The best electric sports cars – driven, rated and ranked

Best for: Serious EV drivers

It might not look like one, but the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N should be classed as an electric sports car due to its sheer performance and handling dynamism.

Reading about this hot hatch-cum-super-saloon on paper, it is perhaps difficult to imagine that all its tricks and innovations wouldn’t feel a touch gimmicky.

Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor

From the start, the Korean brand’s performance division developed the Ioniq 5 N as a pure driver’s car, and it certainly delivers. Not only did we name it our best performance car of 2024, but we’d also go so far as to describe it as the best electric driver’s car made to date. 

Power comes from a dual-motor electric set-up, with 223bhp sent to the front wheels and 378bhp directed to the rear. Its maximum output stands at 641bhp, which helps the Ioniq 5 N hit 0-62mph in just 3.4sec. 

Drivers can also choose from six drive modes and adjust the motor response, damper stiffness, steering weight and stability control sensitivity. One of the car’s more gimmicky features is its synthetic engine noise, of which there's a choice of three. 

But the Ioniq 5 N isn’t just a brilliant sports car: it’s also excellent for day-to-day use, with its 84kWh battery offering around 280 miles of range on a charge, and maximum charging speeds of 340kW. 

It’s reasonably quiet, isolated and comfortable too, so you can enjoy it as a commuter car as well as a thoroughbred track-day monster. 

Best for: Luxury

Porsche has hit the EV market with exactly the sort of impact you would hope that an industry powerhouse of its stature might make, even if it wasn't with the sort of car you would expect it to make that statement with.

The Turbo S is also outrageously quick, yet it manages to make its speed approachable, and balance it with road manners that belie Veyron-baiting acceleration.

Illya Verpraet, Road Tester

Instead of being a true sports car in the traditional sense, the Taycan is a four-door fast grand tourer that's slightly smaller than the existing Panamera but is certainly not the lesser car of the two.

The Taycan possesses fine body control, rare balance, superbly calibrated operating controls and palpable steering precision. That it rides extremely well on its air suspension only adds to its appeal and was a key factor in our decision to award the Taycan the full five stars after an exhaustive road test.

In fact, were it possible to drive blindfolded and with noise-cancelling headphones on, you would still know instantly that the Taycan was a Porsche. From the steering weight and feel to the unerring agility and expensively calibrated damping, the Taycan marks itself out as a true product of Zuffenhausen.

The Turbo S musters 751bhp, costs almost £140,000 and is surely one of the quickest real-world cars on the planet, especially when you factor in its 2.6sec 0-60mph time. There are also Sport Turismo and Cross Turismo versions, which add estate and off-road flavours respectively to the Taycan recipe.

If that's not enough, the more hardcore Taycan Turbo GT pushes things up to 11. It pumps out no less than 1094bhp, which gives it almost hypercar-esque acceleration. It takes just 2.2sec to travel from 0-62mph. 

Best for: Millionaires

Few car makers have made such a big impression in such a short space of time as Rimac. In little more than a decade, the Croatian firm has grown from the garage of Mate Rimac into a company that's now partly owned by Porsche and planning the future of Bugatti. That's quite a meteoric rise.

It steers very keenly and, because it’s low and relatively stiff, there’s tightly controlled movement of its 2150kg.

Matt Prior, Editor-at-large

The crowning achievement of the young Rimac empire is the Nevera, which is the follow-up to the Concept One and C_Two show cars, the former having arguably kick-started the electric hypercar trend with its 1073bhp output and £670,000 asking price when it made its debut in 2017.

Just 150 examples of the Nevera will be made, almost all of which are apparently spoken for. Its appeal has only been enhanced in the eyes of many people by its recent record-breaking EV top speed run, when it topped 256mph.

The hardware is compelling, if somewhat eye-watering. The car is built around a composite tub, and there's an electric motor for each wheel, with independent single-speed gearboxes at the front and two two-speed dual-clutch 'boxes for the back axle.

All this means the Nevera boasts 1888bhp and a mountainous 1696lb ft, which allows it to hit 0-62mph in just 1.95sec. Its 120kWh battery also allows for up to 340 miles of range. 

With double-wishbone suspension, torque vectoring, and the potential for level-four autonomous driving, the car has the works - and an eye-watering £2.4 million price to match. 

Best for: Looks

The first electric car to wear Audi's RS initials is, deep down, the Taycan in a different suit.

As usual with EVs, the fastest version doesn't add all that much to the experience, but Audi's decision not to add Active Ride Control to the options list of the basic S might steer you towards the pricer end of the range.

Illya Verpraet, Road Tester

It uses the same powerful electric motors (one per axle) and the same three-chamber air suspension and, of course, the underlying architecture is shared. As such, the battery pack is also carried over, resulting in a WLTP range of up to 285 miles and the potential for 350kW ultra-rapid charging.

What this all means is that, firstly, the RS E-tron GT is enormously quick. In fact, the flagship version develops 612lb ft and 637bhp and will accelerate to 62mph in comfortably less than 3.5sec.

