Can Electric Cars Also Be Fun?

Not sober and sensible on design.

Dacia Spring 65

Performance is relative. Because while around 20 hp more is relatively little in a Tesla Model S with more than 300 hp in each variant, it is relatively much in the Dacia Spring. After all, there is just 44 hp in the base and the upgrade accounts for almost 50 percent. In addition, the Spring only weighs 1050 kilograms, so the greater performance is now actually noticeable. Especially because Dacia has also changed the transmission. Instead of 5.4, the Spring now only needs 3.9 seconds from standstill to 50 km/h – and to 100 km/h it only takes 13.7 seconds. That’s still a long time compared to many otherwise powerful electric vehicles. Especially when it gets really tough at the top. But in the end you still save almost six seconds. Only at top speed nothing changes. This remains limited to 125 km/h. And in this case that’s a good thing. Because unlike real sports models, the developers haven’t made any significant improvements to the chassis, so you don’t want to drive the little one any faster. However, the price premium is also moderate: at at least 24,550 euros, the Dacia Spring 65 costs no more than 2,000 euros more than the basic model. That’s relatively little for a sports badge, but relatively much for a Dacia.

MG4 XPower

While VW has only experimented with GTI studies so far, MG has already brought the idea of ​​an electric “hot hatch” into series production. For prices starting at 46,990 euros, the Chinese with British roots are now selling their ID.3 opponent MG4 as an Rear spoiler now has a second electric motor. They increase the power to 435 hp and the maximum torque now peaks at 600 instead of 250 Nm. The fact that this automatically comes with all-wheel drive can hardly hurt with so much power. You notice this in corners, where the MG4 makes a confident impression even at a brisk pace, without appearing bone-hard or particularly nervous. And above all you notice it during the kick-down. The MG4 then accelerates from a standstill to 50 km/h in 1.8 seconds and reaches 100 km/h in less than four seconds. That’s why they at MG proudly send out links to YouTube videos in which their Stromer super sports car like a Lamborghini Gallardo is standing there. And someone else is supposed to say that electric models can’t be fun.

Hyundai Ioniq5 N

There is no longer any doubt that electric cars are powerful, fast and precise. But hardened petrolheads have so far left the battery cars cold because they lack the emotions and the thrill. Hyundai now wants to change that and is launching the Ioniq5 as the first electric N model in the spring at prices starting at 75,000 euros. With a short-term 650 hp instead of the previous 350 hp, it is not only significantly more powerful than the production model and correspondingly faster at 260 instead of 180 km/h. Above all, it is much more sensual than other electric vehicles. The N team has not only composed a surprisingly authentic engine sound that lets you dream of the gasoline age through ten loudspeakers – at least as long as you don’t switch to silly things like Evolution or Supersonic. The N model even simulates an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission – tachometer, shift paddle, traction interruption, thrust babble and limiter included. There are also half a dozen driving programs for perfect drifts, for fast chicanes and for maximum remaining comfort on the way from home to the race track. The battery now offers 85 instead of 77 kWh capacity.

Yes, that should mean 450 standard kilometers on the road, the Koreans promise, but they place much more value on a different currency: two laps on the Nordschleife are guaranteed.

Mercedes AMG EQE 53

The times when AMG pushed hard are slowly coming to an end. Now the fast Swabians are increasingly just turning the knob and increasing the voltage. Because Daimler’s swansong for the combustion engine is also reverberating in Affalterbach, the former petrolheads are increasingly turning their attention to the EQ models – and have sent the EQE 53 to the races, for example. The 292 hp in the EQE 350+ will then briefly become up to 687 hp and the E-Class for tomorrow can boast of being the most powerful electric car with a star. At least temporarily. Because there will soon be an AMG electric platform of its own, which will be a little more capable. But more important than the power is the torque – especially in an electric car, because it is there from the first millimeter of pedal travel. And because electric motors also have significantly more to offer than combustion engines. The 860 Nm of the EQE 43 alone makes an E 63 look pretty pale, and with 950 or 1000 Nm in boost mode, the EQE 53 even puts the blessed AMG twelve-cylinder in the shade. The acceleration of the electric express sedan is correspondingly brutal: As soon as a shadow falls on the accelerator pedal, it is as if someone on the horizon were switching on a gigantic magnet that inevitably attracts the EQE – with a force like from another planet.

Even the 2.5 tons total weight is suddenly forgotten when the 53 accelerates to 100 km/h in 3.3 seconds at best. The electrical disillusionment only follows at full throttle: where the lead foot in the Benin era was sometimes enough for more than 300 km/h, here it stops at 220 km/h.

Rimac Nevera

Attention, buckle up, sort your thoughts and take a deep breath! Because if you don’t have all your senses together, you’re literally out of your mind and you don’t have time to breathe. After all, the Rimac Nevera is no ordinary electric car. The two-seater from Croatia is the first generation E hypercar and is shaking up the world of super sports cars just as much as the storm that gives it its name, which repeatedly shakes up the local coast. As the currently most powerful and fastest production car in the world, the carbon-fiber coupé attracts the elite in a hurry with 1912 hp, 2360 Nm, a top speed of 412 km/h and a sprint value of less than two seconds. He even labels a Bugatti Chiron as a lame duck and in a Porsche 911 Turbo you suddenly feel as underpowered as you would otherwise in a Polo. The effort involved is, of course, enormous: two motors per axle pull on the huge wheels and are powered by them At 120 kWh, it is the largest battery ever installed in an electric car and should last for 500 kilometers under normal conditions. So that the joy of driving doesn’t turn into frustration when charging, the Nevera can charge with up to 500 kW. Or better: could. In this discipline too, it is ahead of its time and to date no charging station has kept up. Rimac is actually redefining the super sports car with the Nevera.

But in one point he sticks to tried and tested rules: the price. Because with 2.4 million euros it moves in a very similar, out-of-the-way sphere.