Interesting Facts about Electric Cars: This is the response that I got!

Once I asked a question on Quora: “Could you tell me a couple of interesting facts about electric cars?” I was curious to know what would be the response from people.

Surprisingly I got 29 answers till the date. I’m so happy to share the vies of those people here on GetElectricVehicle.

I have omitted one or two answers that I think we can’t publish here.

Have you already read The 11 Interesting Factors about Electric Cars that you might not have known

Let’s see what are all the answers that we got from many people for the question that I asked.

What are a couple of interesting facts about electric cars?

The answers to the question are as follows. All the answers have been taken from Quora. With true credits to the authors, I would share all the answers here for you.

Clara Smith’s answer

Clara Smith, former System Engineer at Motorola Solutions (1989-2005) says

Oh my, there are so many interesting facts about having an electric car that people are unaware of.

Did you know that if you tow an EV that has regenerative braking, it will charge the battery?
Did you know that some EVs allow you to use the energy stored in the car’s battery as an emergency backup power supply for the home?
Did you know that you are much more likely to experience a car fire with an internal combustion engine car than with an EV?
Did you know that a Tesla Model 3 will automatically pre-order a part that it detects isn’t working right?
Did you know that a Tesla Model 3 can be recharged from 20 to 80 percent in just 20 minutes at a 250 kW Supercharger?
Did you know that it’s nearly impossible to burn rubber in a Tesla car?
Did you know that it’s virtually impossible to roll a Tesla Model X onto its roof?
Did you know that you can leave your dog in a Tesla on a hot sunny day in climate-controlled comfort?
Did you know that the brake pads on a Tesla will typically last for 100,000+ miles?
Did you know that the cost per mile to drive a Tesla Model 3 15,000 annually for 5 years is less than that for a Toyota Camry (46 vs 49 cents/mile)?
Did you know that the Tesla Model Y will have 66 cuft of cargo space (behind the front seats)? That’s more than the Bolt (57) e-Tron (57), IPACE (51), Leaf (30), Kona (46), Niro (53), and most medium-sized compact ICEV crossovers.

That’s just a few of the many interesting facts about EVs.

Jim Stack’s answer

Jim Stack, President PHX EAA (1976-present) says

I think there are many facts about electric cars that I find interesting.

For one is the magical Regenerative Braking. By using that potential energy to slow down on big hills or stop at lights and stop signs you can add energy back into the vehicle. It also stops almost all the brake wear and dust from traditional braking.

The FACT that you don’t need a transmission with all of its gears and clutches and fluids is really amazing. It is so much more efficient not to have all that weight and expense that is really great. That alone is a great reason to drive electric.

Batteries and how fast they are improving is another very interesting topic. For over 100 years we have used toxic lead-acid batteries. They are heavy and have a short life. You can only discharge them 50%. The new Lithium batteries are non-toxic, you can discharge to 20% and they last the life of the car.

Tesla and others are now making them with less hard to find elements. The cost is dropping just like Solar PV did and personal computers. Solid-state batteries are being tested now that will be 3 to 4 times better.

I give talks in the Phoenix area about all the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math in each electric car. S.T.E.M. is the education of the future for our children. An electric vehicle is a perfect place to see all of this.

Taleef Paloji’s answer

Taleef Paloji, Knows a thing or two about cars says

Torque from 0 RPM

Electric cars use AC Induction Motors which produces torque from 0 RPM. This results in ludicrous acceleration from standstill, which no Internal Combustion(IC) engine powered car can match.

torque speed curve for induction motor - interesting facts about electric cars

In contrast the torque curve for an IC engine looks like this:

As you can see, torque curve starts out very low and as the RPMs increase, torque increases with it till it reaches a peak. At 0 RPM, there’s 0 torque, which means 0 pulling power. (The reason your car stalls if your clutch game is not on point).

With turbocharging or supercharging, the torque curve is modified to provide peak torque across a wider RPM range.

It is still no match for an electric motor, since the torque curve starts at the same 800–900 RPM, no matter what.

So yes, 0 RPM -> almost max torque… that is what makes electric cars unique and fun.

Alright, alright. They don’t sound as good as a v10 or even a v8. But you gotta appreciate the “push into the seat” acceleration.

Thanks for the request.

Simon Khoury’s answer to the interesting facts about electric cars

Simon Khoury, Sometimes writes about electric vehicles says

My favourite and it’s a huge one.

