It is happening… Electric is now starting to beat combustion, head on! And not in easy competitions… in serious climbs and serious heat…
(Photo courtesy of Lightning Motorcycles)Less than two weeks ago in the Pikes Peak race, where vehicles are timed up an 18km climb to the top of the 4300m road, this electric motorcycle beat all internal combustion engined bikes to the top. An open and «level» (its a mountain) playing field where electric flat out won.
Now, this past weekend, an electric race car built by student engineers from Zurich has beaten all the internal combustion engines in another open direct competion (the World’s largest student motorsport event in fact).
(Photo courtesy of Formula Student)
The amazing things are
1) The heat killed some of the big competitors… but isn’t heat supposed to be bad for electric? Seems they do better in fact.
And,
2) The second place winner was also electric!
Jon Hilton, Chairman of Formula Student: “We are delighted by this progress but we will have to see what needs to be done in the future to ensure petrol cars remain competitive.”
Get used to hearing that more and more! But they won’t remain competitive I’m afraid. It’s the start of the switch to Electric, and when engineers really get money and time to boost EV performance, we will close the chapter on yet another very dirty and polluted era of history.
Drive & Dream 