Featured UP Super Board

Gotta admit I never liked the idea of 'skateboard' layout. You're sacrificing ground clearance and/or interior cabin height while (potentially) raising the center of gravity.

You can sort of get away with this in designs that are already quite tall like pickups, vans & SUVs, but it's a dirty compromise in crossovers and just plain bad for sedans.

/dyslexics untie!

 

From the article:

Like similar offerings from firms like REE,​

So I bought some speculative REE. Price is low and they've recently gotten some regulatory approval. It looks promising ... but I'm not selling my TSLA either.

Bob Wilson

 

@Trollbait, just OCD on my part: would you want to do a search-and-replace, "board" for "broad"? Even the title should be editable for a few hours?

Super Broad does sound kinda intriguing though...

 

I guess I'm surprised that they couldn't do an underhood battery with inverter/motor packaged near the rear axle, like where the fuel tank and resonator would be in a gasser.

I realize that this layout would have F/R weight distribution issues to solve, but I think it would make for a more appealing sedan/coupe in the end.

 

I saw a review claiming the Chinese EVs have their battery pack lower than others. An interesting hypothesis if accurate.

Bob Wilson

 

So a well engineered skateboard design gives you a lower center of gravity, improved handling and improved safety.
This comes at the cost of an added few inches of height.

This is one of the many reasons I won’t be buying an ICE car ever again.

 

very cool! if i were jay leno, i'd add one to my collection.

 

That's fair, but I'm also one of those crazy people who isn't insisting on 300+ mile range. I could get a heck of a lot of utility from a medium/large cabin sedan with 100 miles of range (50 in winter up hill both ways)

Understood- but as a tall driver who likes to sit upright in sedans, I think they're stealing some of the most precious inches in the whole car.

Trollbait's idea upthread about making carve-out wells under the seats might be the problem-solver in the end.

 

I have had no issues sitting upright in any sedans or hatchback EVs I have owned. Although I suspect you are taller than I.
I did hear of a friend who is 6’4” who was amazed at the headroom in a Model 3. Of course, there are limits and I don’t know how tall you are;-)

You may make assumptions about the skateboard design, but as long as they raise the roof as much as the floor, I don’t see how that makes sense.

 

The headroom in the Prius is 38 inches.
The Model 3 headroom is just over 40 inches.

The height of both is about 57”.

I suspect there is plenty of ‘stuff’ under ICE vehicles that take up space under the passenger compartment. The batteries filling that same space seems to have minimal net effect on headroom.

 

I'm 6'4". I've commented elsewhere that I've found the back seats of both the Tesla Model S and 3 to be too cramped, vertically speaking. I don't mean a little tight. My Prius c is a little tight, can't wear a hat when I'm in the back seat. But in those two Teslas, the top of my head is pressed hard against the glass ceiling unless I deliberately slouch or contort myself.

I have not had the opportunity to test the driver's seat of either- I suspect both are just-enough better. That said, when I buy a car, I like to buy a whole car and not just the front seats.

OK, well then wouldn't it be logical to lean further into the skateboard idea? Short range version has one skateboard battery. Long range has a second identical one stacked over top.

I had almost that opportunity 2 weeks ago; I parked a rented Malibu next to a shiny new Ioniq 6 in Texas. It was noticeably taller.

Your point about a long wheelbase is well taken, and frankly I already want a large cabin sedan with a long wheelbase... but it seems those are even further gone from the market.

 

Oh my, that is tall!
If you are uncomfortable in parts of the car you plan to use, you definitely shouldn’t buy it.
In the last 39 years of owning a car, I have been in the back seat 2-3 times. As such, I don’t consider them important (as you can tell from my Mini).

It is interesting that as Edmund’s measures it, a 2019 Prius C has 37 inches of rear headroom, while they measure a 2021 Tesla model 3 at 37.7 inches of headroom.

I would be curious about your impressions of the front seat, once adjusted, of a Model 3.
If you do get a chance to try one please let us know.

 

I'll admit that I'm not in the back seat super often, but on whole-family trips it works out that way. When my (much shorter) wife drives, I take the left rear seat so I can attend to our toddler in the right rear seat.

I've observed the same discrepancy in posted measurements. I can see that it's not the easiest measurement to standardize- emphasizing the importance of showroom check-it-outs and test drives in my mind. Is the Toyota cushion softer to let me sink lower? Does the backrest curve my spine a certain way? Couldn't tell you, but I believe you have a professional understanding of the importance of measurement and fit.

When we were shopping for a hatchback to replace our Accent, we dismissed a couple of contenders just by sitting in them. When I first tried the Prius c I went to a dealership and asked if I could simply sit in it, nothing else. I sat in there half an hour (different seats) reading news just to make sure it fit right.

And I should stress that this isn't a problem of "inches," it is really is more like 3/8" wrong. I can sometimes tell my hair is touching the soft fuzzy headliner of the Prius c back seat; any hat fills that gap. Front seat too, for that matter.

The Teslas had me mashed up against the glass and previous tall occupants' scalp sweat/hair product schmear. Ew.

 

UP Super Board "skateboard chassis" could boost the production of EVs (newatlas.com)

Great story.

These type technologies can disrupt the auto industry.

Anyone can now have a state-of-the-art battery , drivetrain, and carriage at a competitive price and just add their own cabin and model lines to get into the EV car business.

This appears to be a textbook definition of a disruptive technology and another reminder that the Automobile Manufacturing business is a tough, tough game!

 

But if the battery wasn't under the floor, they could've achieved the same aero results with that space redistributed vertically into a taller cabin.

What I'm getting at is that if the skateboard is a design necessity for a successful EV, it sure would be nice if its vertical dimension came at the expense of aero and styling proportions rather than cabin height. Give it a "big bulge" greenhouse like the Ford Five Hundred and tolerate the additional frontal area.