They use 1/4 of the total energy per mile traveled of a combustion-engined car of the same size and class.

That’s 75% less energy. Total. Full stop.

Imagine a world of electric vehicles. The total amount of energy we devote to driving around would be 75% less than it is now. Quite possibly even more as you have to factor in all the energy used to get liquid fuels to your fuel tank, it is quite conceivable that the electricity grid gets the power to your home using much less energy to do so.

Plus there are the zero local emissions, which are great but its a sideshow compared to the ENORMOUS saving in energy being used to drive about.

David Annett’s Answer

David Annett, Embedded systems engineer, back home to NZ after 2 years in China says

BEVs allow for radical new designs because they are no longer constrained by the size, complexity, and cost of an ICE. Tesla has chosen the skateboard design to give a lower COG, larger impact crumple zone, and extra storage.

In may cases I see huge potential to move from 4×4 for off roader to 4x4x4. Off road each wheel often has very different traction situations. One may be off the ground altogether while another could only have weak grip.

With just one motor you have three diffs and limited-slip diffs and or diff lockers. All very complex, expensive and often ineffective. In the deep trenches it usually the diffs that get stuck.

Now imaging one motor for each wheel directly connected. With suitable motor controllers and software you can have ultimate control. It also opens the possibility of new tricks.

On low traction surfaces, like mud, you could use a tank mode, drive the wheels on one side the opposite way from the wheels on the other side and rotate on the spot.

Put the front inside wheel in regen braking mode to make entering a drift mode easier. Also, you can put the bed the old auto vs manual debate for off-roading as BEVs will give you the best of both worlds.

Lukas Sach’s Answer

Lukas Sach, Owns a car and maintains it, pays for his gas says

Interestingly enough, the saving of carbon dioxide may not be as huge as one would expect. Where I live, the power grid is rated at 237 grams (0.5 lb) of CO2 per kWh. For an average Tesla that drives at some 20 kWh per 100 km and a driver who does modest 10000 km per year (just commute to/from work pretty much), this comes out to be about 500 kg of CO2 a year. That’s a heavy bag, still.

For comparison, my 10 years old ICE vehicle averages about 28 MPG, that’s about 8.4 l / 100 km. Factoring the same 10000 km a year, that comes out to be just over 2000 kg of CO2 a year (a liter of gas makes about 2.4 kg of CO2). So about 4x worse than an all electric green car. Not perfect but far from the “100x worse” that I’d expect. Would be better if I put in more highway miles. And stop driving like a maniac. The car should give 34 MPG then.

So there you have it—electric cars may not actually be as eco-friendly as marketed. On top of that, you have all the lithium mining for the batteries.

An Anonymous person wrote..

The answer from an Anonymous guy to the interesting facts about electric cars as follows.

He almost convinced me to not buy an electric car ever! 🙂

The batteries in them are prone to exploding when even one of the typically thousands of batteries get damaged.
Once one battery catches on fire, stopping the other 5999 batteries from catching on fire can take a week.
The batteries are in the floorboard of the car making the fires more deadly because it rapidly consumes the interior of the car.
Most aging cars show rust on the floorboard first.
In ten or fifteen years these cars will become delicate to work on and around because of the aging batteries and how prone they are to exploding when new.
In ten or fifteen years these cars will be a rolling fire hazard more so than they are today.
People already report fires from normal use.
Gas cars also catch on fire, after decades of safety refinements it’s much less common for a gas car to catch on fire than it once was.
People like to joke that anytime you mention any fact about them that isn’t full of praise you must be working for big oil, my joke about them is all those people are gullible enough to believe billionaires hoping to profit from their gullibility.

Richard Petek’s Aswer

Richard Petek, Studying EVs for quite some time says

The answer was actually to another question. But you can read it as well.

What are 5 facts about electric cars everyone should know before purchasing?

