Dacia spring EV, hints of Jimny?

Interested to see the Dacia Spring becoming available in the UK. Although it has nothing to do with the Jimny, it gives an indication of what's possible with a cheap EV in a Jimny-sized package. Similar exterior dimensions and weight and similar 4 seat interior.

Not sure a ladder frame chassis will ever translate to a full EV, but as battery tech evolves, who knows?

www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/daci...heapest-electric-car

137 miles (call it 95 in winter) means it will be a second or third car.

Yes, absolutely a second car for most.

Not even here where chargers are everywhere that range would do.
Most new EVs now have 500km or 300 miles.

Anyways the practicality of an EV will become better when new battery tech will cut the battery weight and charging time in half.

Had a coffee with a retired fire person recently and learned of challenges that the 'fire brigade/service' face with electric vehicles of all sizes. From a minor bump to a full-on battery fire, there's a whole range of issues to be considered when someone phones for assistance. It also helps the emergency services if they know what type of vehicle requires their assistance - namely is it petrol, diesel or electric for starters - not very helpful if Joe Public knows nothing more that it's silver car that's had an accident. If an electric vehicle is on fire, apparently it requires quite different types and volumes of resources to be allocated.

For a city car, short commute, sure. They'll just be a glorified golf cart. For an offroader, I'm not convinced, especially for touring. I'm of the mindset to keep away from EV's as long as possible for many reasons I won't start to go into. 
Having said that, I have entertained the thought of building portal axles with an electric "pancake" motor on each wheel, - no need for diff lock as each wheel has it's own power source. Wouldn't be a cheap exercise or even very practical but dreams are free! 

Every other car here is an EV. many Teslas. Fires are very rare, and more petrol cars catch fire than EV i think from what I have seen.
(most likely cause they are older)

Tesla batteries contains thousands more cells than other brands of EV so the risk of one cell to catch fire is much bigger when the car has 7000 cells or when the car has 200 cells.

Fire services in the cities here (all four of them) has a large container to fill with water and to submerge the burning EV into if accidents happen.
Most other places fire services just evacuate and let it burn out.

An electric Jimny could work really well.  Motor on each axle, chuck away the gearbox, transfer box (you don't really need low range with an electric motor) and propshaft.  The weight saved would be useful for more batteries.