The luxury sports car gets an electric makeover

As with most Porsches, the new Taycan Turbo GT looks fast. But it’s not until racing driver Bruno Correia hits the accelerator and his passengers’ helmets slam back against their head rests that the supercar’s true speed becomes fully apparent.

“The handling of this car, for its size and weight, is just astonishing,” remarks Correia casually, as he slows dramatically into a corner at Berlin’s Tempelhof airfield after letting rip the car’s full 1,034 brake horsepower.

Launched in March, the new £186,300 Porsche is the latest in a long line of superfast luxury cars to emerge from the German carmaker’s stable. It ticks all the boxes for the speedster aficionado: the aerodynamic bodywork, the racing-car-style cockpit and, of course, the exhilarating acceleration (0-60mph in 2.3 seconds). The only significant anomaly is the sound: press the accelerator and the tell-tale roar is absent, swapped for a high-frequency buzz similar to the static from an electricity pylon.

Not that wealthy buyers seem to mind, says Stefan Mayr-Uhlmann, a spokesperson for Porsche. The all-electric Taycan, which comes with an “attack mode” that adds an extra spurt of power when at full speed, is attracting high-income customers from all the carmaker’s main markets. “The Porsche Taycan has significantly expanded the Porsche positioning among very progressive upper milieus,” he says.

Other models are now appearing in the same class, such as the Maserati Folgore (“lightning” in Italian) and Audi RS e-tron GT. For those with deeper pockets and an even greater appetite for speed, there’s also a handful of limited-edition electric hypercars to choose from — most notably, the Rimac Nevera, Lotus Evija, and Pininfarina Battista.

In a way, the world’s supercar manufacturers are merely the latest to join the electric bandwagon. Recent years have seen luxury brands — such as Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz — all introduce battery powertrains into their higher-end ranges.

According to data from consultancy McKinsey, more than two-fifths (44 per cent) of luxury vehicle owners are already sold on the idea of switching to electric. As the technology becomes more normalised, this demand is expected to grow, with 60 per cent of the high-value automotive market projected to be battery-powered by the end of the decade.

This willingness to swap is in evidence in the two-wheeler category. Canadian e-superbike manufacturer Damon Motors, for example, has already garnered more than 3,400 pre-orders for its upcoming $32,000 HyperSport model. According to the company’s head of marketing, Amber Spencer, a “pretty big chunk” of these early buyers currently ride conventionally fuelled motorbikes.

As with conventional electric vehicles (EVs), two clear sub-categories of buyer exist within the early adopters: those convinced by the merits of the green credentials of this new class of driving experience, and those who revel in being at the cutting edge of emerging technology.

The latter is the more significant of the two, notes George Blankenship, chief revenue officer at the e-superbike maker Verge Motorcycles. The company’s TS Pro and TS Ultra models have all the special features expected of a high-end vehicle: 360-degree cameras, high-resolution radars, customisable ride modes and a “first-of-its-kind” powertrain located inside the rear wheel.

Blankenship, a marketing and retail expert who previously worked at both Apple and Tesla, draws parallels between this new crop of superfast EVs and the very first iPod: “No one needed 1,000 songs in their pocket . . . but everyone knew you had one and it was cool.”

That might make it sound gimmicky but, unlike the iPod, it’s important to note that this class of vehicle is not appearing from nowhere. With one in 10 new cars sold globally now electric, the buying public is increasingly accustomed to the sound and feel of battery-powered driving.

The novelty factor should not be underestimated, either, says Patrick Hertzke, a partner and automotive expert at McKinsey. The garages of high-net-wealth individuals typically house multiple vehicles for different occasions, he says. The implication? A parking bay can easily be found for a visually striking, next-generation electric supercar. As Hertzke states: “Ultra-luxury and supercar buyers don’t wear the same clothing every day, or have fun in the same way every day. Similarly, they might own five or 10 cars.”

Ultimately, however, wealthy buyers will be sold on one factor alone: performance. Here, the Taycans of this world can boast several notable advantages, including higher torque and a lower centre of gravity than conventional supercars with internal combustion engines. Running against them, on the other hand, is greater weight, shorter range and lack of roar.

