Electric cars are too dangerous for the average driver

Dynamic performance is the main advantage of an electric car in the eyes of motorists. Those who have already switched to electric trains claim that they will not return to the internal combustion engine. Today it is already clear that electric vehicles have the performance of a supercar. But a series of high-profile accidents around the world involving electric vehicles casts doubt on the wisdom of these dragsters falling into the hands of untrained drivers. When Tesla released the first Roadster car, it was natural that in order to justify the cost of the car in the base equipment in excess of $100, Tesla was presented as the main advantage of accelerating dynamics at the level of hypercars.




At a 2008 presentation, Elon Musk said:



In fact, such dynamics for a supercar is not dangerous, because sports cars, as a rule, are bought by trained drivers. But then Tesla moved from niche models to luxury sedans, and later, with the debut of the Model 3, to a relatively mainstream segment. In which they raised the bar of dynamics to a fundamentally different level!

Tesla Model 3, specifications of the Standard Plus modification (Performance configuration data in brackets):

✅ Battery with a capacity of 69 (90) kWh
✅ Power: 258 (579) horsepower
✅ Power reserve: 490 (547) kilometers
✅ Maximum speed: 225 (261) km/h
✅ Acceleration 0-100 kmh: 6.1 (3.3) seconds

The more status Tesla Model S also offers acceleration from 0-100 km / h in a maximum of 6 seconds, and last year the Plaid package was introduced, capable of “catapulting” to the coveted “hundred” in 2.1 seconds! For all other manufacturers of electric vehicles, it has also become a good practice to install powerful electric motors that provide accelerating dynamics at the level of a supercar. Now even mainstream electric cars are insanely fast! But soon these excessively fast electric monsters will dominate the roads.

What awaits us?

For example, the Korean concern Hyundai Motor Group announced plans to produce one and a half million electric vehicles a year in the near future! In Volkswagen, they even announced that in 2035 they will finally switch to electric vehicles. Whether you want to buy an electric car or not, soon you will have no other choice.

But why do EV manufacturers set the 5-second mark as the minimum target for XNUMX-XNUMX miles? At first, this was due to the fact that electric vehicles, in fact, had no advantages over cars with internal combustion engines. The range of the "trains" was severely limited, and the battery took forever to charge. It would seem that such significant shortcomings are not able to interest potential customers. But electric cars accelerated like a rocket! And it became the main magnet for buyers.

The future has arrived

Since the advent of the first mass "trains" a lot has changed. Electric vehicles have appeared in the world that can travel 800 kilometers, and then charge up to 100% in an hour. For example, the recently debuted 1111-horsepower Lucid Air Dream Edition Performance, which has a power reserve of 750 kilometers. A long-range modification capable of driving up to 840 km develops a power of “only” 933 horsepower. But even such a “modest” power supply allows you to gain the first hundred in less than three seconds, and drive the “quarter” in 9.7 seconds. By comparison, the just-debuted Nissan Z supercar takes 12.7 seconds to complete the same exercise.



With regard to the volume of the interior and trunk of electric vehicles, on the electric platforms currently used, the batteries are integrated into the body structure without compromising the interior space. So now there are really good reasons to choose an electric car instead of a car with an internal combustion engine. However, one thing has not changed: excess power and overclocking dynamics.

Human factor

Car enthusiasts prefer cars with a margin "under the gas pedal", but not everyone has the skills necessary to drive a supercar. Often, having bought an electric car, and for the first time faced with frantic acceleration dynamics, people are really scared. But few people admit, even to themselves, that their driving skills are not enough to control this "rocket on wheels"! But everyone likes to think that we are aces, and would easily defeat the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton on the Formula 1 tracks. But the number of fatal car accidents constantly proves us wrong.

Even if you have incredible driving skills, it will unfortunately not last long. After all, vision deteriorates over time, and reaction time increases. But well-being also grows with age (we don’t take into account “major boys on daddy’s Volga”), therefore it is most likely that it is people who have reached a slightly above average age who will buy themselves a powerful electric car. And the older they get, the greater the disparity between their driving skills and the performance of an electric car will grow. This will lead to even more problems on the roads.



In a recent accident in the US, in Columbus, Ohio, 63-year-old Franz Jules rammed his Tesla Model 3 into the glass wall of a local convention center. Subsequently, he claimed that the car suddenly accelerated on its own to a speed of 70 miles per hour (113 km / h), while the brakes did not work. The National Transportation Safety Board did not conduct any investigation into this matter, which means that there is no reason to believe that a technical malfunction of the car was the cause of the accident. On the contrary, the driver is to blame for not being able to cope with the dynamics of the electric car. Last December, a similar accident involving a Tesla Model 3 took place in Paris, injuring twenty people. Also, as in the previous case, the driver accused the car of starting to accelerate on its own and did not react in any way to braking attempts. This is not the first accident of this type, aptly named "sudden unintentional acceleration", and certainly not the last!



There are still relatively few electric vehicles on the roads, which means that these insanely dynamic vehicles do not pose a serious threat. But we are interested in what the future will look like when cars on the streets of cities turn into “hypercars with super performance”. It is possible that the situation with the performance of electric vehicles has already gone too far. It is obvious that modern drivers, in the vast majority, are not able to cope with the increased dynamic performance. Probably, soon in order to curb the new "vehicles" will require the mandatory presence of an autopilot.