Harmful environmental effects of gases emitted from internal combustion engines used in motor vehicles around the world increase every day as the human population increases. As a result, there has been a significant interest in developing hybrid and battery electric vehicles for their reduced environmental impact. In the present article, starting from the vehicle system requirements and the subsystem requirements, the design of the individual components was carried out. The subsystems considered in this article were the chassis, the suspension system, the steering system, the brake system, and the electric drive control system. The analysis and modeling of each of those subsystems were employed to optimize the design parameters to achieve the overall design goals: safety, comfort, and performance. The models considered chassis stress analysis for ergonomics and packaging, quarter- and half-car models for ride comfort, handling diagram for stability, brake proportioning for safety, and, finally, longitudinal slip and speed control for energy consumption optimization during driving forward. The analysis presented explored in a nutshell the essential, yet comprehensive, design procedures of a light electric vehicle.