The Hottest New Electric Cars
Get ahead of the curve with these top choices for an electric car that’ll dethrone your gas guzzler…
MINI ELECTRIC
The perfect town car for darting about the shops, Mini’s entry into the electric car circuit is a modest hatchback for the eco-conscious driver that doesn’t want to sacrifice comfort or driving experience. The Mini Electric offers the same fundamental Mini experience that drivers have fallen in love with – a fun, quick, and smooth motor that boasts an incredibly spacious interior despite its compact frame. Minis have always had quick starts and impressive power for a small-mid range hatchback, now thanks to increased torque from an all-electric motor, this oomph is dialled up to 11– achieving 0-61mph in 7.3 seconds. Internally, the cockpit has also had a design refresh to match its new electrical emphasis. Keeping the circular centre console now iconic in modern Minis, the Mini Electric has been accented with a yellow Mini E logo on the bottom of the wheel, a fantastically futuristic illuminated dashboard panel which twinkles with colour-changing lights, a transparent HUD that reflects onto the driver’s front windshield, and an additional multifunctional display embedded behind the steering wheel. Mini Electric’s full charge range is a serviceable (but not amazing) 145 miles – a distance which might require a slightly tedious stop and charge before you can set back off again on long trips. However, for the price this battery ‘issue’ shouldn’t detract from the Mini’s abundance of merits. Minis have always been town cars, and for an electric addition to the iconic Mini line-up, it’s a shockingly good option.
At a Glance
+ Doesn’t sacrifice the classic Mini driving experience
+ Refreshed interior feels as premium as luxury alternatives
+ Stylish
+ Affordable
- Middling battery mileage
Starting Price: £26,000
KIA EV6
The new Kia EV6 is the first in the next generation of Kia engineering. A flagship design for Kia’s vision of the future of the electric car industry, this car is a luxurious cruiser with ultra-fast charging time and ultra-powerful torque for those lightning-fast standing to running starts. A very impressive 328 miles maximum driving range starts the Kia off nicely, ideal for long-distance motorway cruising due to its large battery, an interactive touchscreen cockpit, and all the trimmings you’d expect from a car hyper-fixated on bleeding-edge technology – doubling as a mobile generator for other electric devices, utilising self-driving summon technology to help you live your Tony Stark fantasy, and sporting a deluxe augmented reality HUD. These fantastic features make the EV6 the new kid to watch, holding no punches as it swings for the big players like Tesla and BMW. While it speaks for itself, it would be remiss to not mention how striking this car is, both inside and out. Sharp and effortlessly sleek, it’s the embodiment of ‘bleeding-edge’, looking like a set vehicle from Bladerunner without being too visually jarring. The rear signature light is an especially nice touch, spanning the whole rear bumper with a sloping LED strip that connects to the rear wheel arches.
At a Glance
+ Sustainable, sporting recycled interiors and optional vegan leather
+ Large battery
+ Ultra-fast charging
+ Bleeding-edge tech
+ Head-turning design
- Generation one flagship status makes the car a ‘riskier’ buy
- Less premium brand recognition for the price
Starting Price: £40,945
TESLA MODEL X – PLAID EDITION
Tesla’s mid-cycle ‘Plaid’ series of hardware refreshes have finally hit the Model X, making an already well-respected, ultra-premium electric motor even more powerful. Packing impressive tech features supported by Tesla’s consistent software updates. The Model X Plaid positions itself as the family option with real oomph, packing more high resolution touch-screens than you can throw a stick at, supporting modern gaming consoles to entertain passengers on long haul journeys and capable of some serious acceleration for motorway overtaking – reaching 0-60 mph in 3.8 seconds. Teslas also benefit from the most reliable and useful software of any electric motor on the market. One highlight is the supercharger locator built into Tesla’s satellite navigation, pre-planning a route with chargers situated along the way, factoring in the time spent waiting for charging and calculating the total time and route for the journey as quickly as is physically possible. That’s smart – with exclusive access to the best in electric battery technology and Tesla’s network of super-fast chargers, it’s hard to compete with a manufacturer that has dedicated all their R&D to developing electric motors that aren’t only painless, but actually superior to their planet-choking alternatives.
At a Glance
+ Stylish
+ State of the art battery hardware
+ Ultra-modern interior
+ Great entertainment system
+ Fast
- Falcon wing doors (while cool) are impractical in British towns with tighter roads
- Locked into Tesla’s sometimes restrictive business practices (such as hardware features being locked behind software paywalls)
- Can only have your vehicle serviced properly at official Tesla garages
- Expensive
Starting Price: £110,980
FORD MUSTANG MACH-E
Ford’s first all-electric SUV is an electric vehicle geared (well, automatic-ed) towards those who value the aesthetics of their motor just as much as its performance. The Mach-E is an absolutely stunning car, carrying the Mustang tradition of ‘look at me and get out of my way’ muscle their American audience first fell in love with. Now with a more contemporary, slightly sleeker design to match its modern electric persona (sporting a less angry grill, long sharp headlights and curvier wheel arches) this next-generation of Mustang SUVs is the car of the suave man. Less gruff, more premeditated and irresistibly stylish – that doesn’t mean that the Mach-E isn’t internally impressive however. A whopping maximum driving range of 379 miles massively outperforms both the Tesla Model X Plaid and Kia EV6, (admittedly in part due to the battery sapping less power to multiple internal screens and tech) a major selling point over competitors and a key factor in convincing gas drivers of electric vehicles’ viability for long-haul travel. The Mach-E is let down by a noticeable stylistic jump in quality between the vehicle’s exterior and interior design, with the cockpit and rear seating area seeing fewer considered features and stylistic choices more derivative of previous models – with a big, Tesla-esque, rectangular touchscreen rig slapped in the middle with quite a jarring physical select wheel stuck to the bottom.
At a Glance
+ Stunning exterior
+ State of the art driving range
+ Competitive price
+ Good charging speeds
- Underwhelming interior
- Noticeably less features than competitors
- Jarring centre rig
Starting Price: £42,530