Generating sales, therefore, will very much depend on positioning these vehicles at the very “forefront of technical innovation”, says Fabian Brandt, global head of automotive and manufacturing industries at Oliver Wyman management consultancy. Top of his mind, here, are fast-charging concepts, clever sound design and new-look solid-state batteries.

It’s an argument that Spanish former politician turned motorsports impresario Alejandro Agag has been making since launching Formula E, a multi-stage race format, a decade ago.

Now entering its 11th season, the globe-trotting competition will see the likes of Porsche, Jaguar and Maserati go head to head. The 17 e-Prix race series provides manufacturers with a global stage, not only to develop innovations but also to show them off.

When it comes to purchasing a high-velocity EV, most buyers frankly “don’t care if it’s green, if it’s blue, or if it’s pink”, Agag reasons.

Nor is price point a make or break. “It’s OK for e-supercars to be super-expensive — they just need to be the best of the super-expensive,” he adds.

His theory, in a nutshell, is: “People will buy electric cars because they are the best, so our role is to make our technologies the best.”

It’s OK for e-supercars to be super-expensive — they just need to be the best of the super-expensive

In Formula E, this “race to road” strategy is slowly paying off. Initially, the battery performance was so poor that drivers had to swap cars mid-race. Today, the cars whizz round on a single charge, aided by significant advances in regenerative braking, which converts the kinetic energy generating when pressing the brakes into additional electric charge. Their speed is also nearly 100km/h faster and their engines almost 75 per cent more powerful than the first generation of electric race cars.

The competing carmakers are candid about their focus on the end consumer. James Barclay, team principal for the racing team at Jaguar, ticks off a catalogue of technological advances accrued from participating in Formula E. His list over the eight years of Jaguar’s involvement ranges from breakthroughs in energy management software to the use of state-of-the-art materials, such as silicon carbide and recycled lubricants.

“Winning involves pushing the boundaries of technology, finding new materials, new solutions, new designs, [which] is all beneficial to consumers who will drive future EVs on the road,” Barclay says.

Two years ago, the UK-based carmaker released a new software update based on the insights from the racetrack that increased battery life across all its EV models by up to 10 per cent. With Jaguar committing to transfer its entire fleet to electric by 2025, such innovations promise to make the difference between commercial success and failure.

Sports cars are not the only category betting on the race-to-road approach. The clean-energy racing circuit also features Extreme E, for off-road EVs, which next year will be replaced by Extreme H hydrogen-fuelled race cars, and E1, for battery-powered speedboats.

Part of the appeal to buyers is also the buzz that such competitions create. As Agag puts it: “We could send people a 100-page PDF explaining the 0-to-60 [mph] advantages and all the benefits, but we’re not. We’re choosing to put on a spectacle to show them instead.”

Taking a leaf out of the Formula 1 book, Formula E races already come with all the razzmatazz of high-profile sponsors, celebrity appearances, and high-energy live coverage. It even has its own “behind-the-scenes” documentary series.

Similar hype surrounds the other race formats. Take the e-powerboat E1 series, which launched earlier this year and counts a private island in Venice among its race venues. The team-owner sheet also reads like a celebrity Who’s Who, with early backers including NFL superstar Tom Brady, Hollywood actor Will Smith and tennis player Rafael Nadal.

For high-net-worth invitees, a trip to an e-Prix can come with an opportunity for a “hot lap” with a professional driver. The absence of the roar and throb of a V10 engine sometimes induces a degree of initial scepticism, says Giovanni Sgro, head of the Maserati Corse racing team. But, he says, as soon as the g-force hits in the first corner, “the last thing they’re thinking about is the sound”.

Performance aside, Sgro’s sales colleagues also point out the Folgore’s 450km range, its rapid fast-charging capacity and its “luxurious, Italian-made” interior. As he notes: “We make it sexy the way it looks, and then we add the credibility by driving it.”

Even the most ardent electric fans, however, do not pretend that persuading speed fans to transition from growling combustion engines to squeaky clean battery packs will be easy.

Yet Agag, for one, remains confident. “Some people feel that a true sports car, a supercar, needs to make noise and smell like gasoline,” he concludes. “But all those are perceptions that can be changed.” 

This article is part of FT Wealth, a section providing in-depth coverage of philanthropy, entrepreneurs and family offices, as well as alternative and impact investment