Cars on a diet
A compact mid-sized car already weighs about 1,200 kilos and electric cars are quickly approaching two tons. Madness, says the technical top man of Stellantis. His aim is to turn the tide and prevent us all driving around in half tanks.
Stellantis’ technical chief Ned Curic believes that cars have become much too heavy. An opinion that many undoubtedly share with him. It is also certainly true: the Peugeot 306, for example, still weighed about a ton, the current 308 hatchback weighs at least about 1,200 kilograms and the e-308 even indicates 1,650 kilograms. Not to mention Stellantis’s heaviest of Aries. The electric Ram 1500 REV is very likely to exceed three tons, while the Dodge Ram 1500 weighed roughly two tons at the beginning of this century. Of course, stricter safety requirements have not done the weight of cars any good, but with the arrival of electric powertrains it has increased completely.
Curic believes that weight is currently the biggest challenge when developing new models. “I find it frustrating how heavy cars have become. Few people talk about it, but cars weighed a ton and now three tons.” he says in conversation with Autonews. According to him, this has several negative consequences: “It’s not good for the environment, not good for resource use, not good for efficiency. So I have a challenge for my team: let’s see how we can make the different parts lighter. we focus so much on sustainability, the weight has to come down.” How Curic envisions it exactly and what possible solutions are available, he leaves open. With electric cars, the consensus is that the weight can be reduced (significantly) if batteries eventually acquire a higher energy density and/or if they are charged faster. Making combustion engine cars lighter than they are today may be more of a challenge.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl