EVs Have Gotten Too Powerful

Mass is still the enemy here, and EVs typically have lots of it. Factor in bigger brakes and wheels, and the result is an increase in unsprung mass. That puts the springs and dampers under more pressure, which results in an increased amount of energy that needs to be managed, and unwanted oscillations when a car hits a pothole, for example.

A car also wants to pivot around what’s known as the center of yaw. If you can locate as much mass as possible close to that point, then the car will rotate in a more agile way. (That’s why the Evija’s 93-kWh battery pack sits in the middle of the car, which helps imbue it with more traditionally agile Lotus handling. It’s still heavy, though.) As clever as it all is, it still feels like you’re chasing your tail.

Jaguar is currently finessing its controversial new four-door electric super coupe. It will be powered by a new tri-motor setup and a substantial battery, with a power output hovering close to 1,000 bhp. That’s arguably brand-appropriate, but still excessive.

WIRED has sampled the new all-electric Range Rover, a car on which the brief was to stick as close as possible to the ICE car’s formidable capabilities: an imperious character, with effortless performance. No neck-snapping acceleration here, then, but the same team of experts is currently calibrating the new Jaguar using the same set of tools.

“You can deploy all the performance with the smallest angle of the throttle pedal, if you want to,” says Jaguar Land Rover’s chief dynamics guru, Matt Becker. “But what that means is you get too much performance too soon, because you have all the torque available from zero. Some of the early EVs suffered from that, leading to that sudden rush of power.

“You can also scale the throttle pedal and filter its response depending on which chassis mode you’re in. There are different ways of managing the power, but it is a challenge because there’s so much available. Remember that it’s also relative to the amount of mass you have.”

Colin Hoad is one of the lead instructors with CAT driver training. He teaches private clients who own high-performance cars, but most of their work is in training car industry development drivers. And he has identified some EV-related issues.

“It’s not just the large amount of horsepower, it’s also the instant torque delivery that’s a challenge,” Hoad says, echoing Becker’s point. “My gut feeling is that it’s too much for the average driver.”

Hoad adds that rebound damping, which controls the speed at which suspension extends after being compressed, also seems to be a challenge in some EVs. That’s because of the extra weight they’re carrying. “I’m not convinced that the valving in the damping has kept pace with the rest of the car,” he says.

This is not to say that carmakers aren’t rapidly improving things. For example, multilink suspension is now more commonplace, and the software and tech that supports stability control systems is vastly more sophisticated than it used to be. “In other words, drivers are protected from the worst-case scenario, if they’re suddenly overwhelmed … or run out of talent,” Hoad says.

WIRED is certainly not trying to instigate a moral panic here, but it may be worth asking if a recalibration needs to occur. There is such a thing as too much power.

Back to the Mercedes AMG GT XX, which features new battery-cell chemistry that allows it to charge at up to 850 kW. That’s a game changer right there, and tantalizingly promises recharging in mere minutes. Isn’t the speed at which you can recharge more meaningful in the real world than the speed at which you can hit 60?