Forget Tesla — true performance electric cars are coming

Forget Tesla — true operation electrical cars are coming

(Image credit: Ford)

There has been a recent suite of electrical cars teased or announced with a functioning focus. Ford has taken the Mustang Mach-East and given it two new GT options with functioning and driving dynamics in mind. Mercedes has said AMG versions of its EQ all-electric cars are coming. And more recently Hyundai has teased North-line performance EVs, essentially suggesting that "hot" versions of its electric cars are being worked on.

For a machine fan, albeit a reasonably green one, more performance-tuned EVs is a tantalizing prospect. Arguably, most of the current crop of EVs lack the real driving dynamics of gas-guzzling performance cars. A Tesla Model S might destroy nigh performance cars in a straight line. Merely when it comes to tackling corners and getting a thrill from neatly clipping an apex, Elon Musk's flagship EV is generally considered to go out driving fans feeling a little cold.

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Let me pigment a moving picture for you. Dorsum in Nov 2018, I went to Spain to examination a new Audi A1 for Tom'south Guide sibling publication TechRadar. While I was there I had the opportunity to take the latest Audi R8 for a few laps on the Ascari racetrack in Spain.

This was both a thrilling nervus-wracking opportunity; I was at that place to exam a speedy merely refined hatchback, not a motorcar that costs well n of $100,000. Furthermore, I'd not driven on a rails before and Ascari is known as a fast and challenging race track. Oh, and it was too raining.

Yet, I squeezed into a racing conform, popped on a helmet, listened to where the braking points are on the track and so fix off. While I was considerably slower than less experienced motoring journalists — I write about phones and the PS5 after all — slipping out of a hanky-panky onto a directly scrap of track and burying the accelerator into the floor to be met with the howl of a unremarkably-aspirated V10 was utterly thrilling.

Every fourth dimension I now spot an Audi R8 hunched down into a London road, I'm cast back to that wet twenty-four hour period at Ascari, complete with the smell of petrol and the roar of one of the finest sounding internal combustion engines around.

And I've been worrying that the acceleration to electrification in the automotive world will run across such cars and their driving experiences fade away.

Desiring dynamics

Granted, my feel of driving all-electric vehicles is limited to the impressive if slightly boring Nissan Leaf; I've notwithstanding to experience the reportedly listen-bending fashion the Model S sprints from goose egg to 60 miles per hour.

However, the Leaf did give me a sense of taste of EV acceleration, thanks to the instant delivery of torque from the moment the accelerator is pressed, making information technology a wonderfully nippy auto. As I'm (arguably) not a simpleton, I won't compare the Leaf to the R8, but rather the Ford Fiesta ST, a car of similar-ish size, albeit over £xv,000 cheaper.

Ford Fiesta ST — (Image credit: Roland Moore-Colyer)

One of the classic hot hatches, the latest Fiesta ST is arguably a flake of a dinosaur compared to electric cars. It has a expert suite of tech but makes do with a manual gearbox and a revvy little three-cylinder engine.

But, my word, is it a thrill to bulldoze. It'south ride is a petty harsh on bumpy roads, but drive it fast and you lot won't discover it.

Not just because y'all're surrounded by the "parrrp" of the one.5-litre EcoBoost engine, merely you'll be concentrating hard on the stick shift as yous piece of work to quickly down change going into a corner, build upwards the revs and nail an upward shift on the fashion out.

Sadly, such no-frills driving thrills aren't really available in the EV world, beyond the Audi eastward-Tron GT and Porsche Taycan, both of which price a hefty chunk of greenbacks. Simply 2021 is looking like the year that could change.

Equally mentioned, the potential for Hyundai to brand hot EVs and Ford'south efforts to inject some true Mustang pedigree into the Mach-E, which arguably is only a Mustang in mane and not spirit, is a promising sign for dynamic performance electric cars.

And with AMD getting in on the action this twelvemonth, I'thou confident that we'll soon have a crop of EVs that make all that instant torque experience fun to manipulate through the front and rear wheels, too as brand surging out of a corner a joy. AMG has already shown how information technology tin can turn standard Mercs into apex-eating beasts, so I'g confident it tin can do the same for eclectic cars.

However, AMG EVs aren't likely to come up cheap. But if Mercedes, Audi and Porsche — every bit well equally Ferrari with its first all-electrical car on the horizon — push button out more operation EVs, we can expect those innovations and tech to filter down to more affordable cars.

I would happily squeeze my frame behind the bicycle of a Ford Fiesta GT-e, VW e-Golf GTi or an electric Honda Civic Type-R. I'thou keeping my fingers crossed for 2022's EVs.

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Roland Moore-Colyer is U.K. Editor at Tom'due south Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he's also got an involvement in cars. When not at his desk-bound Roland can exist establish wandering effectually London, oft with a look of curiosity on his confront.