Patent ID: 7000318

Claim:
A method of designing and manufacturing vehicles comprising: establishing a standard vehicle chassis design including a structural frame; a suspension system mounted to the structural frame; at least three wheels rotatably mounted to the suspension system; an energy conversion system mounted to the structural frame, operably connected to at least one wheel, controllable by wire; a by-wire braking system mounted to the frame and operably connected to at least one wheel; and a computer operatively connected to the energy conversion system and braking system, wherein said standard vehicle chassis design includes a common, standardized interface system having body connection components arranged to facilitate selective attachment of any of a plurality of different body types to the standard chassis; manufacturing a plurality of chassis in accordance with said standard vehicle chassis design, independently of vehicle bodies; and after said step of manufacturing a plurality of chassis, designing and manufacturing a plurality of different bodies having different body types and configured to conform to said standardized interface system for attachment to said manufactured chassis.