I wonder where the top Speed Limit comes from, is it battery cooling or artificial limiting to proclaim a better Range? In Germany that number raised a few eyebrows.
Gear ratio. It says the motor spins to 8800rpm which is high but not crazy high. Given a top speed of the motor the gear ratio will determine the top speed of the car. They may have optimized it for better acceleration at the expense of top speed. Many people in the US never drive that fast so it's not a bad tradeoff.
If you're wondering about having multiple gear ratios, it doesn't make much sense in EVs. These motors already behave in a similar way. For a given (maximum rated) current they will produce constant torque from zero to what is called "base speed" which is the point where the back-emf matches the bus voltage. Beyond that speed it enters an operating region called "field weakening" where some of the current is used to oppose the magnets which is equivalent to reducing the back-emf so it can go faster. In this region it operates much like a constant power device so the torque drops with the inverse of rpm much like a CVT. There's another metric called the constant-power-speed-ratio (CPSR) which is the top speed divided by the base speed. In my experience, CPSR for an EV is likely to be somewhere between 3 and 5 though it can be much higher.
Source: one of my specialties happens to be algorithms for very high CPSR. It's an odd place I never meant to go, but I would enjoy taking a stab at tuning the Bolt.
For the Model S (or any EV), increasing top speed would mean either increasing the motor RPM, or increasing the gear ratio which would reduce acceleration. I don't know what limits their top speed to 155 and don't want to guess.
The final drive has to strike a balance between torque for negotiating inclines and top speed, as the electric motor cannot rev to infinity, neither can the power systems handle infinite power though them.
An electric car with a two-ratio gearbox would be ideal for both taking off from a standstill and top speed.
The rear wheel drive versions have a single ratio which has to strike a balance between speed and torque.
This is also the reason that the AWD versions are faster than the RWD even though they are heavier due to the additional motors.
Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/23/breaking-tesla-has-a-solu... and Ashley Vance's biography of Elon Musk.
This market in the EU is primarily serviced by diesel 4x4s. I can see a future where the diesel engine is banned and only at that point will something fall out of the woodwork to cope with that towing capacity.
Many of the parts on electric cars overheat when pushed pretty quickly, and while adding cooling similar to a traditional ICE seems to be the answer, it adds even more weight and complexity to a platform which is already fighting to save every oz.
Even the Tesla Model S can't do more than a single lap around many tracks without overheating.
It's completely practical to drive long distances at high speeds because of the well-maintained road surface and well-maintained cars. There are plenty of stretches of the Autobahn with no speed limits.
This is a common scenario: you're in the middle lane, and a particularly slow driver is in the middle lane (who should be in the right lane), you attempt to overtake in your underpowered econobox, and out of nowhere a Porsche or high-end BMW is sitting on your tail, and you try to overtake asap to get back into the middle lane to let the other guy pass. This is doubly true if you're going up a slight hill, which exaggerates the lack of torque. Another common scenario is a truck driver, overtaking another truck driver in the middle lane, and you have to move to the left lane to avoid him (truck drivers are supposed to keep to the right lane).
Source: someone who's driven plenty of shit, underpowered rentals in Germany, e.g. a Fiat 500X and a Renault Captur. Why anyone, apart from rental companies, would buy these ugly, overweight, underpowered shitboxes is beyond me.
you're attacking a point that I never made.
Acceleration shouldn't be a problem for an electric motor, though, so despite a somewhat slower top speed I'd envision that things like being on the on-ramp to the Autobahn, or overtaking maneuvers are less of a problem than for ICE-powered cars with a weak engine.