Electric Cars Have Gotten Insanely Fast
Electric cars have constantly been pitched as an environmentally friendly option. However, EVs are now pushing the limits of speed and acceleration in cars.
Written by Andrew Koole
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Electric cars
are on the tip of every automaker’s tongue this year. Spurred by Tesla’s success and initiatives from the federal government, nearly every major car brand has an EV on the market or in the shute, read to be released in the next few years.Marketing for the EV revolution might tell you that automaker’s first priority is the environment, but the main factor driving all this change is actually the technological improvements made in the last two decades.
Brands like Toyota and General Motors (GM) were already manufacturing EVs in the ‘90s, but the electric propulsion concepts of the time made these vehicles frustratingly inconvenient to use. Since then though, developments have done more than fix the problem.
They made EVs among the fastest cars in the world.
How did electric cars get so fast?
It’s not common knowledge, but the fact remains that EVs have been around longer than any internal combustion engine.
Car and Driver
says the first electric carriage was invented by a Scot named Robert Anderson in the 1830s. The gas-powered automobile didn’t exist until decades later.For almost two centuries, engineers struggled to solve two key problems with electric propulsion—range and speed. Significant change didn’t arrive until 1996, when GM released the EV 1, a fully electric car that had a range of 300 miles.
But the obstacle of speed remained elusive until 2003 when a company called AC Propulsion put a lithium-ion battery in its kit car, the T Zero. With the modern battery, the car managed to reach zero to 60 in 3.6 seconds. That’s fast by any standards.
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How fast can electric cars go now?
The T Zero was fast, but it wasn’t a mass-produced car. Very few were made and they were never highway-legal. This car inspired two guys to found a little company called Tesla.
Tesla released the Roadster in 2008, changing the game for electric cars forever. It could get to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, a speed the EV industry leader would top numerous times in the following decade.
As other brands got serious about electric vehicles, hypercar makers you probably never heard of like Croatian company Rimac and L.A.-based Lucid used electricity to push the envelope on how fast cars of any type can go.
These insanely expensive cars have managed to reach 60 mph in less than two seconds. Despite all their attempts though, Tesla remains on top. The company says their 2022 Roadster can go from 0-60 in an unfathomable 1.1 seconds. Is that physically possible?
Do faster EVs mean higher premiums?
MORE: You Should Stick to Speed Limits Even on a Race Track
Car insurance
for electric hypercars is expensive, just like the vehicles being covered. But just like any other car insurance policy, there’s plenty of ways to bring that number down.How responsibly you drive one of these fantasy cars and your resulting driving record can change the cost of car insurance dramatically. The insurance company you sign up with also makes a big difference.
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