4 ms·
"Even before modifications, the LEAF has some distinct handling advantages. First, the car is much lighter. ... Or, in short, the LEAF’s battery weighs less pe
by blendo 7y ago
"Even before modifications, the LEAF has some distinct handling advantages. First, the car is much lighter. ... Or, in short, the LEAF’s battery weighs less per kWh than the Tesla’s, and it has fewer kWh."
As Lotus's Colin Chapman wisely observed, "Simplify, then add lightness." But I think we're still 5-7 years from the 400Wh/kg batteries needed to power a lightweight (1000-1200 kg -- think of a Miata) electric car.
A sad case in point is the new Porsche Taycan 4 passenger sedan, with a curb (empty) weight of 5,100 lbs/2295 kg, and gross (max) weight of over 6,300 lbs/2880 kg. The kinetic energy of one of these lead sled's at 150mph terrifies me.
- graycat 7y ago1000 Kg at 150 MPH would terrify me! A little puff of wind and the thing could go airborne and 50 yards down the road land and create a smoking hole! 150+ MPH is GREAT to have, at 5000 to 35,000 feet in the air in a really solid airplane!
- Moto7451 7y agoAs a practical matter that’s true if the body generates lift. F1, Indycar, and Prototype sports cars go faster and weigh between 700 and 900kg depending on the series and spec. Since they’re designed to generate downforce when going forward they work out fine, gust of winds and all. Turning them around backwards at full speed is problematic so they have devices to disrupt the flow of air and loose the lift they’d generate at that angle. If those devices fail... that’s when things get a bit terrifying for the occupant.
- pintxo 7y agoTo illustrate the point: https://youtu.be/e21ZjwZGjiQ https://youtu.be/e21ZjwZGjiQ
- dpark 7y ago> The kinetic energy of one of these lead sled's at 150mph terrifies me. The reality is that a semi-truck loaded up with produce is a bigger risk from the “turns my car into shrapnel in an crash” scenario. Also, do you live in Germany or just near a bunch of extremely reckless and extremely wealthy drivers?
- blendo 7y agoI'm speaking from a California perspective, so yes, we have fair number of poor drivers. But I have NO concerns with Porsches on the Autobahn. In fact, I had a Porsche up to 270kph between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe once. Thrilling, but kind of terrifying (and I was a pretty well trained autocrosser back then).
- jboles 7y agoKinetic energy rises with the square of velocity... and the Porsche is much more likely to be driving unsafely/like an ass than the truck, or in my experience, even a BMW...
- dpark 7y ago> Kinetic energy rises with the square of velocity That's all well and good but a fully-loaded semi-truck weighs 15x as much as a full-loaded Taycan. My rough calculations say a fully-loaded Taycan driving 150 mph has a kinetic energy of 6.5 MJ while a fully loaded (80 thousand pound) semi at 80mph has a kinetic energy of 23 MJ. In fact a semi at 45 mph still has (slightly) more kinetic energy than a Taycan at 150. I wasn't very good at physics so maybe I screwed this up. But yes, the Porsche driving 150 is more likely to fly across a median to hit your family sedan head-on.
- ahartmetz 7y agoBMW drivers are the most common asshole drivers on the Autobahn, tailgating and overtaking on the right then pulling into the left lane into a way unsafe gap. Porsche drivers are some of the nicest.
- jansan 7y agoThe Tesla S P100D Performance weights 2250kg, which is almost the same as the Porsche Taycan. Giving the superb handling and breaking power of the Porsche, I would regard the Tesla as an even greater risk.