The question of acceleration is something of a hot topic at the moment. EVs, you definitely won’t have failed to notice, are exceptionally good at getting away promptly from a standing start. Very promptly, in some cases. Quite how interesting or appealing this is, is open to interpretation. Some Tesla Model S owners have spent years decimating combustion-powered sports cars away from the lights, to their apparent satisfaction. But the here-we-go, theme park-style sprint for the horizon isn’t nearly so interesting when it occurs silently and without conspicuous effort. To the point where it’s arguably more novelty than must-have.
A case in point is the 0-62mph EV world record set by students from the University of Stuttgart last week. Obviously we take nothing away from the technical achievement, or GreenTeam’s ingenuity - indeed, it’s hard to not like an EV which can clearly be picked up and moved around with nothing more than the core strength of four blokes - and yet its 1.461 second time to 62mph is dispatched so abruptly and ruthlessly that the video makers have to work hard to dress it up a bit for the sake of drama.
Kudos to them, of course, for the Fast and Furious-style plunge into the working innards of the diminutive E0711-11 EVO, but it just isn’t the same without the red-hot fury of pistons turning liquid dinosaur into explosion-based forward motion. Benign microprocessors and a bit of wiring just can’t compete - even if the 173kg single-seater is clearly capable of annihilating any car you’ve ever sat in (although Max Chilton might have something to say about that). For the record, the CFPR machine gets a motor on every wheel hub for a total output of 241hp, with the power coming from a dinky 7.67kWh air-cooled battery pack. In other words, it’s custom-made for the record it just set. Bravo students. But for once we’re happy to stay in the slow lane.
