Is the electric vehicles better or worse?
In: Other
Full disclosure: I’m a huge car and motorsports enthusiast. I love all things petrol. I don’t own an EV, but I do think they’re really cool as a means of transportation. I don’t get excited about them the way that I do traditional ICE cars, but as an enthusiast who loves automotive engineering, I think it’s very hard to deny some of their advantages.
Electric drivelines are mechanically much simpler than ICE drivelines. They do require sophisticated electrical components to control the motors, but these components have no moving parts, so they don’t wear out, and we know how to make them very reliably.
Electric motors produce far less noise and vibration than an ICE. This means that during operation, you don’t feel any of the vibration or thrum of the motors.
Electric motors produce very little noise. ICEs produce exhaust noise, intake noise, as well as mechanical noise during operation.
Electric motors produce smooth, linear acceleration, without the need for a gearbox. If you’ve ever driven an EV, one of the first things you notice is the lack of shifting. Even a really good ICE and transmission will have some deviation in acceleration when it shifts, even under the best of circumstances. Under difficult circumstances, this deviation only gets worse. EVs can accelerate smoothly regardless of speed or conditions.
EVs require less maintenance. There is no oil to change, and because they use regenerative braking, you don’t need to do brake jobs nearly as frequently. There are also no air filters, accessory belts, timing chains, etc.
There are downsides, of course. EVs make the most sense if you have somewhere to charge them at home. If you don’t have a place to charge it at home, they can be far less convenient.
Because EVs rely on batteries, refueling takes a lot of time compared to an ICE. You can fill a gas tank in under 5 minutes. Charging an EV battery to 80% can happen in as little as 15 minutes, but that’s still three times as long as ICE refueling.
EVs require very large battery packs, and these battery packs are heavy. This makes EVs heavier, on average, when compared with similar ICE powered vehicles. A Tesla Model S, for example, weighs about 1,000 lbs more than a BMW 5 series. This means they cause more wear on tires and on the roads.
The major wear item on an EV is the battery, which is many times more expensive than any service item on an ICE powered car, but the battery lasts many years.
Ultimately, whether an EV is better or worse will come down to how you use it and whether you have a place to charge it. If you have a way to charge at home and the vast majority of your driving fits within the range window of the EV, they’re fantastic. If you frequently drive long distances, or you have no way to charge the EV at home, they’re far less appealing.
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