While electric cars are certainly the hottest thing since sliced bread, they still represent just 2% of domestic car sales and many of us are very confused about how to compare them to gas-powered cars. All the numbers for EVs, like Kilowatts, Amps, and KwHs are completely unfathomable to most of the public. Luckily, they aren’t too complicated once you know how to compare them to more familiar metrics like horsepower and fuel tank size. Here are the main electric car specifications you need to know how to decrypt:
On an electric car spec sheet, a kilowatt is a lot like a horsepower. You can read it as informing you how powerful the car will feel underneath you, and how fast/quick it will be on the road. One Kilowatt is roughly equal to 1.34 horsepower. When reading up on an EV that has piqued your interest, simply multiply the kW metric by 1.3-1.5 in your head and you’ve got yourself a good approximation of horsepower. For instance, a 100 kW motor would have 140 or so horsepower, and the Tesla’s 451kW across two motors gives it a claimed 680 combined horsepower.
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