What does “instant torque” mean in electric cars?
Have you ever wondered why people emphasize “instant torque” when discussing acceleration in electric vehicles? Let’s break it down!
#electriccars #torque #acceleration #instanttorque
Understanding Instant Torque
Curious about what makes instant torque such a hot topic in the world of electric vehicles? Here’s a simple explanation:
- Electric motors generate maximum torque from the moment they start spinning, unlike traditional internal combustion engines.
- This immediate power delivery results in faster acceleration compared to gas-powered vehicles.
Exploring the Concept
Are you still puzzled about the concept of “instant torque”? Let’s delve deeper.
- When you press the accelerator in an electric car, you feel an immediate surge of power due to the instant delivery of torque.
- Unlike gas cars, which may require time to build up power, electric vehicles provide a quick and seamless acceleration experience.
So, next time you hear about “instant torque” in electric cars, remember that it refers to the rapid and responsive power delivery that sets them apart from traditional vehicles. Ready to hit the road with this newfound knowledge?
I think they mean in comparison to internal combustion engines which use gearing, and do not provide instant torque due to the clutch slippage.
Fun fact diesel trains use electric to get going out the station because a diesel engine just isn’t enough when it’s stationary.
It means an electric motor can apply its full rated “twisting force” (torque) from zero rpm.
An internal combustion engine has to build up some revs before its full “twisting force” becomes available. So if you have to build up, say, 3500 rpm, to the point where an engine is delivering its full torque, that takes time. An electric motor can deliver that full torque as soon as it starts turning.
Any combustion machine has his nominal torque at a given rpm,
while electrical engines have their nominal torque from the beginning.
In cars for example this has the effect that electrical cars accelerate from 0 to vmax with a continuous torque
without any lags like the combusting engines have while building up rpm or switch gears or enable turbo loaders.
Electric motors in a resting position have their magnetic poles as close to each other as possible, so when you apply electricity to the magnets they can impart their absolute maximum force instantly giving electric motors 100% torque from resting. Combustion engines cannot do this, they rely on a series of small well timed explosions being combined together to create a torque greater than the sum of its parts, so peak torque doesn’t occur until the engine is cycling fast enough.
When you hear about a cars horse power or torque number in a commercials it’s talking about its peak. When you step on the gas, it doesn’t always produce that number advertised. For example, my trucks peak torque is 600 ft pounds but that’s only at around 1600-2000 rpm. Higher or lower than that on the tachometer and it’s making significantly less power than that. You can look up your cars year make and model torque curve on google and you’ll see a graph. A combustion vehicles graph is literally a curved line. If you look at an electric cars torque graph, it will just be a block, or a square because you get full torque everywhere in the rev range.
It’s probably simpler and more accurate to think of it as constant power. Combustion engines will have a power curve which will provide peak power at one specific rpm and lower power above and below that.
An ideal electric motor will privide the same power output no matter which rpm you are at. This makes them much faster for accelerating an pulling loads and also means you need far fewer if any gears in the transmission and can even do away with the transmission entirely for some cases.
Do you know turbo lag? Instant torque is not turbo (or any other) lag.
An internal combustion engine has a lot of inertia working against it *and* it needs to not slow down too much or it will stall. If you just spin the engine to its max power RPM and drop the clutch hard, you’ll just stall the engine. You need to baby the contraption a bit, get it moving then gradually accelerate. In an EV the transistors close, the electromagnets are energized and you have the full torque on the wheels within *milliseconds*. Electric motors do not need to be rotating already to exert force (which is why your ICE car’s starter is one).
Let me put it to you this way. When I put the pedal to the floor in my Jeep Cherokee, it doesn’t start speeding up for 2 full seconds. It’s a 6 cylinder so it has some power, but the computer fucks with everything to improve efficiency. So once you get it revved up… after a few seconds… then it has ok power.
Electric cars don’t have this issue.
With internal combustion engines, there’s always a lag between pressing the accelerator pedal and the car engine responding, some is basic physics, some is actually deliberate to make the car easier to drive and more efficient (better mpg). The engine needs to spin up to a certain speed before it has enough torque (turning force) to make a difference. There’s a clutch and gearbox which might also drag out response.
With an EV, there’s lots of torque from stationary, and there’s no delay, which makes them feel very responsive, more so than a fossil fuel car of higher power.
My slower ev has about 350hp. My son’s bmw has about 450hp. So by the numbers being that our cars weight close to the same, he should beat me in a race. However his car only hits 450hp when the tachometer is in a narrow range (called the power band). So the reality is my electric motor is getting full power right off the start and I will beat his car off the line and it is only once his engine gets into the power band that he will catch up and pass me.
Put your foot down at 1500 RPM, then at 4000 (on same gear). Noticed any difference?
Electric is always like at 4000.
With an ICE, when you step on the gas, the throttle opens and allows more fuel into the cylinders, this increases the power of the explosions in trhe cylinder, resulting in the engine turning over more quickly. This increased rate of revolutions is then mechanically transferred to the wheels, via a gearbox.
Every step of this process takes a certain amount of time to happen and that adds up to a noticable delay between your foot pressing the pedal and the wheels increasing their speed.
In an electric vehicle, there’s no delay. The instant your foot starts moving down, the wheels spin faster.
What they mean is torque at low RPM. An engine produces it’s peak torque at high speed (usually), it won’t make much at low engine speeds. An electric motor doesn’t really suffer from this disadvantage, it can produce most of it’s torque at any speed, even low speeds.
Some people think that their ice car has nearly instantaneous torque from their moment their foot hits the accelerator, but there’s always some lag time in reality. When you drive an ev it becomes very apparent how slow the ice is in comparison.
You know how a gas car takes a little bit to get get up to speed?
Compare that to a golf cart, or a radio controlled toy car. As soon as you press the accelerator, it starts going as fast as it can without any ramp up. The only thing keeping it from reaching max speed instantly is inertia of the mass it’s trying to accelerate.
At the end of the day this means that an EV can accelerate at highway speeds FAR quicker than an ICE car can.
Imagine you have to change lanes on the highway, and there is a small spot you need to get into one car length in front of you. When you hit the accelerator in an ICE car, you probably don’t notice it, but it takes half a second or a second for it to “spool up” to the speed you want to get to to get into that spot. If you were in an EV, when you hit the accelerator you immediately lunge forward and can get into that spot faster.
It actually makes changing lanes much easier and faster.
You ever taken off a tire? You know how you start pulling on the tire wrench, and it’s not moving, so you pull harder and then harder and then harder? That’s gradual torque.
Now, if you ever had a lug nut get stuck, you position the lug nut wrench parallel to the ground and you jumped up and onto the tire wrench, that’s instant torque.
You know when you turn on the hair dryer, it starts working at max speed right away?
Imagine that in a car. That’s instant torque.