Out of curiosity do you think a performance EV or a performance ice car would be fastest from 40 to 100 mph?
It really does depend upon the two cars you stack up against each other.
Max torque at set off is often cited as the reason, which is in part true, however assuming that both cars have four driven wheels and have no need to manually change gear, then traction off the line (without bogging down) and the absence of gear changes helps significantly at slower speeds. Even rapid changing dual clutch gearboxes take time to shift.
However as speed increases the benefit of those advantages dimiinish: both motors are spinning, traction becomes less and less of an issue, and gear changes become less frequent. Torque will also be limited in low gears in very powerful ICE engines to protect the transmission and aid traction, but becomes much less of an issue as speed (and gears) rises, as the torque multiplying effect of the gearbox reduces.
However as speed increases beyond road legal speeds fast-EVs start to benefit more and more from reduced drag which means that they don’t get left behind completely. Of course fast-EVs have a slippery shape, try to minimise frontal area, and have other features like aero efficient wheel designs to clean up messy air flow.
EVs don’t need to use the cooling effect of air in the same way as an ICE car, as they don’t generate as much heat, and even when acceleration is comparable then the design criteria are not. The ICE with fast-EV acceleration will be designed for much harder driving, the EV will be the opposite. EVs don’t work brakes hard due to regen, etc.
Those areas which need to be cooled on an ICE car are typically the areas responsible for a significant proportion of the drag. The wheels and brakes (as mentioned), the radiators, and engine bay, but of course in practice the
air intake and running of the engine also contributes to drag, which is why “extreme” cars have active aero in the grilles (both extreme eco ICE and extreme performance ICE).
Finally as the ICE car with fast-EV performance will have been designed for hard driving they will also have been designed to reduce lift or increase downforce, which doesn’t come for free, it’s at the cost of drag. Generally the aerodynamics of the ICE car with fast-EV acceleration are designed with with different performance parameters in mind.
Like I say, it depends upon the cars concerned. In the real world you need a very very fast road car and more than a dose of skill to keep up with an EV in the traffic light grand prix.