What size of a car do you actually need? Options are from small city cars like Fiat 500e up to Tesla Model X 7-seat SUV/crossover. With a couple of dozen cars in between.
Do you have the ability to (slow-) charge it? At home or somewhere during the day?
What is the range that covers 95% of your daily usage? Preferably buy a car that has at least 50% more range (double it if you can afford it) – in winter electric cars have significantly higher consumption. And preferably you want to stay within 20% – 80% state of charge or at least 10% – 90%. Running below 10% is a bad idea and daily charging above 80% (or even 90%) is bad for battery degradation – doing it just a couple of times per year is insignificant.
Very important – Do you plan road trips beyond the range of the car? How often? Does the car have to go beyond the daily range at all?
How good is the rapid charging infrastructure? How fast can the car actually charge? Is rapid charging time essential?
And maybe the last point – details (or hidden errors) and additional features. Efficiency, quality of technology, self-driving capabilities, wireless updates, interior.
Or eventual not so obvious faults like slow charging.

I think this could sum it up.

Richard Lewis’s Answer

Richard Lewis, former Managing Director at Lewis & Jones says

A very broad question!! I have driven EVs but here in the UK, they are not being taken up in any big numbers because of the limited charging facilities and the initial high cost.

Figures shown in a Sunday paper 27/10/19 show that in the UK there are 38.7m vehicles registered and only 223,000 electric vehicles.

I think an electric car is ideal for commuting from a home that has a charger and an office which has a car park – with or without charging points.

However most people do not use a car only for commuting – so when left at home it has to be available for the wife/partner/son/daughter to go wherever they need to go and that is where the whole thing falls apart.

If I had to tell my daughter to find chargers on the way to see her friend I would get a funny look!

My other daughter lives 156 miles away so unless I had a top end Tesla costing £100,000 it would not do a round trip so I would be faced with stopping on the way home for perhaps an hour if no supercharger available. My Ford Focus easily does the 300 mile round trip with 100 miles to spare.

The fundamental problem for EVs is not range but the ability to recharge at the same time it takes to fill with petrol – 5 minutes is average with card pay pumps.

Andrew Daviel’s Answer

Andrew Daviel, 40years on the road in several countries says

Electric cars need roads to run on. If you live on a small island, one won’t be much use to you. Get a boat instead.
Electric cars run on electricity and need to be charged. About 40kWh at 240V AC. You won’t get that from a giant Wimshurst machine, or a lot of “D” cells, or a single solar panel, or a hand crank. You need a normal wall outlet, at least.
The controls on electric cars have been copied from gasoline-powered cars with automatic transmissions. You don’t need a different kind of drivers license, or to re-learn how to drive
Electric cars count as regular cars, legally. They still need plating and insurance, and to obey traffic regulations. Unless you get a golf cart and use it in a cart community off the regular road system.
Electric cars take time to charge. You are not going to be able to pull any 48-hour driving marathons, running on candy and caffeine and peeing into a bottle.

Scot Laughlin’s Answer

Scot Laughlin‘s Answer says

To me, the most interpreting fact is that electric cars are lasting much longer (many more thousands of miles ) with low maintenance costs, than gas cars.

There’s a rental car fleet in California still running first-gen Tesla’s, some with over 300K miles on them. Some failed battery packs, but they were replaced under warranty with rebuilt (recycled) packs.

Read that again. Battery packs that have lost capacity, and those from wrecked cars, don’t go into landfills or torn down for raw materials. They get rebuilt, just like water pumps and alternators, and reused.

What that means is that all the anti electric whiners have been proven dead wrong about their “ what about all those dirty, wasteful, expensive batteries?” absurd.

This is not a big surprise to anyone who’s educated themselves about modern e-vehicles, but it’s nice to see real-world confirmation of what we’ve been saying all along.

Richard Hochhaus’s Answers

Richard Hochhaus, studied at Arizona State University says

If you think you are saving the environment, you don’t understand the costs.

You can get a speeding ticket quicker than you’ll ever realize how easy it is.

What a headache charging becomes and gradual battery degradation over time means fewer miles between recharges.

The fuel savings probably will never be realized over the exaggerated cost of an electric car. You can buy a lot of gasoline for the $10,000 penalty. Do the math.

Plan to be shocked by how quickly your car becomes obsolete as newer designs and innovation comes on the market after you bought yours.

Jeffrey Blaisdell’s Answer

Jeffrey Blaisdell, I’ve driven over 100,000 miles in various EVs’s says

For me, it’s all the little-known side benefits that stem from having an electric powertrain or from the common implementations thereof. For example, the skateboard design used by Tesla, which integrates the battery into the chassis, frees up the entire space under the hood and gives you a large additional cargo space, as well as an additional crumple zone that enhances safety.

