What’s electric, fast and beyond Taycan

As the boss of your own successful company, or CEO of a profitable and progressive medium-sized enterprise, where do you go when you’ve already enjoyed the Porsche Taycan?

What’s the next step in the fast EV journey (that can still be through the business as a fleet car – just)?

If you’re in a standard Taycan then the obvious answer is to go for the Turbo S with its neck-flexing, eyeball-popping, 2.8-second hyperspace acceleration to 62mph.

But what if you fancy something other than a Taycan – something fast, fun and electric. Where do you turn? What should be on your order list?

In reality, you’re probably in for a wait. There’s lots coming, but it might be worth hanging onto that Taycan lease car for a little bit longer.

So here’s what’s on the horizon.

Porsche – beyond Taycan

Next year (2023) Porsche is offering an upgrade to all Taycan owners. It won’t be applied over the air (OTA), so you’ll have to visit your local Porsche Centre to benefit from range and efficiency enhancements plus upgrades to the infotainment system.

Further away is the second-gen Taycan which reports say will be based on the SSP Sport structure (Volkswagen Group’s Scalable Systems Platform). Sources say it will be with us in 2027, along with an electric Panamera.

A bit closer are all-electric versions of the 718 Cayman and Boxster models due around 2025. For a preview of what they may look like, check out the Porsche Mission R concept unveiled in 2021. While a racing concept, insiders suggest it also gives strong clues to the shape of the new 718.

Tesla Roadster

Unveiled in late 2017, and available on the Tesla website for a deposit of £4,000 on a credit card plus a further £34,000 due within 10 days, the Roadster offers acceleration that makes the Taycan Turbo S look tardy. There’s also the promise of a  huge battery-extending range of 620 miles on a charge so you’ll hardly ever need to visit a Tesla Supercharger to refill the battery. But…

…and this is the but. When? When will your deposit actually result in a physical car? According to CEO Elon Musk, parts supply issues have delayed production which has been put back to 2023. Still, the Roadster could be worth the downpayment on the chance that it will actually appear next year – especially with that sort of performance.

Lotus Evija

Another roadster that should be on the list is more homegrown (although the owner is Chinese carmaker Geely) – the Lotus Evija.

With a target power output of 2,000 PS, Lotus says the lightweight sports car will be the world’s most powerful series production road car. Expect to hit 62mph from standstill in under 3 seconds before going on to over 200mph.

With a range of more than 200 miles, Lotus says the Evija will be limited to just 130 models – in line with its model number, Type 130. Interested? Apply on the Lotus website…

Audi R8

The flagship Audi mid-engined sports car won’t look quite like the picture below. For a start, there will be no V10 howling behind your head, but according to a report in automotive industry magazine Autocar, the Ingolstadt car maker is planning a halo model Sportster to replace the R8, but using electric propulsion. Like many of these projects, it’s due for mid-decade production.

Polestar 6

Unveiled Stateside at the Pebble Beach Concours, this fabulous roadster will be with us from 2026. Based on the upcoming Polestar 5 coupe, the 6 swaps the hard top for a retracting fixed roof, and from a standstill has the ability to tug away the hair that you may or may not have left in 3.2 seconds, but deliver a grand tourer ride when you want to waft away to the south of France.

Rimac Nevera

Now here’s an electric hypercar that you can get your hands on now: the Rimac Nevera, costing a cool 2 million euro. Built by Croatian company Rimac, which recently received investment from Porsche among others, it has mind-melting performance figures: power is 1914hp, 0-62 is 1.97 seconds, top speed is 256mph, and the battery range exceeds 300 miles. Wow! I’ll order my neck brace now.

Lucid

The Lucid Air is a grand sedan made in the US, but with its sights set on Europe and China. But don’t think of it just as a boulevardier. Lucid’s capabilities go much further and deeper. It’s super quick if you want it to be (sub 2 seconds to 62mph) and has a chargepoint avoiding range of between 400-520 miles depending on the variant. Available in a number of different specifications, the Sapphire is the performance version to head for. Having made its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year, expect to see the Lucid Motors’ Air on sale here next year.

Pininfarina Battista

The handbuilt Italian hypercar that you can purchase from a  showroom in London, the Pininfarina Battista is not powered by sweet V6s or 12s but by an electric motor. It delivers the kind of performance you would expect from an Italian sports car – there’s sub 2 seconds to 62mph, courtesy of four electric motors (one for each wheel), delivering 1900hp and warp factor torque of 2300 Nm. The cost is a cool £1.9m but you’ll be sitting in a handcrafted piece of Italian automotive artistry that fully embraces the digital age.

What of the other sports car manufacturers?

Well, Aston Martin reckoned on having the Rapide E electric super saloon in production by now, having first been shown at Auto Shanghai in 2019. However, the car never saw production and we’ll have to wait until 2025 until we see anything emerge from the Newport Pagnell firm (although the plug-in hybrid Valhalla is promised by 2024).

Similarly, Ferrari says an electric sports car won’t exit the Maranello factory gates until 2025 although it will enter next year’s Le Mans 24 Hours sports car event with a hybrid drivetrain hypercar.

Meanwhile, Lamborghini will be holding onto conventional V12s for the moment until 2028 when its first SUV will appear.

Finally, Japan’s Aspark Owl might be the fastest accelerating EV coming up for sale (0 – 60 in a physics-defying 1.69 seconds), but I’m not entirely convinced the name will catch on. So I’ll just park that one … in the barn?