Wondering how electric vehicles are changing what performance feels like on the road? Watch this Electrify Expo Industry Day New York 2025 panel, where experts from Michelin, QNX and Can-Am dig into how EVs are engineered differently, right down to the tires and the software.
Most conversations around EVs stay stuck on range and charging. This panel went somewhere else. They dug into weight, since an electric model usually comes in roughly 15% heavier than a similar gas car, which puts what Michelin’s Sharda Mohammed called “an extraordinary amount of pressure” on tire wear.
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She explained that her team starts with real driver needs, asking simple questions like, “Do you want sharper handling? Do you want longer life from your tires?” That mechanical side of EVs is changing very quickly.
On the software side, QNX’s Matthew Chandler explained it clearly. “Vehicles are really the most sophisticated robots,” he said. He pointed out that many modern cars run on roughly 400 to 500 million lines of code. That amount is higher than what an F-14 fighter jet uses. That single comparison helps you understand how tightly performance, safety features, driver assistance, and the overall feel of the vehicle now depend on software.
This space now runs on computing power, system architecture, over the air updates, and domain based platforms, rather than old school mechanical torque and isolated ECUs.
And Can-Am’s Marc-Olivier Drouin talked about how electric powersports machines face tight packaging and serious performance expectations. He said they use liquid-cooled batteries and smart software features, like reverse assist and connectivity, to manage that. Riders still want pure fun, he added, so the technology has to work harder behind the scenes.
As EVs mature, performance lives in tire grip, software behavior, over-the-air updates, and the overall driving feel.
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