Acceleration

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JoeS

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The European i-MiEVs accelerate 0-60mph at around 12 seconds whereas our North American versions accelerate 0-60 in about 14 seconds (there's a CaniOn video around here that shows the higher current draw of the lighter European car). Usually ridiculed by the 'professional' car reviewers.

For 50 years I've been driving vehicles that never scored well in acceleration tests, but these cars never proved to be any problem in our everyday driving. All of our freeways have adequate onramps which give plenty of room to get up to whatever speed is needed to merge comfortably with traffic, with the i-MiEV always doing just fine.

The only limitation of our cars is turning onto a major highway from a side road - a condition that simply does not exist in my daily driving, so I can't comment other than to say that the few times I've had to do it outside this area I simply waited until the traffic gap was large enough to enable me to get up to speed.

Today, I had a horrible experience: coming back from Jazzercise there is an uphill freeway onramp that is very long and I'm always easily doing 70mph at the top with never any merging issues. Well, today I started up the onramp as a Corvette (driven by an elderly gentleman) cut in front of me and which proceeded to putt along at 30mph for the entire uphill climb, and at the top he actually slowed down and continued that way until a hole in the traffic appeared and then he gunned it, leaving me sitting there running out of on-ramp! :evil: Happily, all's well that ends well as there came a large-enough gap in the right-lane traffic that I was subsequently able to get onto the freeway without inconveniencing anyone.

Just needed to vent, that's all.
 
Sounds familiar, I think they do it on purpose.

I can't help but wonder how much faster our cars would accelerate if the throttle ramp was only half as long.

Unlike everyone else I see, I hang further back on on-ramps when I see lots of traffic, which gives me more time to get up to speed and slide into a hole. To save myself headaches, I avoid the highway when possible, and failing that, I pick on-ramps that have good visibility and/or slope downhill.
 
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