Electric Cars Are Just Better Than Regular Cars
Over at Green Car Reports, senior editor John Voelcker writes:
Electric cars’s secret advantage: they’re just nicer to drive.
But here are the reasons that electric cars have a secret advantage:
Tons of torque: Electric motors develop their peak torque (or “turning force”) from 0 rpm, meaning that the cars they propel tend to have great acceleration from a stop.
Sounds of silence: When electric-car makers suppress or silence the motor whine, electric cars are remarkably quiet–so much so, regulations will require them to emit noise at low speeds.
Smooth, calm, vibration-free travel: A reciprocating gasoline engine vibrates constantly, changing as it revs up and slows down; transmissions make their own noises as they match a narrow band of engine speed to road speed over four to nine different ratios. Electric cars don’t need any of that.
I couldn’t agree more!
I was a complete petrol-head in the UK: competing for years on race tracks in sprints and on hill climbs all over the UK. I drove many exotic machines on most of the UK’s best tracks. I love the noise, the speed and the power. When I visited Better Place in January I was looking to use my “Olea Hadash” rights to buy a new car so I had test driven a few nicer new cars.
I went to Better Place on a whim for a “tweet up” and to laugh at the stupid golf-cart cars. After the inevitable fancy movie: green save the polar bear spiel that I detest, we went out for a quick spin around BP’s 2km track. Basically a straight, a left hand curve a roundabout and back along the same road. I sat in the back while two women took their turns to drive.
Immediately the sense of quiet reminded me of a top of the line Lexus (like my father’s that I drive in the UK). I had to remind myself that this was a Renault Fluence ZE (my company actually leased for a while the 1.6l petrol engine version Fluence and it is a complete DOG of a car).
By the time I came to drive it I was starting to understand. Then I pulled away slowly, arrived on the straight at around 25 MPH and nailed the pedal and got a fright! It’s not a Tesla, but it jumped. I promise you have to have a turbo charged 2.0l or a 2.5l V6 to match this and be in the correct gear. And even then, over the first 50 ft, current electric cars will beat anything except exotics. It does run out of steam above 100KMH (which is largely an artificial limit) but that’s fine here in Israel. I found it matches my Honda up to 130KMH which is as fast as I’ve ever wanted to go on a road in Israel.
The lack of vibration, the silence while sitting in traffic, the INSTANT power because of no gear box make total sense. Electric cars are just nicer to drive. I gassed up my Honda Civic (petrol 1.8l) 22nd March. Today is the 30th. I’ve covered only 110km! And my own gas station is now hanging on the wall in my parking garage. For the longer trips to Haifa, the north or Jerusalem, the battery switch stations will be open in a few weeks.
Summary: Electric cars are much nicer to drive and price for price (especially if you lease the battery) they beat comparably priced petrol cars in comfort. Completely electric cars (i.e. not the Volt) will be simpler and cheaper to build and maintain than corresponding petrol cars, again excepting the battery.
There is no doubt that batteries will drop in price (or increase in capacity for the same price). There is a big cost difference between generated electricity to drive 1 mile and petrol (even before huge taxes). That gap isn’t going to go away soon so the economics are beginning to work when one amortises the battery as pre-bought fuel rather than a part of the capital cost of the car.
And I like the switch from local pollution in my kids’ faces to distant pollution at power stations. Have you been in Israel on Yom Kippur? Nearly all motor transport stops for 25 hours. Isn’t the air amazing at 4pm on Yom Kippur? They don’t stop the power stations so clearly the problem of local pollution is all from cars and other transport.
As to the geopolitical benefits: I do feel that our problem with Islam stems from the vast transfer of un-earned wealth that is guaranteed because of the complete domination of transport by oil. I like the salt for preservation of food argument prior to refrigeration: we need to reduce that one use of oil to the point where they no longer hold the power to move the price up because we can switch our demand down easily.
In the end I don’t think the US matters so much: it’s what happens in China and India thats going to make all the difference.
About the Author
Brian of London is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy. Since making aliyah in 2009, Brian has blogged at Israellycool. Brian's interests include electric cars, world peace and an end to world hunger. Besides blogging here, Brian of London now writes at the Times of Israel. Brian of London also hosted Shire Network NewsFiled Under: Brian of London • General
I hope this electric car idea really works out for you. It seems you are really emotionally invested in it. But I must ask, why this seething hatred of polar bears?
Being myself a Petrol-Head, though I understand the need for electric cars when it comes to islam I cannot help but be sad about what the future holds for motoring, the ICE and other technologies.
While you have probably already addressed the concerns people have aboue electric cars, how resistant or well-protected are electric cars against something like an EMP?
Electric cars will be just as messed up and unusable as any other car made in the last 15 years (or even longer in some cases). If it doesn’t have a carburettor you can probably forget it.
You’re going to need something pre-microchip to be sure. And just remember: all the infrastructure that gets the petrol to you, including the pumps at the gas station, are probably going to be toast.
In Hyper-Hippie Chapel Hill, NC, where they’re trying to ban people from wearing headphones or earbuds in public because a few stoners walked into traffic, they’re also trying to restrict hybrid and electric cars until the Federal government creates new regulations ensuring they’re loud enough so that old people and blind people can hear them coming.
