Why do environmentally friendly (electric, hybrid) cars so often sport covered rear wheel wells? Does this aid in efficiency or is this simply a stylistic feature? Examples: Honda Insight, GM EV1
It streamlines the vehicle, somewhat. Plus they are trying to get a distictive style.
Both reasons come into play.
I’m going to assume that w/ a high efficiency hybrid, good aerodynamics can only help for getting the most miles out of a gallon of gas. Otherwise, its a pretty ugly looking excuse for style.
That’s right, it’s aerodynamics. Electric cars can’t carry as much energy as gasoline cars, so they need to optimize the weight and aerodynamics to get the most range. As for Honda Insight, I’ve heard that the Honda team was under a huge pressure to get better gas mileage than the Toyota Prius. The Prius has a more sophisticated drive system, so the only way Honda could beat Toyota was to make the vehicle smaller, lighter and more aerodynamic. (The Insight is basically a gasoline car with an electric motor that kicks in occasionally; the Prius can run on electric motor alone, gas engine alone, or both, depending on the situation.)
Don’t forget that the top of the wheel is moving forward at twice the speed of the car. There is a lot of drag there. Streamlined steam locomotives and record attempt HPVs (human powered vehicles) have covered wheels. Though come to think of it, I don’t know why F1 racing cars don’t…
Don’t forget that these are dinky little cars with tiny wheels. They look like a cute little roller-skate unless you jazz up the body styling.
F1 cars, GrandPrix, and NASCAR all have different rules and regulations concerning style, mechanics, engine, safety, etc.
The F1 cars are like that on purpose, there is a certain amount in square centimeters of the tire that can be covers. Basically, because some smart American or UK person came up with covering the wheels and blew away some French driver and the French would not have that. Back in the day.
Older American cars had covered rear wheel weels. Maybe not as bad as the Insight, but, they did have them. Cadillac and Impala comes to mind.
::fondly remembering Mercury skirts::
Those were the days!
The automakers use wheel well covers for aerodynamic benefits.
Next natural question: Then why not on more cars?
Because the general population finds them repulsive, for the most part, from a styling standpoint.
Next natural questions: Then why are they okay on Hybrids/Electrics?
Because the enviro-friendly purchasers of these cars don’t place a high emphasis on such things. They generally appreciate the form functionality of the vehicle.
Those areodynamic covers, although fuel-saving and spiffy-looking (to some, I don’t care for them), do have drawbacks. While having the oil changed in my (unareodynamic and fuel ineffiecient) truck, I perused a long-term test vehicle report in a car magazine (of a recent vintage, although the title and issue escape me…) that reported, among other rather minor problems (including tires with poor snow performance), those covers tended to get in the way as snow builds up and sloughs off of tires. (I wouldn’t know anything about this, although there are a bevy of Insights motoring about eco-friendly Austin, snow is not an issue here…). Just thought I’d inject my half-nickel or so…
If aerodynamics is the chief concern, then would covering up the front wheel wells improve it even more?
Personally, I find the design hideous.
There are other design considerations for the front wheel wells.
Like steering.
That’d interfere with steering if you leave the wheels where they are. I suspect that putting the wheels farther inboard would cause stability problems.