According to Grunitz, Volkswagen’s first electric GTI will be “a real go kart” to drive. He’s already driven a prototype, claiming, “It’s really amazing.”

You can see the concept pulls design features from VW’s classic GTI models. However, the company promises new tech will enable even more control and handling for that “go kart” like feel.

  • @LowtierComputer
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    23 months ago

    I agree with the reduced battery idea, but you’ve got to consider that would significantly reduce the life of the battery and slightly reduce max torque output as well. For me that wouldn’t be as important, but for many people that’s a huge negative. They expect the battery to last as long as, say, a manual transmission.

    • @JoshuaFalken
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      33 months ago

      I haven’t seen any data suggesting degradation is worse in smaller capacity batteries, but even if it is, degradation as a whole isn’t as a big a deal as might be believed. It was significant ten years ago, but insignificant today.

      I’ll take your word for it on the torque point. I don’t remember much about EV torque comparisons but it makes sense on the face of it that if you lose a bunch of the energy, some of the torque goes with it.

      On battery replacement due to degradation:

      Across all years and models, outside of big recalls, only 2.5% have been replaced. This increase from last year is entirely due to older cars. For cars older than 2015, replacement rates are 13%, but under 1% for cars from 2016 and newer.

      Non recall replacements (by year of manufacture):

      • 2011 - 30.00%
      • 2012 - 15.94%
      • 2013 - 9.81%
      • 2014 - 6.81%
      • 2015 - 3.90%

      That’s an order of magnitude improvement in half a decade, and the best of that is already ten years old. Battery technology is only getting better, and with better batteries, we could afford to put smaller ones in a commuter car and sell them cheaply.