LeftieBiker said:
You have to be able to sleep in it without your toes touching anything. It has to be able to climb Pike's Peak with 7 adults and 450lbs of luggage without losing more than 10% range. It must have a highway range of at least 20% more than any EV on the market. And it has to have both sun and moon roofs - one or the other is NOT acceptable.
No, no, that's the road trip car, we're talking about the urban commuter. :lol:
OT: However, my personal road trip car requirements are somewhat less, and with slight modifications haven't changed in 30 years or so;
1. Yes on the sleeping space.
2. Trail Ridge Road (12,183' at the summit) in Rocky Mtn. NP with 4 adults and at least 250 lbs. of gear including 4 backpacks, with enough range to do so to/from the nearest QCs driving normally with free use of HVAC plus at least a 30 mile reserve, at any time when the road's open.
3. Highway range of at least 300 miles (with more preferred) to allow me to reach Lee Vining from home (207 miles, or half the range my current 16+ year-old ICE has) over Tioga Pass (ca. 100' to 9,941' then down to 6,780') for at least 12 years, conditions as in #2.
4. No sun/moon roof, just a simple metal roof is all that is needed or wanted.
5. Wagon/CUV body type, with steeply-sloped rear hatch to maximize cargo volume/height in the shortest possible length.
6. AWD.
7. Carriage space for spare (pref. full-size), jack, and tire iron, preferably without taking up any of the cargo area, but at worst with the tire standing upright against the left wall between the rear hatch and the shock tower, where it doesn't block vision to the right rear quarter, and takes up as little floor space in the cargo area as possible.
8. Cargo tie-downs sufficiently robust to prevent the spare above, or heavy, dense cargo such as scuba tanks from flying about in an accident and injuring/killing me or my pax.
9. The fastest possible energy replenishment, with some trading off between range and replenishment speed allowed, but a minimum of 4 hours hwy driving (at western U.S. speeds) with no more than 40 minutes of replenishment to do it again is desired.
10. Controls/displays used during driving to be physical controls, not on touchscreens.
11. Decent or better driving dynamics and performance.
12. Max. length 180" preferred, with 174"-176" strongly preferred.
13. A energy replenishment infrastructure that allows me to access the places I want to drive to, via the routes I wish to take.
14. CR reliability rated as above or much above average.
15. Priced as much below $40k as possible.
I've probably forgotten a few of the minor ones, but I think that's all the major ones, and both of the Subarus I've owned since 1988 could meet most or all of them (the '88 couldn't meet #1 so I had to sleep on a diagonal, which usually left me with a sore leg muscle due to holding myself in position against the inevitable slope and led to me adding req. #1; and I had to use the 2nd option for #7).
There's a large number of ICEs now that can meet all of them (although #10's getting scarcer), but no BEVs as yet although they're getting closer; FCEVs can meet most of them now except for #6, #11 and #13. I have hopes that one or more ZEVs will be able to meet them in the 2020-2022 time frame, and certainly expect one or more to do so by 2025.
