Has nothing to do with drag. EVs are heavy, and need big brakes to stop in an emergency. Wheels go over the brakes. Therefore, the wheels need to be big to fit the brakes. Smaller wheels mean longer braking distances. Nobody wants that.
It’s not clear to me which dimension folks are saying, has a relationship to brake size. I’m imagining width is the dimension related to wind efficiency, but I would nonetheless ask folks to use more accurate terms like wheel diameter or width.
All the forces for acceleration, braking and cornering for a vehicle are limited by the contact surface of the tyres on the road. This is drummed into you quite viscerally when you ride a motorcycle and have 100+ bhp engine and you find yourself leaned over having gone into a corner too fast. If you try to brake now that you are leaned over, your bike will skid out because you only have a contact patch about the size of the palm of your hand and your braking will use up some of the friction that would otherwise get you round the corner.[1]
Bigger tyres mean more contact with the road so you have more friction available for braking (or acceleration).
[1] on a bike your best option in this scenario is to keep your head up, look where you want to go, keep your speed constant and trust that your tyres will hold you and you’ll have a little bit of luck and not meet a patch of spilled diesel, sand, paint etc and slip out.
SilverElfin•2mo ago
toomuchtodo•2mo ago
> The flush Hyundai and Kia handles are motorized and retractable, but they can also be opened entirely mechanically without power. They are little more awkward to use when unpowered but it's entirely doable if you know how. You just push the front side in which pops out the rear grab handle part. This also how Chevy has done their Equinox EV handles which is powered on the higher trims but unpowered for the base model I believe.
So, as long as they fail safe, I think they’re fine from a form and function perspective. It’s the failing unsafely (Tesla) that’s the problem. If they do not work without power, they should fail safety testing.
anigbrowl•2mo ago
toomuchtodo•2mo ago
https://xray.greyb.com/ev-battery/tesla-crash-protection-tec...
shibapuppie•2mo ago
toomuchtodo•2mo ago
My example of seat belt pretensioners wasn’t to demonstrate when the action would be taken, but that pyrotechnics and vehicle dynamics are components of orchestrating a controlled failure mode in the event of a crash.
> General Motors Co. has since made the Corvette door’s emergency release handle more visible, the company said. Graphics on the handle, which lies on the floor next to the door, illustrate its function. GM also has added a “bystander access” feature on its e-doors to unlock them after a crash, so first responders or good Samaritans can free the occupants.
> Stellantis NV engineered a similar system on Jeep and Dodge models with electric doors, where airbag deployment automatically unlocks all doors. Stellantis and Ford also have outfitted their electric doors with supercapacitors that act as a battery backup to keep the power flowing to the latches even when a car’s 12-volt battery has died. And Ford, in response to this year’s recall, updated the software on its Mach-E to keep electricity flowing to door handles for 12 minutes after the small battery that normally supplies them — separate from the electric car’s main battery pack — goes dead.
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-electric-car-doors/ | https://archive.today/YETme
Rebelgecko•2mo ago
elmerfud•2mo ago
They do it because it looks cool and futuristic. Just like replacing all of the physical switches with non-tactile touch-based things. Overall just reduces the vehicle's safety and increases the cost to repair. Door handles, by law should be mandated to be physical things. If you want a button that can automatically actuate the physical linkage that's fine but the handle itself should be a physical linkage to the latch.
euroderf•2mo ago
But I guess I'm just, um, cranky.