How eight engineers designed the next EV

Design priorities
Lastly, there was a prioritization vote. What happened? Range anxiety was the No. 1 factor limiting acceptance, followed closely by "Real Cost/Value," "Accessible charging," "Design Attraction," "Reliability." "Unfamiliarity" and "Capacity/Size" were far down the list.

Next step was question #2:

“When thinking of Electric Vehicles (EVs), what specific design suggestions would you as an engineer, prospective driver, or both suggest to the GM team?”

Here we got far more individual answers, more than 75 stuck up on the board.

They included:

• Low center of gravity
• Sun roof
• Wheel motors
• Coffee maker
• Voice controlled operations
• More legroom in back
• Fully electric
• Same range as my gas car
• Speed control by traffic sensing
• More safety sensors.

These suggestions were grouped into categories, such as ergonomics, cost, automation, energy storage, feel/performance and package options. Perhaps not surprising, energy storage was by far (3:1) the most important design consideration, according to our engineering group. Cost was a distant second, followed closely by automation.

What impressed me the most was the fact that the top two priorities in answer to question #2 were in exact alignment with the top two identified problems limiting EV acceptance.

Now, the next step is see how these track with what Andy Farah, the chief Volt engineer, and his team at GM are thinking about for their vehicle's future.

Related stories:
--Drive for Innovation
--Chevy boosts 2013 Volt electric range more than 8%
--Chevy Volt Teardown archives