The lack of need for exhaust pipes likewise increases leg/foot room in the cab and cargo space in the rear and allows the trunk to double as a passenger area if desired.

The skateboard approach also puts the single heaviest component at the very bottom of the car, which gives it a nice low center of gravity and improves handling.

Steve Clunn’s Answer

Steve Clunn, Electric Car Conversion technician at Green Shed Convention (2007-present) says

That they seemed to create an uncontrollable urge to buy solar panels. More than 50% of the people owning electric cars have solar panels. The other thing that I found really interesting as watching the car charge.

Has charging times keep going down fast charging it’s just something you have to experience but you also have to know what you’re experiencing which means having an electric car for a while.

This is my electric lawn mower this is my electric lawn mower that I charge for my electric truck in 6 to 8 minutes.

Abhimanyu Singh’s Answer

Abhimanyu Singh, One hell of a racing enthusiast have also driven Porsche 911 says

Well sure

They may not be cheap but will feel cheap after using them
Didn’t got that? They are a bit expensive but after using the deliver a long run on less charge
Not only as for transport but they are also used in formula racing so-called as FORMULA E in 2015 Mahindra participated in them
If you have good skills you can turn them easily into solar have an infinite amount of fuel during day time plus the battery

Kenneth D Scott’s Answer

Kenneth D Scott, former Chairman of the Board, Founder & Chemist says

My view is as follows: be aware of power consumption on long trips. I rarely drive over 10 mi above the speed limit. Remember, you cannot take a gallon of electricity with you. Also, sign up for AAA just in case.

Having said that, there are a large number of fueling stations in the USA. Get the Plug N Share app on your smart phone.

EVs are powered & fast, but.

If you have a Tesla, you rarely have to worry.

Jerry Roane’s Answer

Jerry Roane, CEO TriTrack Motors &CEO Roane Inventions Inc. (2017-present) says

Advanced dual-mode electric vehicles riding on elevated guideway would deliver the climate change (or lack of change) that the UN tried to accomplish this last week but without costing anyone more money.

The UN failed to get the countries attending the summit to set goals that would limit the “predicted” warming over 2 degrees. By switching freight to HEFF at the DOE and in the US and Chinese patent offices the world would exceed the goals they failed to achieve last week.

The effort put into sit-ins and carrying homemade flags should go into solving the engineering and production of that engineering to cool the planet and give us clean healthy air. Could-a Would-a Should-a The answers are available yet suppressed.

A. Livingston’s Answer

A. Livingston says

The most important one is that the engine would be $10,000. expense when it is needed to be replaced. Charging it at home requires a special adapter for charging.

Sunil Kumar Sharma’s Answer

Sunil Kumar Sharma, Advisor/www.electrikcars.in/wise & sane/politics

Norway will ban sale of all internal combustion engine cars (ICE) after 2025. At present almost 40% of the total cars sold in Norway are electric.

Germany will ban sale of all ICE beyond 2030.

Tony Seba, a professor at Stanford says that by 2025, all new vehicles sold will be electric.

Prananna N’s Answer

Prasanna N, Bcom Tesla, Chettinad Vidyashram says

They are silent, they hustle up to high speeds even sharper and faster than combustion engine cars, they rule the roads without compromising on the environment

Tried finding out ways and means to improve mileage and performance of ur fuel cars they don’t care for that they give long-range of Km without worrying on the mileage part because there is no such thing in it

Chris Moore’s Answer

Chris Moore, former Retired, Manager & Business Owner. IT in schools says

Clean
Easy to drive
Zero emissions
21st-century technology
Low maintenance and costs, Brakes and Tyres for safety.
Healthier driving, my personal opinion.
A cleaner environment, healthier for our children.

If you haven’t tried it, well I suggest you try it.

Geoff Campbell’s Answer

Geoff Campbell, Tesla Model S owner for over two years and 40,000 miles says

Here’s one that comes as a surprise to a lot of people:

It’s just a car.

And you know what? That’s about the highest praise I can pay for modern electric cars. They aren’t “pretty good for an electric car”, they are just good cars. Try one, you might be surprised.

Robert Parker’s Answer

Robert Parker, former Well Analyst at ChevronTexaco (1978-2004) says

That electric cars produce copious quantities of CO2. Less maybe than their ICE counterparts but still significant amounts.

