Making EVs fun to drive: Part two

The first is what I’m going to call the chocolate-chip-and-cookie-dough cars – ice cream with all the toppings and then some. Fun cars are not necessarily all featherweight razors like Caterhams or Alpine A110s. Bruisers like the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 and Nissan GT-R can be a lot of fun. I think we will inevitably see a family of performance EVs that will use technology to mitigate their fundamental problem, which is mass.

These cars will have very high power and torque outputs. Probably not the frankly ridiculous 2000bhp of the click-bait cars that we are seeing now, like the Lotus Evija and Pininfarina Battista, but probably still with 700-1000bhp available. They will have large (and therefore still relatively heavy) batteries in the 75 to 110kWh range, as their makers strive to offer ‘reasonable’ range figures.

But they will throw very sophisticated technology at the basic physics problem. Individual motors on each wheel (in-board, unlikely to be hub-mounted) will allow dynamic fore-aft and left-right torque vectoring. Theoretically, this allows chassis engineers to virtually shorten the wheelbase of a vehicle mid-curve – to make the car feel like it is pivoting around its vertical axis far quicker than it has any right to.

This can feel spookily close to breaking the laws of physics. Dan Prosser has described this effect while at the wheel of a Rimac, turning torque vectoring on and feeling the car suddenly become more agile. It’s been described as ‘the hand of God’, reaching down from the heavens and pivoting the car magically, a bit like we all used to pivot our little Matchbox or Dinky toys around those imaginary race tracks inscribed in our living room carpets.

Engineers have yet more ingredients at their disposal to chuck into this particular ice cream mix. Semi- or full-active suspension and electrically decoupling anti-roll bars can work wonders on body control, without having to ramp spring rates up to teeth-loosening levels. Modern brakes can bleed away the enormous kinetic energy of heavy cars at high speeds. (By the way, don’t fall for the myth that the electric motors alone can bring the car to a stop. They can’t, or at least not fast enough.)

Clearly, we are in the business of hiding or disguising things we don’t like. But equally, we can simulate things we do like. Engine noises can be synthesised, for instance. Pleasant vibrations can be synthesised. Fake? Sure. I’m even going to suggest that some future EV maker might simulate a manual gearbox.

We all know one of the major technical advantages of an e-motor – instant torque from zero rpm, and no torque interruption right through the rev range. A flat-line torque curve, the powertrain engineer’s dream. But it does not have to be so. The e-motor power controller could very easily simulate torque interruptions as the driver pulls paddles behind the wheel or even – perish the thought – dips a ‘clutch’ pedal and moves a ‘gear’ lever.

More fakery? Yup! But maybe not so far-fetched. You may not know that today’s double-clutch gearboxes play a similar trick between gears. In theory, you can engineer a double-clutch ‘box to have no torque interruption at all between ratios. You can set the software up so that the torque just stays flat as you pull the paddle. It’s the quickest set-up around a test track, in fact. But a car strangely boring when configured like this. There is no excitement, just more speed.

Different car makers therefore cheat a little in the software controlling the twin clutches. Some try to replicate the full torque drop-off of an old manual box, so you get a distinct interruption in drive, then feel a ‘kick in the behind’ as the next gear engages. Add a bit of rev flare and it feels and sounds dramatic. Some makers choose to do the opposite. They use the inertia of the rotating engine parts to give a torque boost during the gear change, so that you actually feel the car leap forward in the instant when you pull the paddle. Unlike any manual gearbox, but again, it feels weirdly exciting. So making an electric powertrain ‘feel’ like an ICE mated to a manual gearbox is very possible, utterly illogical….and I predict that someone will do it.

But for everyone who likes their ice cream complicated, there will always be those who like straightforward, classic vanilla. And here I think we will see a generation of cars diametrically opposed to the technical tour de forces described above. Imagine for a moment that we accept a smaller battery and a limited range, either because it’s truly a weekend car and we are not going to drive it for hundreds of miles at a time, or (better) because we have made great strides forward with the high-speed charging network.

Now imagine that the relatively light battery cells are built into the structure of the car – either an aluminium tub (if we want to keep things affordable) or carbon fibre if we’re aiming at a wealthier clientele. We now put a relatively modest, say 300bhp, single e-motor on the rear axle. No fancy 4WD, 4WS or torque vectoring here – just a locking diff.

What might it weigh? I genuinely believe that with a few years of technical progress and a little bit of risk-taking on the part of a plucky manufacturer, it could come in as low as 1200kg. That’s only 100kg heavier than the petrol-powered Alpine A110.

As we’ve carefully controlled the mass, and kept power (and torque) reasonable, we can fit relatively small, narrow tyres, so the car has more power than grip. Simple linear steering and passive anti-roll bars, which are nice and skinny, as the centre of gravity is slammed on the ground. Nothing fake. No noise or vibration synthesis, just the natural electromagnetic sound of the motor.

No fake manual gearbox, either, since we’re going to surf that natural silky-smooth torque curve. This car will not be particularly impressive on paper. It will probably be smoked away from the traffic lights by a Tesla Model 3 Performance. Nor will it have a very high top speed. But it will dance, it will be agile as hell, it will slip and slide and it will bite you if you go past the limits. Dare we say it? It’s a sort of Lotus Seven for the 21st century. The very best, creamiest vanilla ice cream.

So, chin up, folks! I think we’re going to see both approaches – the more-is-better tech-laden approach, and the pared-down purist approach. And it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun watching it all play out.