gas/petrol.

I thought, perhaps the Tesla driver was an idiot. So was the thoughts of the ICE car driver. He mockingly asks " You know you are driving a Tesla? Right?" The Telsa driver says "Yes. It's a Tesla".
ICE car driver "So where do you pour the gas into?"
Tesla driver opens the boot and Lo behold, there's a portable Honda Generator sitting pretty inside.
"I need the gas to run this portable generator that will juice up my Tesla a bit, so that I can reach the nearest charger".

It was funny to watch that video. A backup generator for an EV is like carrying a 5 ltr Jerry can full of gas for an ICE vehicle.

[Anumon8448]

It will be better if we can charge the EVs while driving on specific side lanes on highways (which are allotted for charging)by induction (something like there will be a quite long stetch of wireless induction chargers in the side lane, while driving close to that the car should get charged).
It will be very useful for long highway ev drives that we don't have to stop in between for charging the car.
But it will be very less practical to implement

[RobotMan]

Lucid Motors did a lot of clever packaging with the Air. I really like how they give more cabin room than an S-Class with such a small footprint.

An idea worth considering might be running separate, smaller compressors for the air conditioner. Rear seat passengers can have their separate compressor in the boot. Since there is no prime mover (engine) for EVs, they can create smaller, modular sub-systems that can be more efficient and provide redundancy.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by mally2

if the ID.Buzz can meet safety norms why not an OMNI type, it just should not be from Maruthi

Having driven the ID.Buzz, I can say that the driver sits a fair distance away from the front of the vehicle. The width of the dashboard behind the steering wheel is huge and the base of the windscreen is like a mile away! It's only clever design that makes it look like the old VW Bus.

[EV Fan]

Originally Posted by electric_eel

I like this a lot. Any one who is knowledgeable about this (EV_Fan ?) can you comment how much would it add to the cost (I mean the crazier one where we cover most of the car with solar panels).

Oversees in some of the more developed markets, we do have a lot of DIY's for solar mounted EV's, off grid EV charger's etc.
Especially with the camper van concept, these ideas are well and abound.
But India, i have seen very few.
Some of the folks at Northway in Pune work heavily on EV's, they had even modded some of the existing maruti cars to make them EV's, even hybrids. But did not see any solar projects. I think he is a fellow BHPian, lookup "stuntfreak".

Other than that a few folks here and there do work on camper vans but yet to see any BIPV (the thin, light, bendy, costlier solar panels) based charger projects.

A few regular solar/camper van setups do exist here.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modif...landing-2.html (Indian cars modified for camping & overlanding)

But honestly i am more interested in just the base setup(maybe even standalone), something to run the auxiliaries/blower like what Toyota Prius had. A full solar setup for charging the EV will have some complications and more importantly warranty issues that is quite a risk for a new EV.