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The battery revolution is here. Each year the price declines while energy density goes up. Just a few minutes ago, for example, Xiaomi released a video of thei

The battery revolution is here. Each year the price declines while energy density goes up. Just a few minutes ago, for example, Xiaomi released a video of their SU7 Ultra on the Nordschleife. They got a time of 6:46:874 [1] which places them on position 6 of the overall leaderboard [2]. So a Chinese smartphone manufacturer is very close to being the fastest car on the Nordschleife. A decade of experience vs. a few years of experience. With this pace, my guess is that they'll beat the German manufacturers somewhere next year. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWK6GcH0vqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWK6GcH0vqE [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_N%C3%BCrburgring_Nordschleife_lap_times https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_N%C3%BCrburgring_Nords...

multimoon 2y ago
Beating a gasoline car with an electric car on the Nurburgring isn’t remotely in the same realm, as you mentioned decades vs years of experience - it’s significantly harder to build fast gasoline cars. This isn’t a knock of the gasoline cars, but a compliment to the engineering knowledge and prowess of the aforementioned German automakers. The fact that the records for real production cars are still held by Porsche is wild considering the power to weight ratios possible with EVs. When companies like Porsche feel they can be bothered to make an electric race car, they’ll probably blitz everyone else simply because of their decades of chassis and suspension design. They haven’t done so yet because they are acutely aware of their fan base and customers don’t want one. There is a lot of people who feel racing electric cars is just boring and too easy, and I am happily part of that population because as you mention, there’s very little engineering effort to compete against or with.
- cr125rider 2y ago
  You need an electric car to race for several hours, which is still a challenge. Time attack hot laps are one thing, racing a series is a whole other beast. We’ll get there.
  - ASalazarMX 2y ago
    Eh, the pit stops would probably be a few seconds longer while they swap batteries too.
    - cogman10 2y ago
      I didn't even know if it'd be seconds with enough people. Have a team unlocking and dropping the current battery and a second team wheel in and attach the new battery. That could all happen at the same time that tires are being swapped.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

multimoon 2y ago

Beating a gasoline car with an electric car on the Nurburgring isn’t remotely in the same realm, as you mentioned decades vs years of experience - it’s significantly harder to build fast gasoline cars. This isn’t a knock of the gasoline cars, but a compliment to the engineering knowledge and prowess of the aforementioned German automakers. The fact that the records for real production cars are still held by Porsche is wild considering the power to weight ratios possible with EVs. When companies like Porsche feel they can be bothered to make an electric race car, they’ll probably blitz everyone else simply because of their decades of chassis and suspension design. They haven’t done so yet because they are acutely aware of their fan base and customers don’t want one. There is a lot of people who feel racing electric cars is just boring and too easy, and I am happily part of that population because as you mention, there’s very little engineering effort to compete against or with.

cr125rider 2y ago
You need an electric car to race for several hours, which is still a challenge. Time attack hot laps are one thing, racing a series is a whole other beast. We’ll get there.
- ASalazarMX 2y ago
  Eh, the pit stops would probably be a few seconds longer while they swap batteries too.
  - cogman10 2y ago
    I didn't even know if it'd be seconds with enough people. Have a team unlocking and dropping the current battery and a second team wheel in and attach the new battery. That could all happen at the same time that tires are being swapped.
deleted 2y ago
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