Better still, it handles well, albeit not with quite the same level of panache and engagement as its Porsche cousin, particularly in terms of steering.

Yet it's not far off, and the trade-off is a more relaxed gait than the Taycan when you're mooching, which, considering the refinement benefits of an EV, makes the Audi an equally appealing proposition.

Best for: Patient investors

Many recent Lotus headlines have been about the Emira, the British brand's Porsche 718 Cayman-chasing sports car.

Evija will support charging at speeds of up to 350kW, which will ultimately allow the battery to be replenished in little more time than it takes even the hardest use to empty it.

Autocar

Yet this machine is also being heralded as the firm's last to feature a petrol engine, with future models favouring ultra-rapid charging over unleaded. The first hint of what we can expect has already been given by the Evija, an electric hypercar being produced in a limited run of 130.

The bald statistics are somewhat mind-numbing. Lotus itself was recently surprised to find that the car's four motors together deliver 2011bhp, rather than the 1973bhp it had previously quoted.

That propels 1680kg, which is relatively light in EV terms, so performance will feel like freefall, we imagine. Actual performance figures are thin on the ground, but Lotus expects a sub-2.0sec time for the 0-62mph sprint and a top speed the naughty side of 200mph.

That said, Lotus is tuning the car more for handling and dynamism than raw statistics, so the power delivery is said to crescendo, rather like any naturally aspirated engine would.

Just how much the Evija bottles traditional Lotus traits remains to be seen, but if any of the upcoming electric hypercars can truly appeal as a driver's car, Hethel's effort is probably the best bet.

Best for: Billionaires

Much like the relationship between the Porsche Taycan and Audi RS E-tron GT, the Pininfarina Battista shares much hardware (and software) with the Rimac Nevera, but for the purposes of differentiation, it's being presented as the more outwardly luxurious, more GT-oriented machine of the pair.

The different driving modes bring more steering weight and tighter dampers as well as more power, but the ride is always calmly controlled.

Matt Prior, Editor-at-large

Even so, this is no soft-centred cruiser, as the raw statistics reveal. With 1900bhp and 1696lb ft on offer from its four motors, it's perhaps no surprise to find it can do 0-186mph in less than 12sec and 217mph all out - although even these numbers pale into insignificance alongside the £2 million asking price.

Yet there's more to it than just statistics, because the Battista handles with surprising delicacy and poise too, feeling every bit as thrilling through the corners as it does down the straights.

In the metal (and carbonfibre, obvs), the Battista is beautifully wrought both inside and out and largely Italianate, despite the fact that the company is now based in Munich and the parent company - Mahindra - is Indian.

The engineers and trimmers themselves, however, include alumni from Pagani and the Mercedes-AMG Project One hypercar, so there's no lack of talent on display here.

Best for: Convertible lovers

Over the decades, there have been many false dawns for Maserati, but somehow the iconic Italian brand has failed to move out of the shadows of its early-1950s heyday, when its cars were winning Formula 1 world championships on the track and the hearts of enthusiasts on the road.

Alas, the recipe feels like a work in progress. Greater range and efficiency is needed. A little less dynamic compromise too.

Richard Lane, Deputy road test editor

First up, there was the launch in 2020 of the sensational MC20 supercar. Then it pulled the covers off a new mid-sized SUV (crucial for sales success) and now there's the all-new Granturismo, a coupé that's designed to do exactly what it says on the tin.

More importantly, it's the first Maserati to get the all-electric treatment. Known as the Folgore (that's thunderbolt in English), it's based on an all-new, largely aluminium platform that's designed to work with both ICE and BEV powertrains.

It has the raw statistics: with a tri-motor set-up (two at the back for torque vectoring and one at the front), it delivers 751bhp for 0-62mph in 2.7sec and a 199mph top speed.

What's more, its battery (83kWh for a claimed range of 280 miles) has been designed in an elongated H-shape layout, with the centre section slotting down the spin of the car. Not only does this deliver a lower seating position, but it also centres the masses and helps to give the car greater agility.

Best for: Affordability

The MG Cyberster is an important car for the Chinese-owned British brand.

It offers decent usable range, plenty of cabriolet-class usability, and big twin-motor performance for those who want to keep up with the Tesla crowd

Matt Saunders, Road test editor

Not only does it mark the brand's 100th anniversary since its initial founding, but it's also the first electric convertible to go on sale in the UK. 

Powered by a 77kWh battery, it promises around 276 miles of range. It sends its energy to two electric motors, which combine to offer 503bhp and 535lb ft, covering 0-62mph in 3.2sec. Alternatively, you can select a single-motor set-up, with power sent to the rear wheels only. 

While its weight means it's not quite as pure and zippy as a Mazda MX-5, MG has gone to great lengths to ensure the Cyberster drives with the zest and enjoyment of a more traditional sports car.

Its handling is engaging, which partners well with the Cyberster's supple and controlled ride if you're not looking to hustle it. 

It marks a superb return for MG into the sports car market, but the real trump card is its price. The single-motor model kicks off from £54,995, rising to £59,995 for the all-wheel-drive variant.