Why are Tesla the only company that make good electric saloons?

As a result of socio-economic change, electric cars are becoming more and more prominant in Britain. They are starting to fill every range from hypercars, to hatchbacks, to SUVs and it has been proven by companies like Tesla and Porsche that it doesn't have to suck the fun out of driving! However, I have one major problem with how the market is progressing. What appears to be happening is that companies are deciding to make an electric car, which is fine, but they are then happening upon a metaphorical fork in the road where they are forced to choose between incredibly fast, fun and expensive or cheap, slow and fairly boring. It's not like the more affordable cars have incredible range either. Take the upcoming Tesla Roadster. This electric beast an alleged range of 620 miles compared to the Mitsubishi i-MIEV which has a measley 62. I can easily understand you neec to pay more for a better car with a better battery but what I can't get my head round is why there are no (or very few) cars that have carved right through that fork and made a fun, long-ranged, yet affordable electric car.

The sort of car I want to see available to the masses is any estate or saloon with a sub 6 second 0-60 and a range of over about 250 miles. In my opinion, that isn't a lot to ask for considering Tesla's cheapest and least powerful model, the 75D (not including Model 3 as it is not yet available in the UK), has a 259 mile range and a 5.2 second 0-60 time. Now, I want to say go and buy this car because it is brilliant fun, with negliable running costs and it keeps the people at the Environment Agency happy. But I can't. It starts from around £60,000... and that is a lot. At the moment, nearly every electric car on the market is a hatchback and Tesla is the only company that have made an electric saloon. I find this staggering, especially given that, according to a survey that wasn't carried out by me, the most popular car body style in the UK is in fact a saloon.

The question this has raised for me is, why haven't Audi, Mercedes,Volvo, BMW or even Jaguar made a fully-electric saloon yet? If you look at these companies, their saloon models are at the forefront of the market. Take the Mercedes C-Class for instance; last year it was the 11th best selling car in the UK! While the R&D side of things would cost the company a lot... an electric version of these cars would sell brilliantly; it would be a win/win because not only would they be congratulated for their efforts towards saving the polar bears, these are companies that are competetive enough with each other to keep making their cars faster, longer-ranged and all-round better to drive.

A regular criticism of the electric market as it stands, is that battery charging is a big problem when you're on a long journey; stopping to charge a battery for 45 minutes or so, is considerably longer than the 2 minutes one would spend at the petrol pump. At first, I shared the same train of thought but after more consideration, if I had been in my Tesla for 250 miles or so, I'd probably benefit from a break with a coffee and a snack. In my humble opinion, the necessity to stop might well decrease the amount of crashes caused by driver fatigue; especially when trying to push on through the night. On the other hand, BMW are in the process of creating a faster and more efficient charger which they claim will only take about 15 mins to charge.

So, what else would put someone off buying electric and subsequently make companies less likely to develop them? Well, there is the argument that electric cars are not an involving drive. For the most part, this is true. The majority of electric cars, as I have already mentioned, are small city-hatchbacks which accelerate to 60 in 10+ seconds and then hit a top speed of under 100mph, alongside a range of often under 100 miles... which is futile. Also, as an out-and-out petrolhead, it has taken me a long time to accept the notion of a car without an engine or a proper gearbox. However, I cannot fault the performance of Teslas: The model S P100d does 0-60 in 2.5 seconds and then the overtaking stat (45-65mph) in marginally over a second which is faster than...well, let's just say you'd have to travel a long way to find something even remotely near those ludicrous stats! So, not all electric cars are boring. Its just most that aren't Teslas, are.

So, in conclusion. The people that drive saloons are often buisness people who, in reality, would much rather spend their 45 minutes in a meeting selling their company's new product rather than at a service station charging it and drinking sub-standard coffee. However, I refuse to believe this will always be the case; I can see real potential for the market and forsee it booming fairly soon. The answer to my initial question though, is that at the moment the high-grade battery technology is costing too much to research and therefore writing itself a rather large price tag. What appears to have happened is Tesla's Elon Musk does't mind spending a lot of money to do it. As a result of their high prices, Tesla does have over $3 billion in cash but its also burning through $1 billion per quarter. Other companies just don't have the gut to spend that much money right now on an industry that is still in its embryonic stage.

I look forward, in the next decade or so, to see an abundance of choice from British and German companies, for executive and family electric cars that don't feel cheap and boring. However, this doesn't mean I want to see the back of the not-so-humble V8 any time soon!