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> Surely it will just perform like a bus under braking and roll around?

No. The center of gravity is extremely low because of all the batteries under the floor. It’s supposedly extremely stable under cornering.

> They also don't have manual gearboxes

If I recall correctly, they don’t have gearboxes in the traditional sense at all. They have single speed transmissions. But I might be wrong on this.

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Exactly. They could fake a manual gearbox but it would always just be a fakery. There is no shiftable gearbox at all, so it’s not an automatic vs manual transmission. It’s just an electric motor.

It's still very heavy, which is what I meant by bus.

A Porsche 917K from the 70s can still outbrake some modern sports cars because of how light it is.

Yes, obviously it’s heavy. No, that doesn’t mean it feels like driving a bus.

A go cart is far lighter than a Lotus Elise. Would you expect the Elise to feel like a bus in comparison?

Go Karts are probably a slightly poor example given that they are probably the most direct driving you can get short of a cheap formula car

An Elise feels rather like a go-kart on steroids and amphetamines.

I test drove a Model S years ago. It definitely felt like a bus the moment you turned the steering wheel. There is no substitute for weight reduction when it comes to handling.

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