While choosing an electric vehicle over its internal combustion engine (ICE) counterpart is often done out of concern for the environment or saving costs on gas, the excitement of instant torque is also a big draw. Few EV owners and their passengers are immune to the thrill of an electric vehicle’s impressive speed during acceleration.
One way to explain the wows and whoops instant torque usually elicits is to understand how the engine of an electric vehicle works. Torque is used in physics and mechanics, a measure of force needed to make an object spin on its axis. Think of it as a corollary to the push and pull of linear force, with torque being the twist used to move something in a circle. In a car, torque is the “oomph” or pulling power the engine delivers, and the greater the torque, the faster the acceleration.
ICE vehicles have torque, but the rotational force created by a gas-powered engine has to go through a lot of moving parts and processes before it reaches the wheels of a car. First, there’s the little explosion of fuel and air, which drives a slew of pistons, which then turns a crankshaft, which then checks in at a gearbox until finally this energy and force reaches the wheel and turns it along the road. That chain of events literally involves hundreds of parts and requires an ICE engine to “rev up” before it can reach faster speeds.
The electric vehicle, of course, takes a different tact. Its engine is pretty simple in comparison and with a lot fewer moving parts. Press the throttle of an EV and the battery power that action releases is directly transferred to the car’s main rotor and right to the wheels. No revving up, no waiting for the odometer needle to inch up to cruising speed but instead, the much-acclaimed instant torque and fantastic vehicle performance.
Besides blazing acceleration, those far fewer engine parts in an electric vehicle means that significantly less energy is lost to friction. This translates into reduced engine maintenance costs but also one super-efficient machine, especially compared to ICE vehicles. Nevertheless, all that energy instantly being transferred to the wheel is a big reason why electric vehicles can benefit from EV Ready tires.
