Hyundai Ioniq 5 reaches 100 km/h in 7 seconds. To get a similar performance, one needs to shell out Rs 30-35L more for a Mercedes C200.
BHPian shortbread recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
It’s not uncommon to see social media videos of humble Teslas shellacking AMGs, Ms, RS-es in performance despite the premium German performance cars costing twice or thrice as much. Suddenly decades of powertrain engineering expertise means very little when confronted with an electric motor. The ICE cars also need to pair their powerful engines with expensive transmission units like the DSGs, ZFs etc… forget the acceleration, the electrics do this silently without much drama. EVs are the real sleeper cars of today.
A 45 lac Ionic 5 does 100 km/h in 7 secs, for similar performance one needs to shell out another 30-35 lacs for a C200. Not surprisingly the Ionic 5 being an EV is more refined.
This will be one of the biggest advantages (among many) of EVs, wherein they will bring in performance and refinement parameters that were unforeseen in mainstream cars. In the not-too-distant future new EVs from domestic players Tata and Mahindra will encompass performance and refinement characteristics that are far and above our current 320i while costing a fraction of the price.
Soon enough along with NCAP stars and sunroofs, the aam junta will be wanting to know 0-100 acceleration figures as well. Power to the masses I say!
Here’s what GTO had to say about the matter:
EVs will democratize performance for sure. Today’s 10000 – 15000 rupee smartphones are more powerful than the 50000 rupee phones of 2020 and offer you all the computing power you need. With petrol cars, we never saw a sub-7 second 0 – 100 machine for 10 lakh rupees. With EVs, we definitely will. When China mass-produces, even God cannot get in the way. Big, powerful motors will only become cheaper with time.
Luxury is already democratized. Cars like the XUV700 offer a whole lot of car for the money. 35 – 45 lakhs are more comfortable than a majority of the 60 – 70 lakh luxury German cars.
But we won’t get 15-lakh rupee luxury EVs. Fast yes, not luxurious.
Here’s what BHPian Nikhildrao had to say about the matter:
I completely agree that electric luxury and speed is an amazing thing to behold, but I would also caution against mass-market cars becoming too fast for their own driver to control. I’m saying that you don’t want teenagers having a go in something that does 0-60 in less than 5 seconds on our crowded roads.
Here’s what BHPian amitoj had to say about the matter:
You’re right that EVs will bring performance to the masses. Here’s another way to look at it. This is performance that the masses don’t need. It’s a by-product of the electric motor and with that, also comes the dangers of giving too much power to incapable hands.
Pair that with the fact that most EVs’ emergency braking capabilities do not match up with their acceleration, I dread the EVs going mainstream.
I may be biased because I’ll take a corner carving, slow, manual transmission car over a pedal to the metal zoom-straight-on-ahead car.
Here’s what BHPian standardherald had to say about the matter:
You get an 8.1-second petrol Verna for 20 lakhs. That is seriously fast for Indian roads. 25 more lakhs is just shaving off less than a second. I guess mass-market cars have become better and entry-level luxury cars are not too far away from them nowadays at least in performance.
Here’s what BHPian androdev had to say about the matter:
EVs are more likely to turn cars into appliances and gadgets than to democratise luxury and performance. If you see the big picture, companies like Tesla want to challenge the incumbents by radically redefining how a future buyer should look at a car. This is a much bigger risk to traditional ICE companies than going electric. It’s like Blackberry putting so much effort into coming up with exquisite materials for keys, d-pad, metallic body and so on and suddenly consumers want just a piece of glass.
With or without EV, certain aspects of luxury (gadgets and convenience features) and performance (powerful engines and slick gearboxes) are becoming available in mass market cars while other aspects of luxury (premium upholstery, high-end audio, NVH, overall design, fit and finish) and performance (handling, brakes, safety, traction, etc.) will remain expensive.
An easy-to-understand example: it might be simple to deliver a short burst of peak power from say Tata Nexon EV but you still need the rest of the car to handle it (chassis, tires, brakes, etc.). In that sense, I don’t think EVs are going to dramatically accelerate the “democratisation” of luxury and performance any more than what’s currently happening in the present market. The real disruption I expect is the change in consumer perception of what and how a car should be.
Keyword: Would electric vehicles be able to democratise luxury & performance