Well, whenever we drive through to Amsterdam from the German Border it takes a bit over an hour anyway
New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) in China
- Thread starter supercat
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Some say the speed limit is more of a suggestion, as long as one doesn't get caughtWell, whenever we drive through to Amsterdam from the German Border it takes a bit over an hour anyway
I have business that takes me to Germany regularly. I enjoy driving too.
Over the years, I've driven and been driven on the autobahn lots. Plus the occasional jaunt in the Nordschleife
My 2c ... automobile design is largely a reflection of their domestic environment and customers the vehicle is designed for. Generally speaking, I find Asian (Japanese/Korean) cars to be built for law-abiding driving at up to normal speed limits. They are generally cruise well at up to 110-120kmph and then start to show instability and intrusive cabin noise at 150+kmph. German cars otoh are usually stable up to 160kmph and only start to show instability past 200+kmph. Makes sense if you consider that a large part of driving is rarely above 110-130kmph. Why over engineer a car beyond 95% of what your average customers will need? (I actually have almost zero experience driving China makes)
Safety at speed, or the perception of, is therefore part dependent on the type or quality of car you drive. I wouldn't do 160kmph average for 3+ hours in a Toyota Corolla but I'll happily do 210kmph average, for 3 hours, in a BMW 5 or Audi 6 (conditions permitting). My first experience on the autobahn, 30+ years ago, was in a Nissan 120Y ... It was TERRIFYING. The car was wobbling all over the place, even more so when it was rocked by the slipstream from large vehicles overtaking us. Contrast with my most recent experience in a 530d xDrive, you barely feel the speed, even at 200kmph.
Some other things I notice on the Autobahn (the unregulated sections). Most people do not drive past 160+/- kmph. I'm guessing that's a sweet spot for cabin comfort and driver stress - possibly fuel efficiency comes into the picture as well. Maybe only 5~10% of cars are actually on the leftmost lane overtaking at 200+ kmph.
The other thing I notice ... I tend to rent high spec (large engine) cars for driving in Germany. The kind that does 0-100 in 5s or so kind. For the most part, I notice that merging-acclerating onto a autobahn, I tend to keep up with a lot of the BEV. Then, past a certain point of aggressive acceleration, they all quietly lag on the middle lanes while I overtake them at 200+ kmph. My guess is that with a typical BEV full charge range of max 400km (+/-), range anxiety looms large when you're chewing through your battery charge at higher than efficient cruising speeds. 90%+ of cars I see on the leftmost lane are typically ICE cars and maybe some PHEVs.
My observation is small sample and highly anecdotal - but I'd say that given the domestic market for Chinese marques, where the domestic driving environment is highly regulated (speed wise) and largely EV with attendant range issues, the need for a designed high speed is not market driven except for some high-end models. If you're going for mass market, why design a BMW 5 when you can sell way more with a Toyota Corolla?
As for the export market, there are a lot of Euro brands that factory limit their cars to 230~250kmph. So unless you're designing for some niche market, there's really no real need to? The type of drivers that buy cars based on top speeds over 250kmph are really in the hypercar space and that's an exceedingly niche market ...
