The Thule Arcos could make your EV more efficient
Thule designed the Arcos cargo box to transform even a small car into what it calls an adventure vehicle. The premium hard-shell exterior promises to makes it robust and stable as well as protecting your kit from dirt and water, allowing easy access to the back of the car.
The low positioning of the Arcos cargo box means that the rearview mirror isn't obscured and because it's towbar-mounted, it should make it pretty easy load and unload gear from the boot of the car.
According to Thule it has extensively tested the impact of rear-of-car mounted cargo solutions on both electric cars and ICEs and found that having a cargo solution on the back of the car has limited impact on efficiency and can even decrease consumption. Thule drove 5400km in varying weather conditions with a fleet of Volkswagen ID.4, and the average consumption (kWh/100km) was 4% less than without a cargo box.
Director of Design at Thule, Henrik Eriksson, commented that "even the most streamlined roof box causes a certain level of wind drag because of its position on the roof. But the back of the car is a place almost without wind resistance, so a rear cargo carriers can even have a negative wind drag! This means that you can actually get further with the same amount of gas or electricity as a vehicle with a roof cargo box".
Prices start at £800 (with the dedicated mount sold separately) and the Thule Arcos is available for purchase online and at Thule retailers.
