It is an established fact, the arrival of new technologies is carried out by the top of the range so that it is economically viable. The automobile has never escaped this iron rule, but the explosion of the electric car market has amplified it, bringing an unexpected perverse effect. Since it is above all a question of obtaining an autonomy comparable or almost to the thermals which set the standard, the manufacturers have added more and more batteries. But by doing so, they also increase the weight of the vehicle. In order to provide it with acceptable performance, it suffices to increase the power of the electric motor, or even to add a second to it on the other axle, which transforms the vehicle cheaply into four-wheel drive.
We arrive at so-called “family” electric models easily titling more than 350 or 400 horsepower in thermal equivalent. This is the case of the latest Smart, which offers…. 272 horsepower on the rear axle alone. The inevitable Brabus version adds a 150 horsepower engine up front, switching to four-wheel drive. With 428 horsepower and billed at 47,490 euros, it crashes despite its 1.9 tonnes in a thundering 3.9 seconds to go from 0 to 100 km / h, a time worthy of a Porsche 997 Carrera S.
Same level of performance for a Kia EV6, a family that we did not expect such a party. It offers in its GT version the whopping 585 horsepower and, if it can reach a top speed of 260 km/h, it is above all capable of going from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.5 seconds! That’s almost the time of a Porsche 997 turbo PDK…
Only here, these electric machines exploit either the pure power, or the autonomy. But never both at the same time. So much the worse for long-distance travel where energy reserves will have to be managed wisely. But all the other short or medium journeys make it possible to exploit these very high powers almost free of charge (when recharging at home) with, as a result, extravagant accelerations. For some, they approach the performance of thermal super sports cars and even of an F1 for the very top of the range, like the Lotus Eletre in its sharpest version. It lands a 0-100 in 2.95 seconds with 905 horsepower and 985 Nm of torque. But who can truly master it?
At the controls of these machines of various categories, we will most often find a Mr. Dupont released on the open road and not an experienced pilot who evolves on a closed circuit. We have noted, during our tests, how much the human software has to be modified with these vehicles which encourage you to accelerate very hard but arrive at the next obstacle with tenfold energy. Braking anticipation is the new rule because, if it is not observed, the impact can be very violent given the ram effect of a vehicle with a weight increased by 40 or 50% by the ballast of the batteries. . The nice image of Épinal who would like to drape the electric car in a coat of road probity is very misleading.
It’s so true that, faced with vehicles that can go up to 4 tons like the latest Hummer, but also many models exceeding 2.5 tons, the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) was moved, report our GoCar colleagues. The road safety organization in the United States says, through its representative, Jennifer Homendy: “Things are definitely going in the wrong direction, electric vehicles becoming more powerful and faster, as well as than heavier and bulkier. An AXA survey of 1,200 Swiss drivers shows that electric cars are half as involved in accidents as thermal cars, due to the unsuitability of drivers for their much higher performance. From there, the idea of ??providing a specific license for these high-performance electric vehicles and yet increasingly accessible, with the aid of bonuses, to uninformed drivers.