We want to save the planet. Just don’t ask us to sacrifice the size of our wheels
We the people
Electric cars are supposed to be good for the environment. And there are good reasons to believe they are. People who buy them often take pride in making a responsible choice. Some are even willing to tolerate the inconvenience of charging on the road because they believe they are doing something good.
Wonderful. But then I look at the cars themselves. Huge SUVs or even better – trucks. Massive wheels. Tall bodies. Enormous batteries needed to move all that weight around.
I wonder: Why do we have the cars we have?
The Car I Would design
If I were asked to design an electric family car from scratch, I would start with the following set of priorities.
- A low, aerodynamic station wagon. No unnecessary height. No enormous wheels. No pretending that a family car needs to look like an off-road monster.
- Plenty of room for a family and luggage. Easy loading of a roof box when extra space is really needed.
- Optional four-wheel drive, only for regions where it makes sense.
- A spare tire for traveling away from civilization and safely communing with nature.
Lower aerodynamic drag means less energy consumed. Less energy means a smaller battery. A smaller battery means less weight, fewer materials, and even less environmental impact. Nothing revolutionary. Just systems engineering.
Reality
But look at what we actually have. A huge trunk, even if we rarely fill it. Enormous wheels, although they often make the ride less comfortable, increase costs, and reduce efficiency. The commanding seating position of a tall SUV, even though most of our driving happens on perfectly ordinary roads. We even sometimes claim we need seven-seaters, while at the same time removing the middle seat in the second row and replacing it with two captain’s chairs to accommodate our *** bodies.
And then we proudly explain that we chose an electric car because we care about the environment. Perhaps we do. But apparently, not enough to reconsider what kind of car we actually need and limit ourselves to that.
Of course, an oversized electric SUV can still be environmentally preferable to an oversized gasoline SUV. But that’s a rather convenient comparison, isn’t it?
We make one small step in the right direction on a ten-step road and eagerly congratulate ourselves for choosing wisely.
Maybe we didn’t really want to save the planet. Maybe we just wanted to keep everything we like and feel good about ourselves at the same time?