In the spirit of the start of the 2024 IMSA season, we raced the clock in our long-term electric pickup, attempting over 1000 miles in 24 hours or less.
I’m rooting for EVs and generally view Rivian positively, but all I’m seeing is the underlying issue of Americans thinking pickups are for road trips. And commuting. True SUVs are barely better with their boxy profile and unnecessary ground clearance on normal roads. Crossovers round things off but, especially for gas cars, use unnecessary ground clearance for nothing more than to be classed as an offroad capable vehicle with lower emissions requirements (besides just being a CAFE light truck class). Minivans always had better cargo space than crossovers and most SUVs with lower floors and bigger doors. But that’s not cool. It just feels like we’re stuck rating the form and function of a new left shoe on a right foot while shooting a hole in it because it’s not performing as well as it should while ignoring right shoes exist
I feel like cars will slowly start moving towards aerodynamic efficiency. Large gains could be had by committing to more efficient designs similar to the first gen Honda insight or Prius. Sure, large vehicles will still be desired and I’m sure we will get rock crawling EV’s in due time but people may reconsider if they knew that an EV jeep wrangler would have a good chunk less range than a passenger car with the same battery. Manufacturers can cover this a bit nowadays with larger fuel tanks but I think that won’t be as true in the future if we continue to measure range and efficiency as closely as we do with current EV’s. Maybe we will see a shift from aesthetic design ruling the drawing board to aerodynamicists. One can only hope.