The thing people do not get about electric cars? They have crazy acceleration.
And note the lack of vibration, roar or smoke.
More below – Brewster MacCracken of Austin, Texas’ Pecan Street Project talks about EV early adopter’s discovering the difference:
And here, Nissan makes a big point of EV quickness.
Yes, folks. The EV Tesla is a car that actually DOES the stuff other cars can only do in commercials.
I went to a conference a while back and parked my car at that location. A friend and I then walked from there to a nearby hotel for dinner. His car was parked there. His car was a Tesla.
After dinner…
“Let me drive you to your car,” he said.
“My car is right there,” I said pointing to a parking garage a block away.
“Let me drive you to your car in my Tesla,” he said.
So we went to the parking lot his car was in, he gave me an overview of the cockpit, which was pretty amazing. The touchscreen interface was bigger than my TV. Then we drove out of his parking lot and pointed towards my parking lot.
Then he hit the accelerator, and a second later, the brake, and we were there.
I am not a person who is into cars or cares much about acceleration. In fact, I rarely accelerate fast and rarely stop fast. I can drive a car for about five years before I need to change brake pads because I don’t really use brakes that much. (I’m used to driving trucks with no brakes or accelerators in remote regions, so I just drive differently than other people.) But after seeing and experiencing my friend’s car, I laugh inside every time I see a car junkie smirk at “clean/green” cars like they were toys, or something they don’t really want. They want these cars, they just don’t know they want them.
Although not even close to the Tesla, the torque of my Nissan Leaf still makes me smile now and then. 🙂 – Truly the best car I have owned in my life so far at least.
That video of people’s reaction to Tesla acceleration is priceless. having driven one myself I can say that it was the most exhilarating driving experience I’ve ever had. Sadly, my electric vehicle is a 1999 Ford Ranger EV – built in Ford’s Edison NJ plant for the California market. It has impressive, though sane, acceleration but more importantly it has great low-end torque. It will haul 1,400 lbs of payload without hesitation and climbing curbs is just not an issue. I think Greg Laden’s observation is dead on – people want EVs, they just don’t know it yet.
…. and you can get over the air software updates to make it go even more insane… I’m of a different generation and after a lifetime working with computers am very wary about mixing software and cars…I remember feeling a similar thrill to those people in the video in the very early 1970’s when a rich friend of a friend took us for a lively ride in a Mercedes-Benz 280 SL – the breaking and acceleration was extreme and exhilarating compared to my 1958 Morris Minor 1000. (British Jelly-mold).
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/news/a24885/a-software-update-will-make-the-tesla-model-s-p85d-even-faster/