Yosemite Sam1 wrote:
And that's just the single motor. 400 horses. right there on the starting line -- unlike ICE had to be revved up to the max get that top horsepower rating.
Then 16 inches of ground clearance.
This bad boy can climb walls.
Bad Boy Cybertruck
Sure...except no it doesn't.
HP = RPM * Torque.
At zero RPM, it has zero HP off the line.
Electric motors need to spool up to generate max HP.
That said, assume both have the same peak HP, the electric motor will usually win out (assuming the power feeds can handle the power...on race tracks, teslas are known to go into limp mode because they overheat the electrical system dumping too much power).
You have to consider actual HP output at a particular RPM to see the difference and that gets a little more complicated:
- Electric motors can generally put out peak torque at any RPM, so even at 1 RPM at the wheels, the motor is already putting out peak torque. By the time the wheel gets up to 2 RPM, you have doubled the HP output if you are keeping it at peak torque.
- ICE is a bit more complicated. At idle RPM, generally, you get significantly less than peak torque. So if you take your foot off the brake and then hit the accelerator, you start off with comparatively low HP (relative to an electric motor with the same peak torque) and the engine needs to spool up to get in the peak torque range. This is why you often will feel a slow acceleration followed a second later by an increase in acceleration. Further complicating it with automatic transmissions, is you can give it a little gas before letting off on the brake. The torque converter will allow the engine to spool up and then you have more torque available immediately.
But really, once you can spin the wheels, more HP doesn't offer much advantage for the average user.
16" clearance...yeah go check out any jeep club. Then go check out your average pickup buyer. It's not hard to build a 4x4 that will climb walls but for most users, climbing a 6" curb on rare occasions is about the worst they will see. Really big heavy full size pickups with stiff suspensions are lousy for off road.
