In order for one to understand what an electric hatchback is, one must first understand what a hatchback is.

A hatchback is a specific design of car, which contains the regular passenger space plus an integrated cargo space, which is accessed from behind the vehicle by a top-hinged tailgate or a large flip up window. These hatchbacks commonly have two rows of seats, and the rear seat is able to fold down to increase cargo space.

Though hatchbacks have enjoyed some periods of popularity, particularly during the oil crises of the 1970s, when smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles were desired, the majority of customers in the US have been preferring vehicles with trunks to hatches. The conventional wisdom, that most carmakers have believed, is that consumers have found the styling of cars with trunks to be more elegant and dignified than the styling of hatchbacks and station wagons. Perhaps this is why station wagons lost a great deal of their popularity during the 1970s and 1980s. But although the high fuel costs at the time had made hatchbacks more popular, they also created a lasting stigma. Why? Because many Americans only bought hatchbacks because they were cheap, fuel-efficient, and did the job — in short, because they had to. Furthermore, the poor quality and basic nature of many hatchbacks gave them a (not entirely undeserved) reputation for cheapness. Driving a hatchback was seen as a proclamation that the owner was too poor to buy a regular car.

Even though hatchbacks are not the most popular of cars, they remain an excellent, inexpensive, and fuel-efficient choice for consumers. And the recent electric-vehicle craze means that the potential benefits of electrification open up a wide new world of possibilities. It will be interesting to see if electric hatchbacks (and hatchbacks in general) can survive this next hurdle, or, if, like the woody wagons and Edsels of the automotive world, it will fall into oblivion.

The first hatchback was actually quite decent and even in 1979 was able to showcase a range of 100 miles on a single charge.  Twenty years later, Honda had managed to nearly double that amount, allowing their electric vehicles to be sold in large numbers away from the United States.  When the American car companies saw the interest that such a vehicle garnered, they decided to try dipping into the electric hatchback area themselves.  This was not before Toyota released the Prius, perhaps the most famous electric hatchback of all time.  The Prius is actually a hybrid vehicle rather than fully electric, but it shows great promise.  And Toyota does have plans to fully electrify the Prius in a roadworthy fashion.

The world of electric hatchbacks was actually pushed forward a great deal in 2007 through the actions of Miles Rubin, one of the group of billionaire entrepreneurs that have gotten involved in electric vehicles.  The ZX40 was his design and fully electric, but people that needed to travel up hills could not really do it with that particular car.  That is why analysts in the industry as still looking for that great hatchback that will carry things forward.

The area of industry where electric hatchbacks have made the most inroads would have to be the smaller demand areas.  For example, billionaire entrepreneur Miles Rubin has created an electric four-door hatchback known as the ZX40.  This exceptional hatchback costs around $15,000 a pop, but has nothing to do when it comes to being able to replace conventional minivans because it lacks a lot of power.  That having been said, it is suitable for areas that have a lot of flat ground and no hills.  There are many areas like that in the United States and to date hundreds of the vans have been purchased by organizations like NASA, the Armed Forces and universities around the country.

The hope of Rubin and many that have looked at his design is that this type of electric hatchback will be able to stimulate more designs in the coming years.  This car was introduced in 2007 and as of yet there has been precious little done to supersede it.  The fact that the armed forces were willing to purchase it however is very interesting news indeed.