Electric cars - are they really cars?

[waynne]

If you had the option of a car with an electric motor that gave the same performance as an equivalent petrol would you be happy with it?

Electric motors are very torquey - in fact they have a flat torque "curve".

I think what I am getting at is that the noise of a petrol engine, the induction roar - the exhaust note are part of what makes a car a car!

In an electric car that essential raw edge is removed but does that matter if the performance is the same (or better?)

[pgarner]

if the performance was the same as a petrol / diesel then i might be tempted. but just know the whole 8 hours o charging for maybe 100 mile range doesnt do for most people, it takes 10 mins to fill a car and for that you can get what around 550miles from a tank n a decent diesel and around 350 from a petrol

[HDi fun]

Not if they're city bound (as in kept within a city rather than destined to travel to it) and travel at 12mph. Can we really afford to have two types. PG lives in the stix, as I do) we'd have to use trailers to get the electric buggy to the town borders, pay to park the petrol/diesel car and then carry on in the electric one. (Can you put trailers in public car parks?).

Hardly economical then.

I think this ecological thing is overbown. Even if we are damaging the ozone layer and adding CO2 (not sure that we're doing either, or if it even matters, but) then is the alternative to have a nice clean atmosphere and undepleted ozone layer for use all to starve to death on the streets because eco taxes have rendered us so poor we can;t afford to feed ourselves.

Not such a nice environment now, is it?

No - they're not cars. And hybrids have some place in big stuff like the luxury end of the market _ Lexus 460h for example. But not in a Prius sized thing

[wyze]

I think if they walk like a car and quack like a car then they must be a car. Electric motors don't quack though as they run near silent. Have to get a CD of engine sounds and play them as you drive it.

[HDi fun]

Have to get a CD of engine sounds and play them as you drive it.

Personally I'd go for silence over any sound at all.

[Prince]

How much electricity would you have to pay for until the car is fully charged??

Until petrol runs out I'll stick with the old school method!

[steve09]

if they go as well as petrols, as went for the same sort of miles as a petrol, i dont know. you just dont get the sound and driving experiance you get with a petrol.

[ChrisGMOC]

What do they make a ' hoover engine ', that has the same grunt & growl!
as my V6 ????? Okay I give in that it would be cheaper to run, could always get a plastic mould cover to look like my V6 & a Cd for the growl!


Erm! think not will stick to my ' gas guzzling, growling monster '

Chris..

[Gangsta]

It is well proven that electric motors easily put perform petrol or diesel motors. I'm sure a quick google would find you an electric car -real car, as in fully equipped with everything except an ice, that will do 0-60 in about 2.5 seconds. ALL of the worlds most powerful machines run on electric motors. Examples being the trailer that moves the space shuttles. The strip miners that move 100s of tons a minute. The only downside is battery storage.

There was a prototype electric car out a while back where the alloys actually formed the commutator of the motor. Therefore no transmission losses, no gearbox, in fact not much of anthing exept batteries. It will come during the lifetime of most people on here! Once I get my electric car, I will be on eBay to get my authentic electronic dump valve sound effect! Lol

[waynne]

at Gangstas electric dump valve!