Tell Me You’re an Electric Car…
Brainstorming and Design
We started by sketching our own versions at home and brought them to the next class to compare and discuss.
Charlie and Dylan then spent time getting acquainted with how the project would go, assembly-wise, by creating a small paper model.
Image 1: Charlie’s view on the car was inspired by a sports car
Image 2: My view centered around an SUV with a unique “grill” illusion (that didn’t translate well on paper…)
Image 3: Dylan’s view was also inspired by sports vehicles, but with a hint of Hot August Nights… if you know, you know.
Refining the Design
Everyone agreed to move forward with Charlie’s design, but I still wanted something “weird” or unique about it.
We didn’t want a marginal update of everything that already exists.
After the discussion, we all agreed to add a golf-ball texture—a feature that is aesthetically unique but also serves an aerodynamic purpose: it theoretically reduces drag and improves fuel efficiency by creating a turbulent boundary layer.
Since the grill on an electric vehicle serves no mechanical purpose, we decided to make our “grill” out of the headlight assembly. After further discussion, we decided to have it replicate a sound wave.
In hindsight, we agreed that we should have considered the Spotify soundwaves you can scan to find a song; incorporating them would have been really cool.
Cutting, Laser Cutting, and More Laser Cutting
Our design was built around the bumper and headlights. Due to the complexity, we opted to laser-cut almost every piece of the assembly. I purposely included all the pieces around the headlights and housing in my CAD file to connect other pieces as cleanly as possible.
The golf-ball texture pieces took about 45 minutes to cut. The rest was very quick.
Ilsa cut the hood of the car by hand.
Assembly
Assembling the car took 2-3 group meetings to wrap up. We found a random sheet of plastic in the prototyping cabinet and utilized it for all of the windows and lights.
A lot of hot glue burns and patience went into this car.
Some of the assembly was seamless, like the wheels and fog lights. Other parts were more complex, such as filling seams and gaps during light-penetration testing.
We think it came out pretty cool in the end!
