Given that one in six new cars in the UK is now electric, it's amazing how many burning questions still swirl around the technical progress of EVs. It can still seem that buyers are being 'tucked into' products we know too little about.
How, for instance, will EVs develop over the next few years? Will we see some giant leap in capability that will overshadow what we're offered today? How can manufacturers enhance EVs' character to match today's ICE cars? Does anyone have a clue?
Steve Lambert does. He's head of electrification at McLaren Applied, the Woking-based independent technology company that was spun out of the McLaren Group (which also contained Automotive and Racing) in 2021. In recent years, the task of Lambert and his peers has been to apply their company's deep and detailed expertise gained from racing to wider markets: railways, mining, buses and, of course, the electric cars of the future.
The team have devised a neat and succinct way of categorising 25 years of EV development into four key phases that take us from the rise of pioneering EVs like the 2008 Tesla Roadster ("laptop batteries in the back of a Lotus Elise") to the gotta-have-one EVs that we hope manufacturers will be offering in the mid-2030s, when even plug-in hybrids will no longer be permitted for sale in the UK and Europe.
Lambert recently explained his theories in a short but pithy public presentation that raised so many supplementary questions that we decided to seek him out for an interview at Applied's headquarters.
Denne historien er fra September 13, 2023-utgaven av Autocar UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 13, 2023-utgaven av Autocar UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
THE DRAMATIC ITALIAN THAT MARKED THE END OF AN ERA
When the Huracán bowed out, the curtain fell forever on Lambo's V10
HOW EV MAKERS CAN WIN THE RACE TO 5.0MPKWH
Manufacturers are honing every detail to close in on big efficiency goal
MASERATI MC20
We bid a sad farewell to a handsome supercar that was easy to live with
The quickening
Instant acceleration is part of the appeal of an EV, but is it all getting a bit much for unwary and inexperienced drivers? JOHN EVANS investigates
Inside track
Watching an F1 race with live access to engineers and telemetry is the stuff of dreams for racing fans. ALEX WOLSTENHOLME makes a day of it
WHOLE IN ONE
The Volkswagen Golf has been all things to all motorists for half a century. At the wheel of a classic Mk1, VICKY PARROTT charts the eight-generation history of one of the world's most successful cars
DACIA DUSTER
Mk3 model gains digital tech, ADAS, slicker looks... Is this mission creep?
MAZDA CX-80 PHEV
Another look at Mazda's hefty SUV, this time in plug-in hybrid form
VAUXHALL GRANDLAND ELECTRIC
Newcomer looks to ease the average family SUV driver into EV motoring
BMW X3 20 XDRIVE
Fourth generation of brand's best-seller arrives with base petrol engine