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Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

All EVs have fast enough acceleration (some dangerously so.) So competition there is not going to continue.

I'm less sure about that. I think it will remain a distinctive feature that people will actively choose for or against, at least.

The new Mini EV from BMW (and which is replacing the i3 as BMW's 'flagship' EV) has only 0-60 in 7s which is not very interesting at all. But they're not aiming at the performance crowd (plus it can only do about 150 miles on a charge). Meanwhile Tesla can boast sub 5s 0-60 in almost every vehicle so anyone who wants that "slammed into the seat"/"first away from the lights" experience will still lean towards them.

A sub 5s 0-60 will be a selling point for me when it's time to go electric. If I must go electric, I want some dopamine-inducing benefit for it, and beating the remaining petrol cars off the lights will be a big selling point for me even if I'm buying a 7 seater SUV or whatever ;-)

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Your point is true, except that you will go electric, whether you do it for dopamine hit or not. The technology is strongly pointing to the complete and utter obsolescence of gasoline in a matter of only a few more years. Arguably gasoline is already obsolete and riding the very long tail of awareness of transition. Gasoline is still dominating in the cheapest sectors (of American auto sales, not true in China), but as cheaper electric models arrive and the used market continues to swell with good used electrics, that sector too will fall, and gasoline will be relegated to the old and the unusual.

So if you want to be beating people off the line, you better get into electric now, because the roads are filling up with 'em and quick!

Do you seriously think is 0-60 matter for average buyer? Charging equipment at home should be the primary concern that should be solved.

From what I understand(I could be mistaken) BMW reused the i3 drivetrain in the Mini. While its impressive that they squeezed it into a smaller car, it shows their lack of seriousness that they reused 2013-ish technology in their newest EV. Given this, is it any surprise that the range, acceleration and other metrics are lacking compared to what else is on the market?

My father has a 2015 i3, and it's more than fast enough off the line- my Bolt is the same way even though they are both 6+ sec 0-60. EVs have instant torque and in fact are a bit scary to me as both the i3 and Bolt have small wheels.

Some people think 6+ is "more than fast enough" and others want the thrill of 3.5 seconds. There are enough people in the second group to keep manufacturers making cars for them.

Most people won't fork over an extra 10k for a 2s faster 0 - 60 i guess.

I don't have the numbers to hand, but when marques like BMW and Mercedes offer higher trim levels with bigger engines and more performance, they seem to sell better than you'd expect given how much you're paying for a slight performance boost.

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