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/electric-cars-co2-emissions-global-warming/

That they are relatively inefficient compared to gasoline powered cars.

The Inconvenient Truth About Electric Vehicles | OilPrice.com

That electric cars consume large amounts of fossil fuels (petrochemicals) in their manufacture the same as ICE cars.

How Much Oil is in an Electric Vehicle?

That electric cars need service that includes greasing motor bearings and steering control arms, brake repairs, tire replacement and all the other usual maintenance other than oil changes.

That you are avoiding “road tax” that is paid at every fill-up. Enjoy while you can, State legislatures are busy figuring out how you are going to pay it, and they will.

F Allen Morgan’s Answer

F Allen Morgan, worked at Combined Electric and Gas Utilities says

An electric motor produces constant torque, whereas a combustion engine does not, it ramps up the torque as it rpm’s increases (to the max at a specific rpm). This is why electric cars such as Tesla’s have such great 0–60mph speeds.

Shehroz Khan’s Answer

Shehroz Khan, Analyst (2017-present) says

The Most interesting fact is 1 that I found is the Fuel Savings and Money Savings with high Tech.

Chris Hall’s Answer

Chris Hall, Owned an EV since 2016 says

The fuel for my EV is 100% domestically produced and the price doesn’t go up and down like gas.

Martin Williams’s Answer

Martin Williams says

They are more trouble than they are worth.

Chris Rumbold’s Answer

Chris Rumbold, former Doctor and Chaplain says

Cheaper to run, maintain and repair.

Better acceleration than comparable ICE cars.

Quieter and smoother.

Most people that run one wouldn’t go back to an ICE – me included.

Rapid improvement in technology means if you lease one, by the time your lease is up, you get a much better car next time around. Unless you have a Tesla then it improves by updates over the web.

Steve Taylor’s Answer

Steve Taylor, studied at N. E. Tech says

Not having oil or exhaust parts I find accommodating. And driving a quiet vehicle is fascinating.

Dieter Wagner’s Answer

Dieter Wagner, former Race Driver (1967-1974) says

You have to be extremely patient for long distances (in Europe) take 5 days instead of 1 day.

Arnis Tarassu’s Answer

Arnis Tarassu, Mechanical engineering graduate with wild set of knowledge says

Before combustion engine cars there were electric cars.

Dan Abraham Erlich’s Answer

Dan Abraham Erlich, President at Avian Technologies Limited (2009-present) says

They are mechanically simple vehicles… they have only a fraction of the parts in them….

Doug Watson’s Answer

Doug Watson, BS Mechanical Engineering & Psychology, San Diego State University says

Rarely in my 72 years of life does a product come along that combines the desirable benefits of better, faster, cheaper, cleaner.

Better: From a user interface and a pure enjoyment standpoint. 93% say they’ll buy another Tesla or an additional Tesla as we did. The features are unique, innovative, and highly valued by consumers.

Faster: This part is legendary. See youtube drag times channel for more on this or hundreds of other channels since racing Teslas is an obsession for many. And the acceleration is virtually silent so nobody knows but you (grinning ear to ear) and the people you left in the dust at the stoplight.

Cheaper: This requires a long term view and a spreadsheet or calculator. The total cost of ownership over 5 years for a $40K Tesla Model 3 is less than for a $27K Camry or Accord and equal to a Corolla or Civic. And the savings keep on rolling. My 5-year-old Model S has saved me almost $20,000 in gas and maintenance compared to a similar class of car.

Model 3 Could Change The World: A Cost Of Ownership Study | Loup Ventures

Cleaner: Even when running on all coal sourced electricity (which isn’t available anywhere) A Tesla is cleaner than every gas car getting less than 45 mpg. There are not very many of those. Of course, on renewables, it is totally emission-free except for the tire dust.

Musthak Ibrahim’s Answer

Musthak Ibrahim says

Source: https://www.intelligentcarleasing.com/

Conclusion

First of all, I thank all the people who responded to the question that I asked on Quora. Then the moderators of Quora had merged the relevant answers to the question. 🙂

Did you read the answers to the question “Could you tell me a couple of interesting facts about electric cars?”

Are they really interesting?

Do you have more interesting facts about electric cars? Comment below!

Key points

The answers from many people to the question Interesting facts about electric cars are presented
All the answers are the individual’s opinion