Ok, so maybe there is dangerous sparky stuff that can be reached in there - but it just shows poor design that they weren’t able to incorporate a frunk and/or isolate/insulate those components to not make opening the hood deathly dangerous.
> and/or isolate/insulate those components to not make opening the hood deathly dangerous.
But... why?
From the article, there is literally nothing under there that is "user servicable"--everything requires the HV system be placed in servicing mode first: HVDC inverters/converters and the motors. All user-serviceable components (e.g., fluid fill) are located elsewhere.
Basically every vehicle design process is about value engineering. Who wants to pay extra for a car with extra safety features in a compartment that they will never open, have no reason to open, and can't do anything with once they open it?
Not to mention, even if the car was designed with a frunk, the high-voltage components would still have to be serviceable somewhere - so there would still be a panel/door somewhere on the vehicle with a "Don't Touch" sign on it.
Whether that's the hood of the car or somewhere else seems immaterial?
I mean it would be pretty funny if they let you open the hood and had another layer of flat steel directly under it covering all the non-user-serviceable bits. Just to increase the weight and cost slightly and allow people to uncritically think “at least I can open the hood.”
The EQS has a much larger and higher-performance HEPA air filter than most other cars available on the market, which is a standout feature in important target markets for the car (much more so than a frunk is standout, or lacking one for that matter). It's located under the front cover. It's also a hatch with a very sizable trunk (larger than the equivalent S-class). I'd say we're talking design trade-offs. :-)
Every other manufacturer in the world has hot pipes & spinning fans & hand-grabbing belts under the hood with little done to prevent personal injury and it has worked fine for decades.
The EV market just wants everything to 'trend Tesla', so they expect a 'frunk' and for everything to be totally unlike any other ICE car on the road.
That's not right, the frunk is a very natural feature given the design constraints.
You need at least some space in front of the console, because the wheel wells need to be forward of the cockpit so the front seat occupants have a place to put their feet. Traditionally you put the engine there, because it was an obvious empty spot. Cars that didn't generally made significant tradeoffs (like two seats) to accomodate a different engine placement.
But if you've got no engine, what can go there? Not the battery, that works much (much) better as a flat planar thing at the very bottom of the frame. You can put the motor there, sure, but an electric motor is tiny. Add in the random electronics and wiper fluid and whatnot and you still have a ton of space.
So you make it cargo. It works great. EVs that don't have a frunk (the ID.4, ahem) end up feeling like they're missing a feature.
And it’s not just that the wheel well needs to be in front of the passengers, but also the front crumple zone is very important to passenger safety in many of the most common crash scenarios.
It doesn't really look like there's any exposed HV. I'm curious why they bothered to cover up the hood latch at all. I think there's a certain tradition wherein blokes will stand around a car with the hood open and poke at it, perhaps they're trying to discourage that.
The customer of a mercedes EQS is not losing a lot of sleep over missing a front trunk. their current s-class doesn't have one either and they somehow carry on.
Right, but "carrying on" is pretty much apt, to anyone who's driven a car with a frunk. I mean, no, it's not like it's going to solve world hunger or create billions in value for a new startup ecosystem. But a frunk really is a pretty great idea.
The frunk in my Tesla Model 3 was too shallow to use to store anything (because the front motor was underneath) and the metal on the hood was so thin it felt like I was going to bend it every time I shut it. Pointless.
Some cars with frunks also have issues with them being an additional vector for road noise to impact the cabin, which is already an issue in EVs due to nothing being masked by ICE noise. That's certainly a solvable engineering problem (and Tesla has made changes in successive generations to try and improve the situation, for example), but the insulation/padding required further impacts the usable space. In any case, the EQS likely has the quietest interior of any EV to date.
Yes the metal is thin which is why Tesla advises not slamming it but rather letting it down gently and then pushing it closed with the palm of your hand.
My Model Y frunk is where I keep a variety of charging cables, adapters, extension cords, tools etc so I can charge from just about any source of electricity on long road trips. Plus a tire inflator, windshield squeegee, and a portable 12v Li-Ion jumper box (so I can help other cars and it's also very handy when camping).
All that fits in my frunk with a bit of room to spare.
The fact that the shape is irregular, and the hood metal is so thin, also increases the chance you will accidentally bend the hood by trying to close it on an object that doesn't fit.
Literally all of them have gone in my Y, which isn't more than an inch or two deeper. Honestly you're overstating this. If you didn't like it you didn't like it, but don't tell me you can't get useful stuff in there.
My practical experience owning a Model 3 for three years was the frunk was too shallow and irregularly-shaped for me to ever bother trying to put anything in there. Thus, the frunk was, in practice, useless. That is what I'm telling you.
Yes, if you decide that you absolutely must put something in the frunk, you certainly can. It obviously has a non-zero volume. But in all circumstances I found it more convenient to put things in the rear trunk, the rear footwells, or the (super useful) storage area under the rear trunk floor.
I thought the Model 3 was a fantastic car by the way. I loved it. I just thought the frunk was a useless novelty.
(The frunk in my Porsche Boxster, on the other hand, is deep and rectangular and very useful, in part because the engine is in the rear).
If there is no reason to open the hood, why would they waste time and money to design a system that makes it (more) accessible? Calling it a "poor design" makes it sound like it's inadequate, which I disagree with. I wouldn't call a car door "poorly designed" just because I can't take it apart without tools.
People like opening the hood and looking at the bits under it. It's kind of weird that a premium car would go out of their way to prevent people from looking at it.
