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Comment by gandalfian | Hacker News Reader

Wikipedia: The Chery QQ Ice Cream is powered by a 27 hp Chery TZ160XFDM13A electric motor, which uses a lithium iron phosphate battery pack. The car has an electric range of about 175 km (109 mi) and a top speed of 100 km (62 mi).

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For comparison:

    Chery QQ: 20 kW / 700 kg = 29 W/kg
    Chevrolet Bolt: 150 kW / 1600 kg = 94 W/kg

So a typical American EV has >3X better power to weight ratio than this vehicle. LiFePO₄ batteries tend not to burst into flames though...

Model 3 with LFP battery: 239 kW / 2139 kg = 111 W/kg

Stats from here: https://ev-database.org/car/1320/Tesla-Model-3-Standard-Rang...

Sounds like a Tata Nano, which I've had the misfortune of driving. It could get up 100 kmh only downhill with a tailwind though. I tested it.

For reference, the Prius electric motor is slightly more powerful than that (depending on year) and it's incredibly sluggish when accelerating without the gasoline motor. I'm sure part of that is Toyota doesn't give the electric motor full juice without the ICE, but the other part of it is that 23kw/30hp is not a lot.

I suspect the 0-30 (!) would be in the 13 second range and hitting 60 would take like two minutes and few miles of straight, flat road with no headwind.

Every Prius has at least 2 electric motors. In the typical Prius, it's the larger of those two, MG2 that drives the wheels. But the power that the battery system can deliver is pretty wimpy in most hybrids, because you can run the engine to generate additional electricity when you need it.

True, but AFAIK, only one propels the car without the ICE, the other is used in conjunction with the ICE to control the gearing for the ecvt.

The "Chery QQ Ice Cream" has a curb weight of only 743 kg. The lightest Prius seems to be 1,390 kg.

That's pretty cool to know. The Tata Nano is likely a fair bit lighter though, to the extent that when 4 adults were sitting in it, you really felt it.

Sounds good for city use. In fact I'd like a model twice as long (can be half as fast) for the extra cargo space.

A mostly flat city without Winter weather. I doubt this thing - at 27hp - would climb the hills of San Francisco or Pittsburgh very well with two adult passengers in it.

Just how fast do you need to race up those hills?? 27hp is fine, especially for a 1500 lb vehicle.

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