How many passengers do you normally carry

[st4]

Most of us here, bar SL and SLK owners have cars capable of carrying 4+ people including the driver in comfort, safety and luxury.

How many of us do this. I do 95% of my milliage (15k year) alone, and about 4% of this with 1 other person on board, the 1% I'll have a full compliment of folk.

How often do you carry luggage also

The reason why I am putting this up was a brain wave I had. When cars become electic (fuel cell, battery powered etc) they will need to be much lighter (and therefore smaller) to give an adequate range and performance.

I think we may need to look outside the box and think about going for single seater type cars with excellent areo dynamics. I know 95% of my usage could be accomodated by a car such as this, and it would be more enjoyable as the car would be faster and lighter + usable abroad as you'd sit in the middle and you'd see the wheels in front. I reckon a large battery pack would be interchangable and held in the floor.

 

[Dieselman]

Got just the thing for you ***. Have a look at the specs..

Tango.

 

[Dryce]

Most of us here, bar SL and SLK owners have cars capable of carrying 4+ people including the driver in comfort, safety and luxury.

How many of us do this. I do 95% of my milliage (15k year) alone, and about 4% of this with 1 other person on board, the 1% I'll have a full compliment of folk.

How often do you carry luggage also

About 70% of my mileage is just moi.

15% self + passenger

15% self + 3 (or occasionally 2 or 4) passengers

When hauling with 4 on board it's usually long distance with luggage. One thing I notice with a W211 is that adding passengers and luggage doesn't impact too much on the fuel economy on these sorts of journeys.

 

[SSBB]

Cant get the link to work. Typing the address in directly doesnt work either!

 

[st4]

Got just the thing for you ***. Have a look at the specs..

Tango.

If they made that thing look better they'd be onto a winner:


Because safety is such a concern for small cars in particular, we have designed the Tango around a roll cage that meets or exceeds both SCCA and NHRA regulations. These are racing organizations that specify cage design to protect the occupants of cars crashing at over 200 mph. In addition, the extremely high strength-to-surface area ratio of a steel roll cage allows superb visibility from within the Tango. Rollover too is a great danger for many vehicles. The Tango, being so narrow, would look to the layman's eye to be unstable. But in fact, the Tango has stability that exceeds that of most sport cars.

As far as performance goes, the Tango is no slouch. Since electric cars--especially small ones--are generally thought to be slow and weak performers we set out to blow some minds by designing the Tango to accelerate through the standing 1/4 mile in 12 seconds at over 120 mph and travel from 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds.

I couldn't find anything re the ability to replace a done battery. Most batteries lose their ability to hold their charge and perform over their lifetime. A modular design in which they could be swapped for a newer and better (every 5 years + the tech will move on fast) would be ideal. Image does count so if these were to catch on they need to look the part. Even so, 0-60 in 4 secs or less if you change the gear is laugh out loud funny.

 

[Dryce]

I think we may need to look outside the box and think about going for single seater type cars with excellent areo dynamics. I know 95% of my usage could be accomodated by a car such as this, and it would be more enjoyable as the car would be faster and lighter + usable abroad as you'd sit in the middle and you'd see the wheels in front. I reckon a large battery pack would be interchangable and held in the floor.

We used to run just a two seater.

We hired cars several times a year when we had visitors.

 

[st4]

About 70% of my mileage is just moi.

15% self + passenger

15% self + 3 (or occasionally 2 or 4) passengers

When hauling with 4 on board it's usually long distance with luggage. One thing I notice with a W211 is that adding passengers and luggage doesn't impact too much on the fuel economy on these sorts of journeys.

No because its designed to carry people + luggage. Most of the time you and I aren't taking advantage of this aspect of our cars. However a car with your engine that weighed a 3rd of what the 211 did would perform much better in terms of dynamics + fuel economy. Not so important now, but when we are electric then it may well be. We are all used to how "passanger cars handle etc" but how many of us are used to a single seater racing car. Soon we could be.

 

[Dryce]

However a car with your engine that weighed a 3rd of what the 211 did would perform much better in terms of dynamics + fuel economy.

A w211 is around 1800Kgs.

A car a third of that weight is a Fiat 126 or a Tata Nano! Maybe a Caterham is about that.

A hatch such as a Clio or Corsa comes in at about 2/3rds the weight of a W211 depending on the engine (diesel probably bit more and petrol a bit less).

If you're thinking improved dymanics then you'll get it with a Caterham but I don't think you'd gt it with a 126 or a Nano.

 

[davidjpowell]

Just me most of the time, but 3 of us at the weekend

 

[st4]

.

If you're thinking improved dymanics then you'll get it with a Caterham but I don't think you'd gt it with a 126 or a Nano.

That was more the shape of electic car I was hinting @ in my original post. Not an upright box like a gwiz etc...

Maybe a sporty looking thing like an X-Bow but with batteries rather than an engine + fuel tank. A genuinely desirable thing to look @ etc. A bit like what Tesla are doing, but more extreme.

Looking at the poll its interesting to see that the overwhelming majority of us spend time alone in our cars especially given that they lend themselves for carrying familty, friends etc.

 

[seymansey]

I carry just me 90% of the time, with some kind of work bag.

Weekend its me and one or two friends, but again mainly me

On the week days, its usually me + colleagues going to lunch

 

[The G.F.P]

mine is me + 1 other, usually a mate or my daughter

i dont have another half

she was abducted by aliens and they replaced her with a mental case in 2001

 

[st4]

she was abducted by aliens and they replaced her with a mental case in 2001

You mean you took her down the Aisle....

 

[timskemp]

It's interesting, we looked at the usage of our Verso over the last 3 years and reckon we used the full capacity (6-7 seats) less than twice a year, so we went back to a normal sized car for the second car.

 

[Dryce]

Looking at the poll its interesting to see that the overwhelming majority of us spend time alone in our cars especially given that they lend themselves for carrying familty, friends etc.

A significant proportion of private mileage is commuting. The majority of commuters go singly. And for those using cars for business travel then I'd assume the majority is singly.

Weekend mileage and holiday mileage is more likely to invole passengers.

You will probably find that there is a geographic disparity as well. With those working in the London area more likely to use public transport for commuting.

 

[rf065]

When cars become electic (fuel cell, battery powered etc) they will need to be much lighter (and therefore smaller)

While this would seem logical, it is also the opposite of what has happened in the past.

Anyone been to a car museum lately? The family cars we remember our parents owning are tiny when you see them now. It's hard to believe you could get 5 people in some of them they look that small compared to a modern car.

While this has a lot to do with modern safety features requiring more room, it is also because we expect more luxury & space in a car than in years previously.

I do not think the majority of us want a small electric car in the same way we do not want to be squashed onto public transport. Even someone who spends most of the driving alone wants a car big enough to take the family & luggage on holiday or to the DIY store now & again. The only way I see most of us driving small electric cars will be when that is all we have, it will not be by choice. One plus point, they will fit in a parking bay without hitting the next car with your door when getting in & out.

Russ

 

[Adam230K]

I normally drive me and my friends home because i'm the only one who doesn't drink.... I've managed to fit 3 girls in the back 1 in the front... and my car looked LOW

 

[Smatt]

Got just the thing for you ***. Have a look at the specs..

Tango.

Anyone know how much these are, just out of interest?

 

[Dieselman]

Anyone know how much these are, just out of interest?

Umm, yes. $18,000 to $108,000.

The cheapy for a regular go slow version, the top price for a bespoke supercar.

 

[Satch]

Oi! No box to tick for dogs!