After decades of being treated as something of a joke, the electric car is finally becoming mainstream with more electric and hybrid vehicles on the market now than ever before.
There’s a lot more where they came from as well, and now big car companies like Volkswagen, Jaguar and even Porsche are busy working away on their own entries into the electric car market.
You could go ahead and buy one now, but the next five years promise to be hugely exciting as new models full of new, cutting-edge technology start to appear. Here are eight awesome upcoming electric cars which are due on sale by 2020 at the latest, and which we reckon will be worth waiting for.
Tesla Roadster
Tesla chief Elon Musk announced in a statement last summer that the company is working on a next-generation version of the Roadster, the first car that Tesla made and released to the public.
Exact details are still under wraps, but Musk said that it will be capable of hitting 62mph from a standing start in around two and a half seconds, and that it’ll be faster than any other Tesla.
Chevrolet Bolt
Though it’s Tesla that’s widely credited with finally making the electric car cool and bringing it to the everyman, in truth it’s Chevrolet’s new Bolt that’ll probably be the world’s first proper mass-market electric vehicle.
For a start, it’ll be a lot more affordable than a Tesla with prices in the US starting from approximately $30,000, while it also has a 238-mile range on a single charge.
Badged in Europe as the Opel Ampera-e, it’s not due to go on sale in the UK just yet, but if it proves to be a success it’ll likely show up on these shores in right-hand drive format.
Audi A9 e-tron
Audi’s busy at work planning a whole suite of electric cars, with its first – an all-electric SUV known as the e-tron quattro – due out in 2018.
However, by 2020 it’s also planning to have an all-electric luxury sedan on the market, which is rumoured to be called the A9 e-tron and which will be powered by no fewer than three electric motors.
It’ll be able to travel for more than 300 miles on a single charge, will be able to drive itself autonomously and will also feature all the luxury of Audi’s current flagship supersaloons like the A8.
Porsche Mission E
The first foray from Porsche into the electric car market will be the stunning Mission E sports car that it first unveiled late last year. It’s clearly taking things seriously too, having invested more than $1 billion into development and production facilities.
Able to travel for around 310 miles on a single charge, Porsche says it’ll be a full-blown sports car aimed at maximum driver involvement, with none of that namby-pamby driverless stuff in sight.
In terms of performance, Porsche’s engineers reckon it’ll known on the door of 62mph in just over three seconds, and they say you’ll be able to charge it to 80 per cent capacity in a mere 15 minutes.
Aston Martin RapidE
Earlier this year Aston Martin also said it would be developing a production version of its electric RapidE Concept model in conjunction with Chinese technology company LeEco.
Essentially an electric version of the Rapide S saloon, it’s expected to have a range of around 200 miles on a single charge. It’ll be typically Aston pricey too though, with prices estimated at £200,000.
Volkswagen I.D.
Post-Dieselgate, Volkswagen has undergone a rapid turnaround of its priorities to focus more heavily on electric and hybrid cars, with a promise that it’ll have a full 20 electrified models on sale in the next five years.
Key to this will be the I.D. hatchback, a concept car that was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show this year and which promises to be an electric equivalent to the likes of the ever-popular Golf.
Not much is known about the car quite yet, but it’s expected to have some form of autonomous driving function and it’s due to be on sale by 2020.
Jaguar E-PACE
The Jaguar Land Rover group is also working on a range of electrified cars, with its first expected to be unveiled by the end of this year and on sale by 2018 at the latest.
There’s no official word on it yet, but it’s widely expected to be an electrified version of the new F-PACE SUV, likely called the E-PACE.
Land Rover is also supposedly working on an electrified Evoque E, which could potentially go on sale around the same time.
Fisker E-Motion
Legendary car designer Henrik Fisker, who previously designed and built the stylish Fisker Karma hybrid, announced last month that he’s now working on an all-new, all-electric car called the E-Motion.
Designed to knock seven bells out of Elon Musk and his Teslas, the E-Motion will supposedly have a top speed of 161mph, along with a range of 400 miles on a single charge of its battery pack.
It’s due to go on sale next year, and although there’s no word on pricing yet Fisker has said that the E-Motion will be priced to directly compete with cars like the Tesla Model S.
