DIY electric car promises bespoke bodywork as easy as iPhone app

A new electric vehicle that is to be sold without bodywork, seats or even a steering wheel promises motorists a choice of design and performance as diverse and easily available as an iPhone application.

Trexa says its ‘low-profile enclosed design’ lends itself to unlimited design possibilities – customers will be able to specify their exact requirements. The company hopes that when the modular vehicle platform goes on sale in 2011 it will do for car builders what the iPhone has done for application developers.

The basic platform is available in a bewildering array of configurations. Customers will be able to specify all-wheel drive, dual motors, differing chassis lengths and a choice of batteries. The best-performing battery is said to deliver 0-60mph in eight seconds, a top speed of 100mph and a range of up to 105 miles with a re-charge time of only four hours using a rapid charger.

Future cars

Buying a car 100 years ago involved more than a quick trip to the local dealer’s forecourt; the prospective motorist would take delivery of a rolling chassis, which included the chassis, engine, wheels and suspension, before approaching a coachbuilder to supply personalised bodywork. The Trexa may see the way we buy our cars come full circle.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “The electric cars on the market today are adapted internal combustion engine models – once designs like the Trexa allow them to be built from the from the ground up our notion of what a car is and how it is used will be turned on its head.”