Electric vehicles: how do they go in the real world?
Electric cars remain a rare sight on Western Australian roads, but chances are they won’t be for too much longer.
Mitsubishi is already selling its all-electric i-MiEV four-seater small car in this country, and there are several more car makers with electric vehicles (EVs) about to launch in Australia.
So, what’s the difference? How do they really drive and what do EV drivers have to do to operate them?
Well, because conventional cars are the unavoidable yardstick by which EVs are and will be measured, there are more similarities between EVs and conventional cars than you might expect.
The Mitsubishi i-MiEV, for example, has air conditioning, two airbags, power windows and can seat four people (albeit at a squeeze). It has an accelerator and a brake pedal just like a normal automatic car, and all the features you would expect on a typical light car.
It is even expected by Mitsubishi to get a four-star safety rating from ANCAP when it is eventually crash tested.
But there are some adjustments that drivers new to electric motoring will have to make.
When stationary, the only way you can tell the i-MiEV is running is by the green “READY” light on the dash, and at low speed, the only sound it makes is the occasional small stone moving under its tyres.
The i-MiEV’s electric motor produces 47kW of power and 180Nm of torque, with the latter available from zero rpm, such is the way electric motors produce their torque. It accelerates well and though silent at low speed, at 100km/h it sounds like a front loading washing machine on the spin cycle.
It stops, goes and handles just fine for a light car, and with the torque characteristics of the electric motor, it actually accelerates surprisingly well. Mitsubishi claims it can travel up to 160km on a single charge.
The major car manufacturers aren’t the only ones touting the benefits of all-electric motoring.
Among the internal combustion-powered cars in Perth that have been converted to all-electric power is the University of Western Australia’s 2008 Hyundai Getz, which was converted under the university’s Renewable Energy Vehicle (REV) project.
It’s less powerful than the i-MiEV, but it is still very impressive given the myriad changes that needed to be made to the original car to make it electric.
Like the i-MiEV, it is simple to drive – even simpler than when it was a petrol powered car because you don’t need to change gears. It keeps up with traffic easily, and according to UWA, can travel approximately 80km on a single charge.