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I drove an electric car for the first time under intense conditions - and it performed surprisingly wellhttps://www.businessinsider.in/miscellaneous/i-drove-an-electric-car-for-the-first-time-under-intense-conditions-and-it-performed-surprisingly-well/slidelist/64438376.cms2018-06-03T18:48:48+05:30

I drove an electric car for the first time under intense conditions - and it performed surprisingly well

Jun 3, 2018, 18:48 IST

The autocross course was set up in the parking lot of Citi Field, the New York Mets' baseball stadium.

Five total cars were available to drive — four Chevy Bolts and a gas-powered Volkswagen Golf GTI.

Two of the Bolts had all-season tires, like the one in this photo.

The other two had summer tires, like the one in this photo.

The Volkswagen Golf GTI was provided as a point of comparison.

My first few runs in the Bolt were somewhat nerve-wracking. I'd never raced a motorized vehicle — aside from go-karts — before, and performing a sequence of tight turns at even a moderate speed was jarring.

On some parts of the course, I even felt slightly nauseated.

But as I slowly adjusted, I was able to become more aggressive and got a better sense of how the Bolt performed in abnormal conditions.

The Bolt's acceleration wasn't remarkable, but it handled well. I felt like it was always under control, even when I pushed it into a series of hard turns.

The Bolt performed best when regenerative braking wasn't activated.

After the driver's foot is taken off the accelerator, an electric car with regenerative braking can slow down more quickly than a gas-powered car would.

And while the car is slowing down, some of the kinetic energy that would normally be wasted as heat is captured and used to charge the car's battery.

Regenerative braking is better suited for everyday driving. In this context, the Bolt's normal braking mode allowed for more control over how much the car would brake before and during a given turn.

With or without regenerative braking, the Bolt compared well to the Golf. While it felt like the Golf was a bit faster and had slightly better traction than the Bolt with all-season tires, I didn't sense much of a difference once I switched to the Bolt with summer tires.

Though the other drivers' top times indicate that the Golf might have a slight edge over the Bolt, even with summer tires. (I attribute the large disparities between my top times to my increasing level of comfort with the course rather than any significant differences between the cars.)

Overall, I came away with a positive impression of the Bolt. Almost none of the maneuvers required by the course would apply to everyday driving, but the course demonstrated how the Bolt could hold up in unusual circumstances.

And it was clear how its regenerative braking mode could be useful in heavy traffic or on residential roads.

While I learned that I don't have the temperament or skill to be a successful autocross driver, I was able to see first-hand that, from a performance perspective, electric vehicles are ready for the mainstream.

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