From regenerative braking to quiet battery-powered driving, electric cars upend many fundamentals of the traditional driving experience. But step into the cockpit of a modern EV and you’ll find that the hardware has been given another unexpected overhaul. It’s a modest interior light. Gone are the jaundiced light bulbs that flash when the car door opens. My parents used to warn me to turn off the power while the car was running. Instead? A true LED disco. The interior of almost every battery-powered car today includes lights on the dashboard, door frames, footwells, and ceiling.
For example, Cadillac Lyric drivers can change the cockpit lights to virtually any shade using the touchscreen color wheel. The BMW XM Hybrid, on the other hand, has recessed lights that frame the entire headliner, making the car feel like a swanky club or a museum, depending on the shade you choose. At night, the cockpit of the Mercedes EQS SUV is a symphony of lights guided by the accelerator. When you speed away from a traffic light, the traffic light will flash red.
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If you listen to car manufacturers, proper lighting goes a long way. “Fill your vehicle interior with light that reflects your mood or creates an emotion,” says Cadillac.He sets the tone for the Lyriq’s Ambient option. But in reality, the lights are a cheap trick, and that’s the point, said Maeva Rivas, director of The CARLAB Inc., a consultancy that helps auto giants develop new cars. As automakers transition to electric vehicles, they’re putting more resources — budget and brain power — directly into battery-powered models. In other words, those looking for the latest, greatest, and most frivolous in automotive innovation are going to find it in EVs.
“Generally speaking, all the new good stuff is going to go into these new EV products, because the money that goes into legacy ICE platforms,” said Mike Ramsey, an automotive analyst at Gartner Inc. Because there are generally certain limitations.”
Let’s ride the BMW iX. Twisting a finger in the air turns up the stereo, heats the doors, and presses a button to turn the car’s yawning sunroof from transparent to opaque. His R1T pickup and his R1S SUV from Rivian have built-in air compressors so he can refill the tires himself after off-roading.
In the Fisker Ocean, the center screen rotates from vertical to horizontal (the automaker calls this “Hollywood mode”). The Polestar 2, on the other hand, is equipped with an adaptive air filter that switches to a higher gear when it detects pollen or pollutants. The Genesis GV70 features active noise cancellation in the cabin and a fingerprint scanner that configures the car to suit the person behind the wheel. In the Nissan Ariya, the entire center console (gear selector, cupholders, etc.) moves rearward with the push of a button, giving you more space in front of the driver so you can cosplay as Captain Kirk.
According to BloombergNEF’s predictions, just because EV cockpits are becoming peacock like this doesn’t mean gasoline-powered cars will disappear. Annual global EV sales are expected to rise by a third in 2023, but only 19% this year, according to BloombergNEF forecasts. As automaker executives put the brakes on the transition to electric vehicles, many traditional gas-burning platforms are being expanded. But Ramsay expects research and development momentum to continue to focus specifically on electric models. “from now on, [for gas-burning cars] It’s going to be repetitive,” he says. “There is a desire to make EV vehicles look more technologically advanced.”
At CARLAB, Rivas says he and his team are constantly being asked by automakers to cram as much technological equipment into their EVs as possible. She says this is a smart way to cover up the poor economics of electric drivetrains, especially the high cost of batteries.
“Unfortunately, currently all [original equipment manufacturers] We take what we call a shotgun approach,” she says. “We’re just stuffing cars with a lot of features that don’t necessarily add value for the consumer.”
For example, the BMW iX’s battery has a capacity of 110 kWh, and the BMW costs about $15,000, according to BloombergNEF. This is the main reason why prices for this model start from his $87,100. That’s nearly a third more expensive than a similarly sized gasoline-burning BMW. That’s a price made all the more comfortable by a little magic in the cockpit.
For example, why not create an EV app that changes the way your music sounds depending on how you’re driving? That’s what Mercedes debuted at CES last week as part of a collaboration with musician will.i.am. Thing. “Every drive, you drive with a different version of every song,” the Black Eyed Peas founder told Car and Driver.
Ironically, the approach to interior innovation is more pronounced outside of luxury brands. For example, Ford customers pay $43,000 (the starting price of the company’s electric Mustang Mach-E) for a small SUV, while prices for a Mustang that runs on dead dinosaur goo start at $31,000. Not excited about it. That’s one reason why the Mach-E has a super-sized iPad in its center stack, while the combustion-engined Mustang has something comparable to his Kindle.
“Automakers generally recognize that affordable EVs are not possible,” said Eric Noble, founder of CARLAB. “So if he’s only going to sell 20,000 cars a year, he might as well sell his $70,000 cars to people who will be happy with them.”
