EV Central

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade, you’ll no doubt have noticed more and more EV’s gracing the roads all over the world. The market is by far the largest growing in the automotive sector with manufacturers tripping over themselves to grab the headlines with the latest model launch. Where once the electric car was restricted to electric only manufacturers like Tesla, or indeed GM’s foray into EV in the mid 90’s with the easily forgotten EV1, a new electric car is seemingly launched daily in more recent times. No different from other sectors in the automatic industry, electric cars vary drastically in price, type and all other measurables. To help you navigate the minefield that is the electric car market, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to every electric car available to buy today from price to performance, charge capacity and most importantly, real world range.

A top trump of the electric car is the acceleration statistics, often vastly more impressive than their ICE counterparts. Where once 4 second 0-100 km/h (0-62mph) was only achievable by the most exotic supercar, many 4 door battery powered family saloons make light work of the previous benchmark for what constitutes a ‘fast car’.  Electric cars possess torque figures that ICE cars can only dream of and access this from a standstill delivering immediate, smooth and silent acceleration where traction from the tyres is more of a limiting factor than power from the motor itself. Tesla have used acceleration times as a major selling point over its relatively short history and shows no sign of that letting go of that USP. Indeed, they have aspirations to deliver the fastest production car in the world in the shape of the Model S Plaid which will hit the 100 km/h in under 3 seconds.

Spoiler alert, electric cars rely on batteries and the amount of battery capacity dedicated to forward (and reverse) motion varies from model to model. Inevitably, some of the cars battery capacity is dedicated to other functions such as running the air conditioning, windscreen wipers or daytime running lights. Whilst not always advertised, expect an electric cars useable battery to be around 90% of the total battery capacity. An electric cars battery capacity will determine the range offered and the power (acceleration) available and bear in mind also that the time taken to recharge a larger battery will be longer than a smaller battery at the same rate of charge, although typically electric cars with larger batteries, will be equipped with faster charging capacity.

Whilst it’s widely accepted that running an electric car is a lot cheaper than a petrol or diesel alternative, electricity isn’t free and an electric car still needs to be efficient. The rate at which an electric car uses the energy stored in the batteries can be viewed as it’s effective fuel economy (in old money). It’s no surprise that the heavier and more powerful the electric car, the worse its efficiency, after all, much like in a petrol car, the energy required to move mass is a rather simple equation. And even more energy is required to move that mass quickly, hence, the fastest accelerating electric cars are also the least efficient and will use more energy to cover the same distance as smaller, lighter models.

The buzz word in the world of EV’s and one any EV sceptic is likely to throw at you right from the off. Truth is, all cars have a range (distance between refuels) and whether you refuel at the fuel pump or charge station, all cars will need to refuel over a certain distance. The big problem facing electric vehicles is the time it takes to refuel. Range anxiety is one of the key hurdles facing the EV sector as availability of charges (charge point infrastructure) is regularly debated. Much like an ICE car, the range of an electric vehicle will vary depending on how it is driven (hard and fast will reduce efficiency and thus range), however unlike petrol and diesel cars, climatic changes can also reduce range. Expect up to 10% less range in cold winter months compared to warmer, summer days as the batteries lose performance and lights / windscreen wipers / heaters are all in greater demand further draining capacity.

Electric car registrations are growing at a phenomenal rate compared to any other sector. In 2021, registrations of electric cars in the UK was near double that of 2020 and nearly 4 times of that sold in 2019. And when it comes to market dominance, the Tesla Model 3 simply blew the competition away, selling nearly 4 times as many units as the next best model (Jaguar I-Pace) in Q2 of 2020. Tesla being the first mass market producer or EV’s and the only sole EV manufacturer to date. Despite having a small model line-up of just 4 models (S, 3, X & Y), performance and its enviable charging network has left other manufacturers standing when it comes to registrations. Little surprise then to know that its founder, Elon Musk is the richest man on planet earth.

Electric cars often trump their petrol alternatives when it comes to acceleration, however top speed top trumps doesn’t always fall the way of the EV compared to ICE cars. In fact, top speeds seem to carry less importance in an electrified automotive world than they once did when petrol and diesel was the sole fuel of the fastest cars. Whilst supercar manufacturers still trade blows with top trump max speed runs, electric cars typically rely on acceleration and range figures to boast their credentials. However not all electric car manufacturers are the same and Tesla have aspirations to deliver the fastest mass production car in the world in the shape of the Model S Plaid which has its eyes firmly set of 200mph. Sounds fast right. Well, yes, until you learn that Rimac will sell you a Nevera supercar that’ll trip the speed camera at an astonishing 258mph if you have a spare £2m.

One thing the electric car industry hasn’t really cracked yet is the commercial market, or indeed the large family. EV SUV’s (proper ones that can genuinely be considered rivals to the Range Rovers and Toyota Land Cruisers of this world) are pretty thin on the ground at best. Towing capacity isn’t a metric you’ll see many EV manufacturers bragging about… yet. The time will come however when your neighbour with the caravan will be towing it to the coast behind his EV. Much like an ICE car, the extra load will put a sizeable dent in range, however the torque on offer will be a welcome benefit when it comes to towing in an EV. Electric cars are also generally a lot heavier than their ICE counterparts (you have the battery packs to thank for that), which often goes hand in hand with max towing capacities.