I find this so interesting 'cos I worked on the Lucas electric taxi and also was heavily involved in the design of the Bedford crewbus conversion for London Airport, both in the 1970's.
Maximum torque at zero rpm! It was great to out accelerate
everything off the traffic lights in 'Brum, 4 up in the bright yellow Ogle styled taxi and with an undertray swilling with hefty lead acid batteries - the regen braking and brakes themselves had a lot of work to do to bring that lot to a halt! 50 mile range was the best that could be done at that time.
Even then Hybrid was the obvious way ahead, I proposed the use of a small motorcycle 2 stroke engine but used a vulgar word (motorcycle) and everyone immediately 'switched off'!
Did the Teslar have that annoying Zing -zing - zing noise which is so apparent in Formula 'E' and also was a challenge on the Lucas taxi? We tried to cure this in the crewbus design by using 'Hyvo' chain drive transmission (a toothed chain which was more silent than the conventional type, or gears).