Dear [Insert Car Company Name],
I would like to give technical feedback on the kind of vehicle I'm interested in for my next purchase (within 5-10 years I hope). If possible, I will try to hold out for a fuel-cell vehicle for two reasons. 1] A methanol or hydrogen powered fuel cell has the potential to be the least polluting way to move a car - even less polluting than a battery electric vehicle charged by the average power plant for the foreseeable future. 2] I'm tired of the unreliability of internal combustion engines (ICE) and transmissions.
I'm also interested in interim solutions based on hybrid drives. I have followed some of the reports on the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, and I think these cars are definitely in the right direction. Ideally, if a series design hybrid becomes practical (as opposed to the previously mentioned parallel hybrid cars), it would be nice not to have to sell the car when a fuel-cell reaches the point where it could be a drop in replacement for the ICE and generator.
Functionally, I'm looking for a high-clearance 4WD van. Many of my friends are looking for the same type of vehicle. There are many places in the western US that you cannot reach without a high-clearance 4WD, yet some of us are not served very well by the truck concept. A van makes a much better camping vehicle.
I have many specific ideas involving my choice of vehicle which might be appropriate for other classes of cars as well. In fact, if I were designing cars, I'd make a chassis designed for a hybrid or fuel cell that could support a pickup, a station wagon, and a van. I'm sure your engineers and those of other car companies have thought of many of these ideas before, but perhaps it will be useful for you to know a particular customer's thoughts.
Adaptable Suspension: A car that has a suspension that will drop the body close to the road when it is on pavement but can raise it when it is off road accomplishes several benefits. The off-road clearance can be tremendous (say 40 cm), but when the car is on-road, a very low riding position gives better aerodynamics, better cornering stability, and easier entry and exit. Mitsubishi has a prototype of such a suspension.
Aerodynamic Shape: I always find it puzzling that products often try to look aerodynamic without really being so. Many rooftop carriers and some vans market the shape of a sharp leading edge with a blunt trailing edge as being sleek, but as anyone who looks at an airplane or a human powered race vehicle knows, nearly the opposite is what works the best. For a practical and aerodynamic van style, I'd like to see a rear end that comes to a horizontal edge by a sloping windshield and hatchback that meet each other.
Interior: If the entire car were made using durable vinyl seats and floor coverings of a standard (say tan) color with seat-covers and mats (of different colors) available, these could be cleaned outside the vehicle and it would be easier to clean the vehicle itself. Some older model pickup trucks used to have vinyl floors with a drain hole so you could practically wash it with a garden hose.
Power-train: Ideally, I would like a fuel cell coupled to 4 in-wheel electric motors, but until this technology is available, the best configuration I can think of is a hybrid drive with the engine in the rear of the vehicle. This allows for a much shorter exhaust system and no need to route the exhaust under the vulnerable part of the car. The front could house 50-100 Kg of batteries giving the front wheels some more traction.
General Repair Issues: I'd like to be able to work on as many subsystems (brakes, suspension, etc.) as possible myself (I realize it may not be possible to have many repairable components in a fuel cell). I'd also like to be able to get as many parts from a junkyard as possible. When a repair at the shop is necessary, I don't want to get stuck paying a fourth the cost of what the car is worth new to get it running again (as I had to with an Isuzu vehicle recently). This translates into using simple rugged designs for each subsystem, reusing these among as many models as possible, and changing them only when actual improvement results (not just for planned obsolescence).
Items specific to a camping vehicle include:
Insulation: Magnetically sealed insulated window shades covering all the windows in tandem with well insulated body panels should allow an efficient heating system to maintain a 30 degree C differential if necessary. Ideally the same fuel which powers the car would be used for heating and cooking also. Perhaps this will be a realistic option if methanol becomes the fuel source. Otherwise, a propane tank would work.
Layout: The two rear seats should of course fold out into a bed. When the bed is deployed, it should be possible to pull up any of the 4 sections (seat bottom or back) to get at the gear stowed underneath. There are tradeoffs in design of built-in stoves and cabinets and the corresponding number of windows. My preference is for windows around the entire vehicle for safety reasons, but some prefer panel vans (these need to be available for commercial purposes anyway). With windows and wide seats it is hard to fit a stove in, but my preference is to have some kind of removable configuration placed behind the second rear seat row. Likewise, the portable solid-state cooler is a better concept than the built-in refrigerator for my uses.
In conclusion, I'd like to emphasize that though I may have described an esoteric vehicle, I believe there is a large market, and if your company comes in first, it has the opportunity to define the category much the same way Volkswagen did with the Bus in the 60's/70's.
Sincerely,
Dara Parsavand
Car Company List from a car-buying website
(FC designates a mention in Hydrogen and Fuel Cell News letter that
the company has been working on fuel cells)
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Acura
AM General
Audi
BMW
Buick
Cadillac
Chevrolet
Chrysler
Daewoo
Dodge
Ford
GMC
Honda (FC) 1-800-33-HONDA
Hyundai
Isuzu
Infiniti
Jaguar
Jeep
Kia
Land Rover
Lexus
Lincoln
Mazda (FC)
Mercedes-Benz (FC)
Mercury
Mitsubishi
Nissan (FC)
Oldsmobile
Plymouth
Pontiac
Porsche
Saab
Saturn
Subaru
Suzuki
Toyota (FC)
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
19001 South Western Avenue
Torrance, CA 90509
Volkswagen
Volvo