The recent surge in growth in growth of the electric car industry has resulted in significant advancements in the technology of electric vehicles. Prior to this, electric cars had difficulty in the automobile market because they couldn’t match the performance of internal combustion engines.
The fundamental challenge faced by electric car manufacturers stemmed from the inherent limitations of battery technology, in essence, the trade-off between energy and power. The total energy that can be stored in a battery ultimately gives an electric vehicle its range, while the power rating describes how quickly a battery can discharge its energy, which gives the vehicle its acceleration performance.
Traditionally, most batteries were good at one or the other – they had a good energy rating but a low power rating, or vice versa. This meant that it was difficult to produce an electric vehicle that had an acceptable range for the average motorist while still delivering performance comparable to internal combustion engine vehicles.
However, with the aforementioned advances in electric vehicle technology, this is no longer such an issue. To know more about technological advances click here
Electric cars can now match the performance of gasoline-powered vehicles, for instance, the Eliica (pictured below). This eight-wheeled beast puts out a whopping 600kW, propelling it from 0-100km/hr in just four seconds! This kind of performance means it accelerates faster than a Porsche 911 Turbo.
Though it is not a production vehicle, the Elicia is a great demonstration of the performance that can be coaxed from an electric vehicle. There are, however, manufacturers that are producing high-performance electric cars for everyday consumers. Tesla Motors is leading the charge with their flagship Tesla Roadster – a stunning-looking electric car that boasts a quarter-mile time of 12.6 seconds.
Electric motors can provide exceptionally high power-to-weight ratios. This is further assisted by the fact that electric cars have very simple drive-trains with far fewer components and systems than gasoline-powered vehicles. Thus, the resulting power-to-weight ratio of an electric vehicle is extremely favorable from a performance point of view. The acceleration performance of electric cars is also enhanced by the constant torque that electric motors deliver, even at low speeds.
With today’s technology, electric cars can unquestionably meet and surpass the performance characteristics expected by motorists of all levels. The continuing growth of the industry is advancing the current technology which means electric car performance can only get better and better as these vehicles become cheaper and more accessible on a global scale.