Please show some journalistic integrity. You had a decent article until you ended with the U.S. bashing. Pretty comical for someone talking about driving all over the tiny UK, and Israel doesn’t even count. How many cars are actually purchased in Israel each year? Not enough to matter. I just drove from NY to Seattle. Do THAT in one of your little toy cars and then we can talk. 40 mile per hour winds, driving rain, hail, mountain roads, those are what a car has to handle.
I am not bashing America in the last part. I’m just stating that I don’t think the sales of EVs in the US will be large and that doesn’t mean they’re a global failure.
EVs today and for the foreseeable future aren’t suitable for driving from NY to Seattle: that would be as crazy as trying to row across the Atlantic. Sure it can be done, but it’s not a solution for many people. But you can only do that drive because there are gas stations every 25 miles over that trip (even though you actually need far fewer). That is a huge investment in infrastructure already there.
Now if someone wanted to invest in the infrastructure to swap batteries that would work but I don’t think the US is the best market: your gas prices are too low and you’re too built into a 300 mile range car culture. Someone in India or China who’s never owned a car will accept a 100 mile range right now because that’s a hell of a lot further than his bike can go.
BTW…
Car sales in Israel 1st Q 2012 were 59,124 down 7% on last year.
Total new registration in 2011 were 225,949.
Cars are ferociously expensive to buy, own and drive here.
http://bestsellingcarsblog.com/2012/04/12/israel-march-2012-ford-focus-confirms-clear-leadership/#more-16220
You ought to hear what Brian has to say about our beloved American Hershey bar. Oh, Brian of London is an American basher all right. Wait, I can hear a song coming on. We fired our guns and the British kept a comin’. There wasn’t quite as many as there was awhile ago. We fired once more and they began a runnin’. Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
No fair! I love America….
I’m just like a concerned parent making constructive criticism to improve it. But Hershey’s chocolate really is devil spawn.
Apology accepted. I picked up a half dozen Hershey bars at my local Wal-Mart just today. Just remember the War of 1812 was only 200 years ago, and Americans, while burdened with short attention spans, are, however, quite familiar with our military victories as presented on the History Channel.
“We fired our guns and the British kept a comin’. There wasn’t quite as many as there was awhile ago. We fired once more and they began a runnin’. Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.”
Alright. But don’t forget what happened 36 years later, when someone started a merry campfire inside Washington.
I have no dog in this fight (if you pardon a now unfortunate phrasing), but I have to be fair and balanced, taking after the news network for which you have expressed boundless love. /fish-meet-bait
“And I like the switch from local pollution in my kids’ faces to distant pollution at power stations.”
Which itself can be eliminated one day if we make good progress on forms of nuclear power, unhindered by irrational environmentalists (I say “irrational” because a rational environmentalist would be pro-nuclear).
“Have you been in Israel on Yom Kippur? Nearly all motor transport stops for 25 hours. Isn’t the air amazing at 4pm on Yom Kippur?”
And in the strict Sabbath-keeping areas, once every week. Environmentalists should be pro-Sabbath as well.
“I do feel that our problem with Islam stems from the vast transfer of un-earned wealth that is guaranteed because of the complete domination of transport by oil.”
Yep. As Mark Steyn wrote in America Alone: The main export of Islamic states like Saudi Arabia isn’t oil but jihad; oil merely bankrolls it. Also witness how France’s immense nuclear infrastructure enables it to thumb its nose at the Muslim world every time its politicians have a bout of good sense. I know the French are usually the butt of jokes (“surrender-monkeys” etc), but on this they’re right. Go nuclear, go thorium salt, and finally, with HaShem’s help, go fusion power!
Ziontruth – You are incorrect about the environmentalists stopping nukes, at least in the U.S. We would like to be that powerful, but in truth, it’s the financiers who are killing nukes because they are too costly. A new nuke plant built in the U.S. would have to wholesale its base load generation at close to 20 cents/kWh. Old coal plants (amortized construction) wholesale kWh at 3-4 cents, new coal (built to newer and better standards) wholesale kWh for about 7-8 cents. Wind is now coming in at 7 cents and utility scale solar thermal is costing about 12 cents.
Given those numbers, why would any bank loan money for a nuke plant?
I often wonder how the electric car would fare in winter in countries like Canada – would you not be able to drive far enough, or since the car is powered by a ton of batteries, would no one be able to give you a boost?
Electric cars have a problem in cold climates. Heating takes a ton more power than cooling and because there is no waste heat from the engine, all has to come from the battery which can reduce range by as much as 20%. Batteries also have trouble.
Volvo has a nice demo vehicle that uses a small ethanol burning heater in addition to battery heating and reverse heat pumps will probably become popular.
Here in Israel this is fairly unimportant
The LEAF’s cabin heater, if used full blast the whole trip will reduce range about 20%. The 2012 model now has heated seats and a heated steering wheel, and both of those use very little energy. We have a timer in the car that allows us to pre-warm the car while it’s still connected to the grid. When the driver disconnects from the charge station, the car is toasty warm and the battery full. He then turns on the seat heater and steering wheel heater to keep him warm all the way to work with minimal loss of range.
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