Posted on 07/31/2020 11:02:53 AM PDT by Red Badger
Electric. Modular. And pretty much whatever you want it to be.
Some days I dream about driving a zippy two-seater. Others, I long for a camping-friendly family van. And every once in a while, I wish I had a pickup truck that could handle the freight of a Home Depot run. So like most suburban stereotypes, that means I’ve settled for a high-horsepower crossover, a vehicle that does all of these jobs with mediocrity.
But what if there was another way? What if you could buy a car that transformed from car to van to truck, à la Inspector Gadget? That’s the promise of the eBussy, a vehicle that looks something like a VW bus crossed with a USB charger, by the German vehicle manufacturer Electric Brands. Starting at $18,500 and topping out at $33,000, it’s a completely customizable modular electric vehicle. You can configure its seats and storage space when you buy it. Or you can swap out those details later by hand, when you bring it home. The eBussy launches in the U.K. next year, assuming that Electric Brands, which has only built scooters to date, can pull it off.
The eBussy offers two styles of chassis—one typical, and one with a higher profile for off-roading—and 10 different body styles. By mixing and matching options, you can create a two-seater or a four-seater with a bench or individual seating and battery capacity that can vary from 125 miles to 370 miles. The actual vehicle you build can be a pickup truck or a cargo truck or a van or a Jeep-like open-air vehicle or a camper complete with a bed, fridge, TV, freshwater tank, and sink. You can add a solar roof to charge out in the wild, and on every model, you can actually go so far as to slide the steering wheel from one side of the car to the other, because the drive system is fly-by-wire (or controlled by computers rather than mechanical inputs—just like on commercial jets).
Each of these configurations changes your purchase price, but even after you buy the design, you aren’t stuck with it permanently. According to the company, you can change it yourself (details TBD). But you’d need to own multiple components, such as cargo room or seating, to swap them out.
“The eBussy was developed according to the ‘Lego principle’ . . . you can adapt your eBussy easily and quickly and as often as you want to your usage needs,” the company explains on its site. “You do not need any special tools for this, you do not have to have worked at NASA, you just need some help to remove one module and put another on it.”
How can one car manufacturer build so many different vehicles on a single platform? Electric drive trains make it possible. While combustion engines take up a massive block of space in a car, electric vehicles hide tiny motors in each wheel, with small battery packs squeezed in wherever they can fit. Electric vehicles on the road today are still mirroring gas car aesthetics, but they don’t need to.
The eBussy’s design is feasible, and it’s easy to imagine the auto industry copying its approach. More and more, major auto brands are agreeing on shared platforms, with engines, battery technologies, and chassis used between companies in the interest of lowering costs through scaled production. In other words, auto manufacturers are already playing Lego with design, putting what we perceive as unique cars on top of nearly identical foundations.
[Image: Electric Brands] Furthermore, we’re seeing that consumers demand customization, and the auto industry is just beginning to see how one car can be sold to offer diverse experiences. The new Ford Bronco, brought out of retirement earlier this month, was heralded by many auto critics for its diverse configuration options. Instead of selling you a car, Ford is offering its Broncos as a line of experiences, dubbed names such as Badlands, Outer Banks, and Wildtrak. Each of these Broncos is tweaked for how you’ll use it. One has a waterproof, marine-grade interior that can get as soaked as you like. Another offers suspension that’s thrilled to climb through mounds of mud. Yes, inside all this adventure branding is the sort of tiered entry-to-premium pricing model we’ve come to expect from auto manufacturers, but it’s not quite as simple as good, better, best. The Bronco urges you to specialize toward specific adventures.
eBussy offers even more customization options than the Bronco, while also offering buyers the option to change their configuration on their own after purchase.
