BERLIN: Everyone is talking about all-electric cars, but few people have actually driven one. Those who have are almost always impressed by the nearly silent running and near-instant acceleration.
Range anxiety and the lack of a sporty engine note might put off some people, but many motorists who have driven an electric vehicle were taken with its attributes - so much so that they did not want to return to a car with a conventional petrol or diesel engine.
“An electric car is like an oasis of calm, powerful but silent,” says Wieland Bruch from BMW. He’s responsible for the upright i3 runabout from Germany, which can dash from traffic lights without a trace of wheelspin and presses on with barely a whisper from the electric motor. The i3 driver hears nothing but the rumbling of tyres on tarmac, and with the windows down, the sound of birds chirping.
It’s certainly green, but is in fun? Some fans and experts weigh in.
“The acceleration is breathtaking,” says Christian Loeer, Jaguar’s German marketing boss, when he unveiled the new all-electric Jaguar I-Pace. “The 694Nm of torque are available immediately,” he exclaimed. In other words, the vehicle’s occupants are flung back in their seats when the driver hits the accelerator hard.
It’s no surprise that the Jaguar man praises the brand’s car, yet very fast acceleration is one of the most striking things about driving a pure electric car. Electric cars develop torque - the drive that makes a car feel fast - from the outset, while a petrol engine burning a mixture of fuel and air takes longer to wind up.
A Nissan LEAF electric car has 150hp and takes 8.8 seconds to leap from zero to 100kph.
A Porsche Macan sportscar with a four-cylinder petrol engine with 252 horses is a tad quicker, at 6.7 seconds, but nowhere near as rapid as the iPace. The Jaguar bounds to 100kph from a standstill in just 4.8 seconds. Its electric motor is rated at 400hp.
Jaguar man Looer believes that the fun factor is one of the most important incentives to drive an electric car. “I grew up with cars and I had considerable reservations,” says Looer. They vanished the moment he got behind the wheel, he recalls.
However, despite being environmentally friendly, as well as the enthusiasm for their advantages, electric cars have not caught on; even in car-mad Germany, only a fraction of the millions of new vehicles registered annually have electric power-trains.
Experts are not surprised at the consumer hesitation. This is due in part to the limited range of pure electric models on offer, says automotive guru Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of Duisburg-Essen University.
“That will have to change,” says the expert. In the fight to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, the European Union has told manufacturers to further cut the amount of CO2 that cars emit into the atmosphere.
That should spur major carmakers like Volkswagen, which hopes to sell 1.15 million electric cars by 2022. BMW is aiming for 230,000 pure electrics sold and Daimler 250,000.
BMW manager Bruch believes electric cars fit in well with modern attitudes towards mobility, with drivers prepared to switch to public transport and rail services to suit their needs. “I believe in being as electric as possible - if I can’t go by car, I travel by train.”
Range is increasing with each new all-electric that appears on market. The LEAF with its 40KWh battery, is a good example. The latest edition can manage up to 415km on a charge, which puts it on a par with a combustion-engined vehicle. Jaguar is promising owners 480km of travel before the batteries need replenishing.
Charging infrastructure is also getting better, but there are big gaps in rural areas. This is set to change soon, say experts.
