Electric cars.

They can measure the horsepower of electric motors, but because the way that power is delivered is completely different to an internal combustion engine it is sort of meaningless. BHP is a bit of an odd one - take for example a 2-litre petrol engine with around 140bhp versus a 2-litre diesel with around 140bhp; which is quicker? Assuming that you don't have massive turbo lag, the diesel will win hands down thanks to higher torque.

Electric motors are essentially that - torque and linearly delivered as well as they just keep pulling and pulling right to their limit. Modern electric and electric hybrids are a blend of performance and power consumption to try and keep us as happy as possible.

 

Doesn't work very well with the members of my Grumpy Old Men's Club

 

I've been a passenger in a Tesla and it goes like a bat out of hell! From memory it had similar acceleration to a DB9 I was given a ride in - and much smoother.

 

The power of the motors should be contained in the spec for the vehicles - somewhere. The two useful metrics that we should really be looking at are 0-60 time and range. The 0-60 time will give an indication how rapid (Tesla) or not (Leaf) the car is, with range then being the dominant metric. The cold truth of the matter is that the vast majority of cars will do 0-60 in less than 10 seconds nowadays, but how often do we do that with them?

Range and charging flexibility is still a huge issue for me, with seemingly only the more expensive ones being 'good' in that area and whilst rapid charging can be used on a longer journey, there are some cars that you cannot use that more than twice in succession (Leaf) and then must do an overnight trickle charge. Ironically, it is the likes of the Leaf that is currently the affordable choice for most of us as the rest are pretty well out of reach - having said that though, it now appears that Hyundai/Kia are getting really strong and I fully expect Volvo to be following on quite soon thanks to their parent company Geely also owning the likes of LEVC and so on. The likes of Ford need to get their act together as they are about to be left behind.

 

Depends very much on the car - I think (think) the most common set up is to have motors for each wheel (not necessarily physically behind the wheel) as they are used as part of the braking system also for regenerative braking.

Cost wise, they are creeping down - the current Hyundai Ioniq are coming in at £35k-ish which is a shed load of money by anyone's standards, but when you consider the price of a new Focus or Astra.... They are really pushing the boundaries with their new version - Hyundai IONIQ 5 | The Electric Car Revolution Is Here

The range on that looks to be pretty much all that anyone would ever need (on charge should get you from one end of the country to the other) with blisteringly quick acceleration if you want it; some of the figures, such as the 18-min rapid charge time (to 80%) scare me as that has to be charging at something like 20kW; think of a motorway services where you may well want 20 or 30 cars charging at the same time - - that is a frightening amount of power, particularly so if something goes wrong (that sort of power makes one hell of a 'boom')

I also think that the days of us actually owning cars are all but gone and they will simply be leased. To be fair, that is the case even now - when we got our current car, I started off looking at Ford/Vauxhall/Nissan/Hyundai etc but as I wasn't walking into a dealership with cash on the hip and needing a car that had to be of the right size and shape for me to get in and out of bearing in mind my mobility (Vauxhall were out almost immediately on that score!), I was staring down the barrel of hundreds of pounds a month; for less each month I could get the car I currently have on a PCP deal - sure, it has a balloon payment at the end if I want to keep it, but do you really see diesel cars being viable and not taxed to hell and back by 2024? Fairly likely it will simply be flipped and into a hybrid or electric that is leased.

 

The 0-60 is the best indicator, they are all pretty quick compared to a dinosaur powered car - even the new Leaf is good (the original Leaf was not a joy though). Go for a test drive and check them out as that's the only way. Don't test drive a Tesla though you will want one!

 

The downside that nobody seems to be seeing (or admitting) at the moment is the cost of powering electric cars. As tax revenues from petrol/diesel sales fall, the government will need to get that money somewhere else. When folks have an electric bill of £700 a month landing on the mat, they might not seem as cheap to charge.

 

An investigation into the current cost of charging cars (not at home) is not far off the cost of petrol and diesel. It depends on the rate at which you want your car charged. I have the Which? report on it but don't know whether this link gives all the info in the report.

How much does it cost to charge an electric car?