Driving an electric car for the first time is like driving a car for the first time ever all over again. It is weird because there is no engine essentially and everything feels a bit more instant. Furthermore, because everything is silent you tend to hear a lot more road and tire noise which can get very annoying. The electric car world is booming and everyone is jumping on the trend to own one. Most people love their electric car mainly because it’s cool and different. Electric cars have only been popular for the last few years so to most people they are still quite a new thing and something which they haven’t tried before.
Think of electric cars like smartphones. When smartphones first came out people were in awe. It was a new thing to them and despite the Blackberry still being about, people wanted a smartphone as it was deemed as cool. Nowadays pretty much everyone has a smartphone and this will probably be the same case with electric cars. One day everyone will have one.
The first time you step into an electric car you notice that it doesn’t feel like a normal car. It in fact feels like a computer on wheels. You start the car and it’s silent, in fact in most cases you probably won’t know it’s even on. There is no manual gearbox option in any electric car so there is no need to press the clutch and shift into gear. The lift-off on electric cars is insane. Just a poke of the peddle and things feel instant. No need to wait for things to warm up etc unless it’s cold, batteries tend to have issues when it’s cold especially when they first get going. One thing you notice in electric cars when you first start driving is just how easy everything feels. the steering is light, the acceleration is instant and a lot of electric cars feature this “one-pedal” setup whereby you release your foot off the accelerator and the car brakes for you.
Range anxiety is a thing. You will most likely be a lot more cautious in what you use in the car. You will have to ask yourself whether turning on the air conditioning is a good idea or not as it could massively decrease the range. Charging is also an issue as despite manufacturers claiming a half-hour to 80%, etc the real issue is finding a charge station that works. There are many charge stations in the world and your car will show you them on its sat-nav. The issue is though, is that if the station is broken and it’s not been reported, it won’t show up on your car that the station is broken. So you will drive to the charging point expecting a working charging station and find it’s broken.
Then there is the issue of occupancy since electric cars don’t always tell you whether or not the charging space is free. This is an issue in the real world because you get to your charge station only to find it is occupied by another car. How annoying is that? You can argue that Tesla has a faster more reliable system, etc, however, they too get fully occupied quite regularly. Then you end up driving everywhere to try to find a charge station and that’s when your car runs out of juice.
So whats driving an electric car like for a newbie? What’s it like to live with? Let’s find out.
Acceleration is Crazy
Electric cars have no lag whatsoever. The pickup is instant it is literally 0 to 100 real quick. They feel like go-karts in all honesty or a roller-coaster especially the faster ones. The funny thing is that these things are near enough silent when they accelerate so you’re not distracted by the noise whatsoever. Instead, you focus more so on the acceleration itself and you come to realize just how fast these cars are. The omission of the noise makes the speed more enjoyable. The road noise is pretty high though and the tire noise can sometimes be unbearable.
The acceleration is a real bonus at traffic lights and overtaking. No need to switch down a gear to get that extra boost that you have to do in an Internal combustion Engined car, just simply press on the accelerator pedal, and you’re off. It actually shocks you with the acceleration because it’s so quiet.
The Porsche Taycan Turbo S is a key example of this. It hits 60 in 2.3 seconds in practical silence. You really do feel the speed in this car and it is scary. Because there is no noise, everyone will hear you scream as the car accelerates. If you hate roller coasters you’ll probably hate electric cars.
Technology is Insane
Electric cars have insane technology in and out. From large touchscreens to automatic updates, electric cars boast more technology than any ICE car will ever have. Tesla’s groundbreaking autopilot has stunned many people despite it being one of the priciest car options out there. Many people love the idea of a driverless car mainly so that they can show it off to their friends or family. Most people will never really use it for anything else since it’s a bit unnatural. People like to be in control of their car and let’s face it Autopilot or driverless technology as a whole isn’t the most trustworthy.
Tesla’s kill it when it comes to tech. Their huge screens dominate the interior and the fact that Tesla regularly updates their cars adding new features to them on a regular basis is awesome. Tesla can actually increase the performance of their cars via an update and they have done this in the past.
Porsche features a lot of driving tech on their Taycan. From its vegan interior to the way the car splits its power via torque vectoring, it is all pretty intresting. Cars are no longer cars anymore. Their pieces of technology. For old-school petrol heads, it is sad however, there is so much to look forwards to in the future.