Team-BHP - Comparing Electric Vehicles, Plug-In Hybrids, Petrol and Diesel Cars

For the past six months I have driven over 18 different cars having different body styles, power source and styles. Here is my comparison regarding various aspects of each type and I will take the best power source for the aspect as base comparison

Cars Driven -

1. Petrol - Toyota Camry, BMW X5, Mercedes GLS, Corvette, Viper, S550, Z4 etc

2. Diesel - S350, GLS350, Ford Endeavour, Fortuner

3. Plug In Hybrid - BMW i8

4. EV - Model S, Model X

Aspects -

1. Real World Speed -

EV is like driving a diesel engine car with the rev counter of a petrol car that has no upper rpm limit and the idle rpm is at the sweet spot of a torquey diesel engine. Imagine how fun that would be. Only other car that is equally fun to drive is the BMW i8 which uses Electric Motors on front wheels and petrol engine for back wheels. This gives you instant torque whenever you want!

2. Fun to Drive -

I would say that i8 is the most fun to drive even though it has a fake engine exhaust coming from the speaker system ( who cares as long as it gives the feels ). The Electric Motors/ Petrol Engine Combo gives you the best of both worlds. EV are a close second. ICE cars feel like a few generations behind

3. Comfortable -

This is where the ICE cars takes the cake. Because Petrol and Diesel cars are not so weight impacted ( Range Anxiety is real ) , they have better insulations, heavier seats, better cushioning, more sound dampening that makes the experience amazing.

4. Practicality - Currently if you drive more that 400 km a day ( Very doable in Western Countries ) Electric Cars would not really be a practical solution, other than that they are perfect for daily driving, You never have to make an unscheduled fuel stop because your EV is being charged at your house at night. Diesel on the other hand is a workhorse and can take you places on a single tank! The next generation electric cars are going to have 600km+ ranges with 1500km/hr+ charging which would bring them a step closer to the petrol and diesel cars. Other than that Electric cars are limited in body types to smaller size so if you need large one for your work they are not ideal.

5. Feel Good Factor - For me nothing feels better than knowing that the brakes of my car are being used to regenerate the energy that would have been otherwise lost on a ICE Engine setup. Both Plug in Hybrids and EV will make the environmentalist in you go Gaga. But the kid in me still loves the adrenaline that flows with sound of a petrol engine revving hard . I would let my petrolhead win here

6. Technology - Teslas are the epitome of technological advancements with over the air updates, Autopilot ( You dont want to drive all the time ) , Control Via Cell Phone which have not been implemented in ICE Cars as of yet due to manufacturer issues or maybe because an ICE engine car is so complex ( Engine, Timing, Transmission, Fuel Flow, Air Flow etc ) that OTA updates would be not advisable for the cars

7. Cost of ownership - EV's win them hands down. Lower cost of fuel is not the only advantage. They have no service schedule, bring it when something breaks kind of attitude. The brake pads last forever ( I have heard them to last 1,50,000 km ) due to regenerative braking and because of lack of moving parts repair is easier and car is not complex at all.

8. Reliability - None of the EV have had any problems. Two of the ICE cars i drove got check engine lights, which I would leave for you all to guess :uncontrol I am hopeful that EV would be more reliable just because of the fact that there are less moving parts , less parts overall to lesser things that can go wrong.

Conclusion - The Automobile world as we know has changed with the introduction of EV and over the past 10 years they have come leaps and bounds from the original versions. It is the future and ICE engines will just be a novelty.