Studying the eBussy’s design options, which also offer pull-out drawers for small cargo, it seems that this EV is being designed in part for those last-mile delivery services from companies like Amazon, and in part to any mainstream consumer who wants to buy a van, car, or truck. That approach makes the eBussy’s potential addressable market more or less unlimited, in theory. While preorders are open now for buyers in the U.K., eBussy will still need to prove that it’s capable of actually building not just a great electric vehicle, but a great van, a great truck, and a great camper, too. About the author
Mark Wilson is a senior writer at Fast Company who has written about design, technology, and culture for almost 15 years. His work has appeared at Gizmodo, Kotaku, PopMech, PopSci, Esquire, American Photo and Lucky Peach
And make it do 0-60 in 5 seconds or less...................
>>Uhhhhhhh......no......................<<
Uhhhhh... YEAH.
People will not ned to be concerned with driving so the car of the future will be more like a living area. In fact, I have envisioned many cars like SUVs that in the AM rather than getting in the car and driving, you go to your mobile bedroom several hours before, tell the car to drive you to work, and go back to sleep.
When you get the the car wakes you, you jump in the portable shower in the car, change into one of the couple of work outfits and poof, all set with no muss, fuss or fighting traffic.
Self driving vehicles will change things even more fundamentally than the internet did communications — assuredly in ways we cannot even predict.
Although this car might work if they start driver training classes for 12 year old school girls.
“Yeah, people are pounding on the doors for electric modular cars, yup, Dream come true, it is.”
You are a dinosaur. Serious.
I just bought a battery powered chainsaw and it the best tool I have ever purchased. Had it with that darn tempermental Stihl that 1/2 the time would not start.
I get an hour out of each charge and it has twice the cutting torque of the gas chainsaw. Battery powers saws blow away the gas.
Watch the youtube videos of gas versus battery chainsaw cutting demos and you will come away amazed.
I got a hole in my farm tractor rear tire. The tire tech took off 30 year old rusted bolts with a battery powered impact wrench. He also swear by them.
if they made it on a hybrid model that just runs to charge the batteries, that also has the built in solar charging for getting free power while parked, that would be the best setup.
i like the user changeable module idea to fit differing needs at a specific time, but would be concerned about structural crash issues as well as potential theft issues.
MIATA
Miata is always the answer
short term the water would be ok
but you need water with minerals in it to give you what you need, long term
I just read where they found an old Falcon. Stuck in a barn down Under for the last 20 years. But it was a prototype of the Mad Max falcon. It’s sold for over $200,000.
Ugly, but the price aint bad.
Still, my VW campers were far cheaper.
“battery powered chainsaw”
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Huh? You drive a chainsaw around town? Or were you just making a joke I didn’t get?
I think they dropped the Miata name and just go with MX-5.
No matter, it may be the most fun car you can buy today.
I have one already it is an old Ford Expedition. You could go bigger with an Excursion but bigger than I want to climb into.
“Skateboard” “issues”
You had to leave one door open for your other foot.
Think again.
Huh? You drive a chainsaw around town? Or were you just making a joke I didn’t get?
No, I was referring that electric tools are superior to gas and electric cars will also be.
Every tool company Dewalt, Kobalt, Milawaukee Tools, Craftsman, even Stihl are moving towards battery powered tools.
Think again.
Year-late welcome to FR.
We’ve been hearing prophecies like this out of the left for longer than the site has been up. Nothing credible has resulted; and the fact that the left pushes this makes it very suspect. There is currently only one way to generate electricity, and that is by burning carbon-based fuels to turn turbines attached to giant AC generators; and the more mechanical a vehicle is, the more reliable it is and always will be, not leaving one stranded in the case of disasters caused by modern weaponry.
“electric tools are superior to gas and electric cars will also be”
—
Good, I hate having to refill the tank on my hammer every time I wanna pound a nail. Not to mention every time I’d use a drill - I was worried there might be a spark and it would get to the drill’s gas tank.
But your assurances put my mind at ease and have given me a sure-win investment strategy; I’m investing everything in 200 mile long extension cords.
Ford just revealed a 1400 HP Mustang, powered with batteries. Not for production strictly racing only.
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