Electric traction is definitely the future. Along with steam engines, they have the benefit of having maxim torque at minimum revolutions which can lead to better acceleration.
It's also why a steam or electric (including diesel electric) locomotive can take a large heavy train from standstill to full speed without the aid of changing gear ratios.
Absolutely correct. I had written a longish post on exactly that, but decided I was getting too far off-topic.
Those are the two main forms of heavy-duty so-called linear power curve systems. Diesel/electric locomotives were chosen to replace wood/coal/oil-fired steam locomotives for precisely that reason. No gearbox is required because there is no non-linear engine RPM sweet spot to stay inside, so they mimic the performance of their steam predecessors.
And in fact a Tesla, or any fully electric vehicle, utilizes exactly the same principle, except the Tesla substitutes lithium batteries for the uncoupled diesel engines that drive electric generators in the locomotives. And nuclear-powered ships simply use radioactive decay instead of external combustion boilers to produce steam for conventional propulsion.
Accelerating in a Tesla is somewhat akin to starting out in the Ferrari from a dead stop in first gear, then stepping on the gas all the way, but never having to shift again, and still getting that same level of first gear acceleration all the way up to the maximum speed.
Conceptually it's closer to a rocket, where you go from a standstill to orbital velocity in one continuous maximum push, than it is to a gasoline engine where you must approach your maximum speed in discreet well-defined stages one after another.
And in practice it's truly eerie.
In the Tesla your key fob signals your proximity to the vehicle and activates its systems before you even climb in. You just get in, sit down, press the accelerator, and go.
There is no starting of an engine. No warm-up. No oil pressure. No water pressure. No putting it in gear. No engine revving. No clutching. No transmission. No drive train. No vibrations. No sound. No smell. Nothing. Open the window and all you hear is the tires rolling on the pavement. And the wind rushing by.
It's a completely different energy management approach to converting potential energy into the kinetic energy of motion. From a basic physics point of view, internal combustion engines just cannot fully compete, even if they do look and sound much cooler to the eyes and ears.
They are simply constrained by their basic physical and design limitations, much the same way that a bicycle cannot match up with a motorcycle, even though both have two wheels and in principle operate very similarly.
Ken
