33HP in an electric vehicle is actually not as bad as it sounds. Most of the horsepower needed in a vehicle is to overcome inertia (e.g. starting from a standing stop) and electric motors can output full power at 0 RPM unlike an internal combustion engine. So a car driven by an electric motor would not need a clutch or transmission, which eliminates a significant inefficiency in the drivetrain.

Internal combustion engines and electric motors are also not rated in the same way. Electric motor HP is "rated" horsepower (what it can produce continuously without overheating; generally it's capable of more for short periods) while internal combustion horsepower tends to be "maximum" horsepower and there are a lot of different ways to come up with a number, some purely based on calculations and some on actual measurement. So unfortunately HP is not an apples-to-apples number between electric and combustion engines.