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
I also have the kobalt weed trimmer now, for the same reasons.
I’ll give it 6mos before it goes belly-up.
I want one. And one for my wife too!
That would be your opinion.
Small engines, whether two- or four stroke, will not be supplanted by battery-powered equivalents any time soon any more than larger transportation-oriented vehicles so powered. There is no superiority inherent in today’s battery-powered tools or vehicles.
Sounds like you want to erase my individuality, with all due respect. My aversion is to this concept being forced on me rather than it being developed as a successful niche in the private sector. I would never deny anyone their dream vehicle, but to have that same vehicle imposed on me is something far different (think of the kind of world described in the band Rush’s “Red Barchetta” for example).
BTW, “hidebound” has “reactionary” as one of its synonyms, and that is a word long used by the left in a derogatory sense towards conservatives.
Pontiac Aztek. Cool idea. Awful execution.
There was literally a memo from management that employees were to cease from making Aztek jokes.
I’ve got a handful of cordless tools for home and a huge set I use for work.
I don’t really reef on any of them but they are great for portability.
I work in the building supplies realm and have seen the battery chainsaws at trade shows. They truly are the real thing but I’m enough of a luddite that I’m not ready yet.
Trade shows are one thing; the workplace is another.
I don’t chain saw much and don’t have a real reason to own one. Not enough trees.
But a couple weeks ago, we were at the mother in laws. We dropped a dead pine and cleaned up a couple more deadfall trees. She has 30-40 mature trees, many of which may need to be cleaned up in the next few years.
My BIL and I are encouraging her to buy one. Gas is the same price as battery and is proven technology.
We had a 20” blade Stihl we’d borrowed. It was just enough saw for what we were doing.
Who said “imposed?” I was decribing a vision for vehicles in the future. The vehicle in the article may be ugly but the CONCEPT behind the vehicle is quite real.
They will be assembled from modular components to suit movement over fashion.
As for “hidebound,” in technology it merely means unable to have vision beyond current pedestrian practices.
Sbort term is fine. Long term would be where problems start.
Sbort term is fine. Long term would be where problems start.
I myself said “imposed”. Please pardon me for saying so, but when the media uses the word “future” or the phrase “of the future”, it clearly refers to top-down imposition rather than the buying public voting with their feet as it were.
If I wasn’t clear before, I want to say that I’m not opposed to the technology, so long as what I prefer for my transportation needs/wants remains available and affordable.
In my youth I too was fascinated by the concept.After I studied thermodynamics, not so much.
If someday battery tech gets good enough and cheap and durable enough, electric vehicles can make sense provided that the application doesn’t require recharging when the user can’t afford the time to wait for it.
I don’t see electric working on long-haul routes. Hybrid vehicles seem a lot more practical. Not practical enough, mind, if they have to be subsidized . . .
Did you study Doble’s work with steam generators? He was striving towards higher thermal efficiency and longevity.
Looks like something you get free....with bowl of soup!!!!
all else aside, steam suffers from the practical problem of freezing in the winter.
Doble sought to overcome that with an alcohol/water mix in the working fluid.
>>I myself said “imposed”. Please pardon me for saying so, but when the media uses the word “future” or the phrase “of the future”, it clearly refers to top-down imposition rather than the buying public voting with their feet as it were.<<
No offense, FRiend but I find that a little... paranoid. I just see “of the future” to mean possible, like “the home of the future” which we are building ourselves through purchases of smart appliances.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.