The acceleration of an electric car is generally faster than that of a gasoline car of the same level (except for some sports cars). This is a phenomenon, and the commonly known explanation is that the motor has a high torque and can explode instantly. But why is this situation happening? I think there may be relatively few people who have a deep understanding.
To delve deeper into this issue, the first step is to understand the working principle of electric vehicles driven by electric motors and their differences from gasoline powered vehicles. The working principle of an internal combustion engine is to ignite a mixture of gasoline and air, release heat to drive the piston to move, and then drive the crankshaft to rotate, thereby driving the wheels.
This process is like riding a bicycle, except that when riding a bicycle, the legs can be understood as a two cylinder two stroke engine, while cars generally have a four cylinder four stroke engine. When starting a bicycle, it is very laborious and the acceleration effect is not good. When the pedal speed of both feet reaches a certain frequency, the acceleration is more obvious.
The same is true for internal combustion engines. When the speed reaches a certain range, the torque starts to reach its peak, and it takes a relatively long time for the speed to reach this range from 0. A conventional household car has an engine speed of up to 8000-9000rpm. Once this speed is reached, the engine torque begins to decrease. Therefore, it is necessary for the gearbox to change the gears connected to the engine, reduce the gear ratio, and continue to let the engine work in the maximum torque range to maintain the vehicle’s acceleration. Taking cycling as an example, a bicycle with a gearbox uses large gears at low speeds, which is more energy-efficient. However, after reaching a certain speed, smaller gears need to be replaced to continue allowing both feet to pedal quickly and maintain a frequency range. This shift time also makes the acceleration time of fuel powered vehicles longer.
The working principle of motors is different, whether it is synchronous or asynchronous motors, they are driven to rotate by the magnetic field force generated by the stator, which affects the magnetic field force of the rotor. If you played with magnets when you were young, you would definitely understand the principle of same-sex repulsion and opposite attraction, and the magnetic field of a magnet is fixed, so gravity or repulsion is fixed.
The motor generates a magnetic field through electromagnetic induction in the stator or rotor, which is proportional to the magnitude of the current. Therefore, the magnetic field size of the stator or rotor is variable by controlling the magnitude of the current. The change in current can be rapid, and it can become the maximum current immediately after being powered on. Therefore, the magnetic field can be established instantly, driving the rotor to move. This time is much faster than that of an internal combustion engine, resulting in the motor being able to quickly reach high speed, which is the peak range of torque.
In addition, current electric vehicles generally have a single speed transmission, but in fact, this is just a term that tends to refer to traditional fuel powered vehicle transmissions. Scientifically speaking, the transmission of electric vehicles is just a reducer, which is equivalent to a gear in the transmission. Due to the fact that the motor can present maximum torque over a long range of speeds, and the maximum speed of the motor can usually reach 10000 revolutions per minute, there is almost no need to change the gear ratio of the motor. If you switch to a bicycle, there is only one gear. Accelerating as long as you pedal faster is OK, and there is no time to shift gears, which is faster than the acceleration time of a gasoline powered car.
Summary: Both internal combustion engines and electric motors are actually accelerated by increasing the speed. However, the internal combustion engine speed of fuel powered vehicles increases slower than that of electric motors, and the single stage reducer matched with the electric motor does not have the same shifting time as the gearbox matched with the internal combustion engine. Therefore, electric vehicles naturally start much faster than ordinary fuel powered vehicles.
