And that’s what automakers are pitching in many of the latest electric vehicles.
With the first electric vehicles, the key metric was range — how far it could travel on a single battery charge. Automakers now increasingly talk about the acceleration of EVs. GMC advertises the Watts to Freedom rocket launch of the Hummer. The focus on acceleration sometimes reaches absurdity. Tesla says its unladen Class 8 truck will reach 60 mph in 5 seconds, an interesting data point but not particularly useful for hauling freight.
“I went in the Lucid Air Dream Edition with a 1,000 hp. It was like a launch out of a roller coaster,” said Roger Griffiths, Andretti Autosport’s chief technology officer.
“To be honest, at those kinds of speeds, you are basically a passenger. I don’t know how much control you have,” Griffiths said. “The only thing faster are these top fuel dragsters.”
To be sure, speed demons can get their thrills for much less than the $169,000 Lucid Air Dream.
The $30,500 Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle does 60 mph in about 3 seconds. There are also other lightning-fast EVs available for a fraction of the Lucid price.
“Tesla is claiming you can get a 3.1-second 0 to 60 in a $56,000 Tesla 3,” Shaver said.
While electric vehicles have held a consistent advantage in acceleration over gasoline-powered vehicles, they have lagged on top speed, according to Delta-Q Technologies, a charging technology company in Vancouver, British Columbia. But as EVs have evolved, that’s no longer the case, the company said. The Tesla Model S Plaid can top 200 mph.
“These types of speeds are well above what the average driver would ever dream of going, but it is an indication that the top speeds of an average electric car are rising. Reaching these milestones eliminates a factor that initially prevented consumers from making the switch to electric,” said Conway Hui, Delta-Q’s director of customer support and application engineering.
Automakers are pitching electric vehicle speed “to make EVs seem sexy and cool and not just environmentally friendly,” said David Zuby, chief research officer for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
