Save money on new iX deals from What Car?
Porsche has broadened out the range of its first all-electric model, the Taycan, quite a bit since the car first zapped onto the scene in 2020. You can now have one with one drive motor or two; with four-wheel drive or two-; with an indecent amount of power, or just a lot of it; and also in either four-door swoopy saloon form, or as pseudo-estate-style Cross Turismo instead. It’s the kind of breadth of choice that has transformed a breakthrough sporting EV into a luxury-segment contender with enough pull to have outsold every other Porsche model in the UK.
The Taycan is a world-class operator however you configure it, but the extended cargo space and ride-height-boosted extra versatility of the Cross Turismo version certainly don’t appear to have weakened the car’s dynamic powers. This car rides with an uncannily absorptive and poised sort of body control, but it retains chatty, communicative steering, fine handling response, ideal handling balance and security, and as much real-world pace as you could ever expect to deploy on the road. Electric range isn’t class-leading – but 250 miles is certainly possible from most versions of the car in mixed, real-world used.
Seats for up to five occupants, plus a boot within sight of that of a BMW 3-Series Touring for carrying capacity, seal the deal on one of the most accomplished electric cars that any budget might buy; and you can buy one, with options, for less than £90,000.
The oldest car-maker in the world isn’t taking any prisoners when it comes to the switch to electric mobility. Mercedes’ first dedicated EV, the EQC SUV, came along in 2019, and we’ve seen a few other smaller EQ models along since. But none matters more reputationally than the big one: Stuttgart’s all-electric, new-age limousine, the EQS.
Built on a brand-new model platform (and partly in response to the market share lost by the conventionally powered S-Class when Tesla’s Model S struck it big in the important North American market), the EQS is a luxury EV without compromise. It’s expensive: on sale in the UK now, it’s priced from £102,160 for the 325bhp, single-motor, rear-driven, EQS 450+ version, rising to well north of £150,000 for the Mercedes-AMG EQS 53. But it is a car engineered with true commitment, and packed with technology in a way few other passenger cars can even approach.
