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Originally Posted by MetroMPG
A factory-made EV, Niky?
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Nope. Conversion. Most factory EVs carry pretty powerful motors.
People love to moan about the price of EVs, but when you consider a Leaf basically has the same performance as a turbocharged Civic... which is still equivalent to that of "sports trim" models nowadays... it's pretty obvious that they're ticking off the price-performance metric decently.
The Leaf is slow compared to the likes of the Tesla, but it's still powerful enough not to need extra gears.
But if we want really cheap EVs, gearboxes make sense.
This one was a Kia Picanto (Basically Chevy Spark size) with the motor hooked up to the factory five speed. Peppy, fun, little number. Just around 60-70 hp, but that instant torque made it feel more potent than the numbers suggest. Could drive it around in third gear all day, or use second for quick take-offs, or first for climbing steep grades.