Business

What Is a Frunk, and Which EVs Have the Best One?

September 10, 2024

https://www.howtogeek.com/electric-vehicles-with-the-best-frunk

“You’ve probably heard the term “frunk” a bit over the last few years, and you might wonder what it means. Or, maybe you haven’t, but you have noticed someone throwing groceries under the hood of their Tesla where, normally, a car engine would be. What’s the deal?

The first time you see somebody loading cargo, however big or small, into what should be the engine compartment of their vehicle, it’s a little bit disconcerting. But by ditching the enormous internal combustion engine (ICE) for electric motors and battery packs, Electric Vehicles (EVs) no need to take up that space with the engine and can repurpose it.

As a result, many EVs have both a traditional trunk (or truck bed) and a “frunk”—a front trunk that uses the now empty engine compartment space. Manufacturers like Ford, Tesla, and others are taking advantage of it to give buyers more storage space, along with several notable features you’ll absolutely love. So, here are some electric vehicles with the best frunks” (Gunther, 2023).

One of the most important aspects of understanding a design problem is establishing an understanding of what already exists on the market. From there, a designer is able to identify the strong and weak points of a proposed solution and develop their concepts accordingly. I don’t have much knowledge of the electric vehicle market, so I utilized this article to better understand what the frunk space looks like in similar vehicles on the market and what made them good or bad designs in the eyes of the consumer.

This article was helpful precisely because it identified what was beneficial in the frunk spaces of some vehicles and what could be improved on in others. Gunther identified the electric Ford F-150 as having the best frunk space out of the vehicles included in the article. The F-150 “take[s] things to the next level,” by offering 14 cubic feet of space, wall plugs as well as USB ports, a drain hole, and LED lighting just to name a few key features (Gunther, 2023).

Conversely, this article calls out some vehicles for their complete lack of a frunk space or for inadequate use of the space. The Kia EV6, which is a standard-size crossover, only offers enough frunk space to fit its own portable charging cord. While frunk space is a newer vehicle component, as electric vehicles become more ubiquitous consumers will come to appreciate increased design in this space.