Imagining The Electric Miata – CleanTechnica

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Final Up to date on: twenty ninth April 2025, 04:06 pm

The Porsche 911 might the sports activities automobile that has been in steady manufacturing the longest, however the Mazda Miata is the most effective promoting roadster of all time. It was initially designed to be a excessive quantity, low value different to the Lotus Elan. Launched in 1989 on the Chicago Auto Present, it was the embodiment of Colin Chapman’s design philosophy, which was, “Horsepower makes you faster on the straights, but lightness makes you faster everywhere.”

In reality, lightness was a key consideration in designing the Miata. In line with Wikipediathe tenet of the unique design workforce was Jinba ittai (One man and horse), that means “oneness of horse and rider.” If you’re a fan of roadsters, that philosophy completely captures the spirit of these automobiles — mild, agile, and thrilling to drive.

Mazda has by no means been a lot a frontrunner within the EV Revolution, though it’s attempting to catch up as finest it will possibly. Final week on the Shanghai Auto Present, it launched the EZ-60 battery-electric SUV manufactured in partnership with Changan. In line with Motor 1in October of 2024, it filed an utility with the US Patent Workplace entitled merely Electrical Car. In it, Mazda talks about how its design might work in a sedan or different automobile varieties, however the description and drawings particularly concentrate on a small sports activities automobile — just like the Miata.

Formally, the following technology Miata — identified outdoors the US because the MX-5 — will probably be powered by a gasoline engine, simply as each Miata ever produced has been. A couple of years in the past, the corporate did broach the thought of a plug-in hybrid powertrain for the automobile, however nothing ever got here of it. The patent utility is extra of a conceptual train. What if the corporate determined to make the Miata electrical? How wouldn’t it do this?

Because the EV revolution has unfolded to date, the automobiles all have had “skateboard” designs that mount the batteries underneath the ground of the automobile as near the highway as attainable. There are good causes to do this. Batteries are heavy. The upper above the highway that weight is positioned, the extra the automobile tends to roll in corners. An excessive amount of weight, too excessive up makes for an unstable automobile.

Some readers might keep in mind when the Tesla Mannequin S first appeared and different automakers had been attempting to determine the right way to construct electrical automobiles of their very own, a senior engineer at Audi informed the press his firm would simply stuff battery cells into typical automobiles wherever there was room — underneath the hood, within the trunk, underneath the rear seat, contained in the doorways and glove field — and join all of them with wires. As my outdated Irish grandfather appreciated to say, “Son, that’s an idea. It’s no damn good, but it is an idea.” Since then, the “skateboard” has turn into the default design alternative for just about each electrical automobile from each producer.

The Mazda Miata & Inertia

Motor 1 says the Mazda patent concept is to not use an enormous battery in a skateboard design. As a substitute, it might use a number of layers of cells put in in the midst of the automobile the place the transmission and driveshaft tunnel would usually be. In line with the patent, “since the battery is installed in the tunnel portion, the gravity center of the vehicle can be close to the center of the vehicle, thereby reducing the yaw moment of inertia more.”

This retains the mass centrally positioned, however it doesn’t cease there. A single electrical motor would even be mounted within the tunnel, connecting by way of a brief drive shaft to a rear differential. Per the patent, the principal of placing the motor in the midst of the automobile is similar as it’s for the position of the battery. “Herein, since the motor overlaps at least part of the back portion of the seat in the side view, the motor comes to be closer to the central portion, in the longitudinal direction, of the vehicle. Thereby, the yaw moment of inertia can be reduced further.”

Not all of us are engineers, however as soon as once more, Wikipedia is there to assist us perceive the arcane ideas of physics. It says, “The moment of inertia, otherwise known as the mass moment of inertia, angular/rotational mass, second moment of mass, or most accurately, rotational inertia of a rigid body is defined relative to a rotational axis. It is the ratio between the torque applied and the resulting angular acceleration about that axis.  It plays the same role in rotational motion as mass does in linear motion. A body’s moment of inertia about a particular axis depends both on the mass and its distribution relative to the axis.”

Clear as mud? Consider it this fashion. Think about swinging a baseball bat forwards and backwards whereas standing on the plate and ready for the pitch. Straightforward, proper? Now think about that very same bat with with a 5-pound weight on the tip. Now whenever you swing the bat, it desires to maintain on swinging. Bringing it again the opposite means is out of the blue much more troublesome. The identical precept applies to vehicle design.

The extra the mass of a automobile is concentrated close to the middle, the extra agile the automobile is. Drivers typically use the phrase “flickable” to explain a properly balanced automobile that likes to carve its means via a sequence of linked S turns at most pace. A 1952 Buick Roadmaster with its straight 8 engine mounted far ahead within the chassis might have had a number of “road hugging weight,” but when the highway out of the blue acquired curvy, it heaved and bucked like a frigate in a gale — hardily confidence inspiring it you had been sawing on the steering wheel, attempting to get the beast to show. That’s why for generations, automotive designers have targeted on so-called mid-engine automobiles like Fiat X 1/9, the Toyota MR2, and the most recent Corvette.

The Mazda design within the patent utility additionally permits area for extra battery packs strategically positioned additional out from the middle. It additionally reveals smaller battery packs mounted behind every seat and a battery mounted forward of the passenger seat to partially offset the burden of the driving force. That’s a sign of how severely Mazda is taking the entire steadiness factor. Porsche has been having the satan’s personal time attempting to transform its 718 Cayman and Boxster fashions to battery energy. It’s pretty simple to do if you end up speaking a few full measurement SUV or pickup truck, however daunting when speaking about small, lithe sports activities automobiles.

It appears clear that weight is the enemy. The batteries out there in the present day merely weigh an excessive amount of to suit the sports activities automobile motif. However smaller, lighter batteries are underneath growth, which implies the thought of an electrical Miata might turn into a actuality someplace down the highway. A two-seater roadster with the pressing acceleration of an electrical motor seems like simply the factor to maintain the Miata mystique going for a brand new technology of drivers.