With its 2,000 horsepower Evija, Lotus is a pioneer in the electric power industry while other sports car makers are lagging behind. Photo: Lotus
They can be faster, they don't need gears and don't have to constantly fiddle under the hood. But that's why many sports car enthusiasts remain indifferent to the new generation of electric vehicles.
“I think the main thing is the noise,” says Hugo Holder, a racing enthusiast with 15 years of experience, owner of Caterham and director of the Club classic sports cars in Wiltshire.
For many weekend racers or Formula One fans, the roar of an engine is a thrill that is hard to match. The barely audible hum of an electric motor is simply inaudible.
“People who race love the handling aspect of having a vehicle that you can make do what you need to win,” adds Mr. Holder .
«Now if you're talking about an electric car, a lot of that is gone, especially because you don't have gears.»
While mass-market car makers like Ford and Renault are moving ahead with shifting to electric at speed, high-performance sports car makers are — perhaps ironically — acting with greater caution.
McLaren Chief Executive Michael Leiters, last week became the latest industry figure to warn that his company is not yet ready to go electric.
Leiters praised the technology but said it was not advanced enough for his designers to use. The batteries are too heavy, he complained. It could take up to 10 years for his firm's electric race car to arrive, he says.
McLaren CEO Michael Leiter says that his company is not ready to switch to electricity. Photo: Carlos Jasso/Bloomberg Finance LP
Others, such as Ferrari and BMW, are concerned that a battery-powered engine will be boring to drive even if they can reach the same speeds. If there's no engine roar, where's the excitement?
«You're watching a Formula 1 start, it's something visceral,» says Mr. Holder, whose club organizes race days around the world for its 1,000-horsepower team . membership and is planning a trip to Daytona later this year.
«Lots of [electric] cars coming off the assembly line probably not that exciting or exciting.»
For luxury car makers like Bentley and Rolls-Royce, selling electric cars is easier. They're light, comfortable cars, and heavy limousines are seen more as a selling point than a problem.
But Leiters' comments are the latest sign that top sports car makers are doubtful of an electric future. at least for now.
Assuming riders demand the same range as the petrol model, nearly a ton of weight could be added to the car with a heavy lithium battery. This radically changes its driving performance.
Jim Sucker, automotive expert and professor emeritus at Loughborough University, says: «Basically, you need a lot more power to make this thing work.»
Will pure zero push be able to become an electric spell? driving a sports car for the weekend?
Flick the switch or stay put?
Car companies believe they have found a third way that allows them to meet government environmental mandates while also delivering the same intuitive experience drivers love.
McLaren is focusing on hybrids, according to Leiters. technologies to preserve the «emotional experience» of their cars. The company is developing a gasoline engine with a small battery to collect the power lost during braking and use it to accelerate again.
Porsche, owned by Volkswagen, favors so-called e-fuels, which can be installed in standard diesel or petrol engines.
E- or synthetic fuels are made from the same combination of hydrogen and carbon atoms as gasoline or diesel fuel .
However, they are not dug out of the ground, cleaned or burned, but produced from water and air using green electricity. This means that they are classified as environmentally friendly.
The production process for e-fuel is convoluted, meaning that, mile after mile, producing synthetic gasoline will likely always be more expensive than using clean electricity to charge an electric car. battery. Buyers of £100,000+ cars, however, will be less concerned about the price.
Lobbying by Germany has helped win an exemption for e-fuel from the upcoming EU ban on internal combustion vehicles in 2035. The UK has not yet decided whether to use this technology.
Known for its light, fast racing cars, Lotus is the first established sports car manufacturer to go all-electric Photo: David Rose
Automakers, including Aston Martin and Ferrari have declared their interest in e-fuel, as has McLaren.
There are a few sports cars, however. companies developing the electric power industry.
Lotus, known for its pedigree in light, fast racing cars, said last year that it would be the first established sports car manufacturer to go completely gasoline-free. His Emira will be the last model with an internal combustion engine.
In its place comes the Evija hypercar. Introduced in 2019, the £2 million 2,000-horsepower monster has a rather modest 70 kWh battery pack that keeps the car from weighing more than 1.7 tons. It can hit 60 mph in less than three seconds, beating petrol competitors.
Gavan Kershaw, Lotus director of car attributes, says the Evija “has the phenomenal torque it can deliver. But you can represent it with the position of the pedal, as you can with a gasoline engine.
Noise from tires, wind, motors and power systems means that electric riders have some feedback.
He adds: “You can make a car super agile. It can be fun, exciting, inspiring, but not necessarily scary.”
Founded by racing driver Colin Chapman, Lotus has long focused on compact designs that eliminate unnecessary weight, or as Mr. Chapman: «Simplify, then add lightness.»
Lotus' job is to balance. mileage, performance and charging times,” says Mr. Kershaw, whose job it is to keep the cars feeling.
“You can have people who want to do long tours with them, or someone someone who is going to go on a track day,” he says. «And they'll do a 20-minute track day session, charge for 15-20 minutes, and leave again.»Formula E offers a testing ground for the development of electric sports cars. Photo: Thierry Carpico/ATP images
Mr Kershaw notes that tastes in cars are changing. V8-powered muscle cars of the cheap oil era in the early 1970s gave way to tighter, turbocharged four-cylinder cars after the gas price spike.
Electric racers can benefit from the same changes as gasoline and diesel cars. will be terminated.
Other brands are exploring the possibilities of electric cars: Ferrari plans to launch an electric sports car, but at the same time, it is worried about the lack of noise that an electric version will produce. The company has patented ways to suppress and amplify engine noise.
Professor Sacker points out that modern internal combustion engines are the product of decades of improvement, and battery-powered vehicles would benefit from the same wear and tear.
“ You need a cycle of five to ten years to really understand what's really going on with handling,” he says.
Most of the latest technology in sports cars started on the Formula One track. Formula E, a competitive electric car competition, offers a chance for such a development.
Members of the Classic Sports Car Club in Wiltshire are intrigued. “Of course, we would be interested if we were presented with a comparable battery-powered racing car that has its own noise and smell,” says Mr. Holder.
When this legendary model finally appears, it will be completely different question.
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