Toyota beats the Nurburging lap record for an electric vehicle

I'm not sure the lack of gears would make too much difference if we're comparing to a flappy-padal semi-automatic gearbox. It would be like karting I guess, which is about the purest form of motorsport you can get - four wheels, two pedals, a steering wheel, an engine and very little else!

This probably is for another thread though like you say, but although the lack of noise would be disconcerting it would give massive benefits for tracks where noise issues are a problem (Spa being one of them?) I think the roar of an engine does amplify the sense of excitement and danger you feel though so I suspect you might be left with something that felt a bit soulless, at least to begin with.
 
Following the paper trail from the video I got to stats for the peak power (280kW) and capacity (41.5kWh) which if I've done my maths right translates to just under 9 minutes at peak power. The car obviously won't be drawing peak power all the time, and some sort of KERS system could be/is fitted which would increase the effective capacity, so you then have to do some clever calculations dependent on the circuit to get a proper estimate. In other words, this nine mnutes is the equivalent of saying the absolute worst mpg that a car could do.

From this I would guess maybe half an hour of racing is faesible, but certainly no more than that? If you were trying to do a 90 minute F1 style race then you're talking about at 3 battery changes per race minimum but probably 4-6 is more realistic. This is all speculation but that would rival Pirelli for causing pit lane mayhem!

Oh, another thing that crossed my mind - could we see other manufacturers in F1 follow what Toyota appeared to have done and leave F1 in favour of developing electric cars?
 
If any TV channel used that as an excuse to bring Legard back to motorsport commentary I would go and find a hole to live in (a hole with no TV signal.... just to make that clear).

I figure they would probably do battery chaNges not battery chaRges because it would be quicker, but having said that these things will have a serious number and weight of batteries so perhaps they can't be made in a way that lets them be changed easily. Batteries is what's holding electric cars back really, both in terms of range and longevity.
 
It would be a challenge for the engineers to change the battery on an EV in 5 or 6 seconds in a pit stop.
 

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