Revealed: the winners of the 2021 Top Gear Electric Awards

Here we go then. The greatest electric cars in the world right now, according to Top Gear. The best of batteries, the cream of capacitors, the peak of permanent magnet synchronous motors.

Rubber boots on, no sticking your fingers in the sockets, it’s time to flip the switch.

TopGear.com Electric Awards sponsored by Hankook

"There’s joy in simply controlling and managing the mass, feeling my way around the track; it’s miles from the point and squirt device I assumed it would be. And there’s still ESC, trick traction control with a hero sideways mode, four-wheel torque vectoring... and another 400bhp (400bhp!) to come."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"The user interface (which was developed entirely in-house) uses what Merc calls a ‘zero-layer’ design. Effectively it employs AI to predict what you want to do before you’ve done it, then proactively surfaces relevant functions at just the right moment so you don’t have to go swiping through endless submenus to find them. Källenius says he could teach anyone how to use the system in 10 minutes. We’ll be taking him up on his offer."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"Hands down, this was my favourite few days of driving ever. I didn’t expect it, it’s just so fast."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"Hyundai’s been brave enough not to wrap it in an unassuming body. The Ioniq 5 looks like an Eighties hot hatch that’s been beamed into the future. It’s head-turningly bold and peppered with talking point details."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"The 2 also manages to make corners fun. A lot of electric cars seem to attack a curve with enthusiastic banality, effect without texture. But the Polestar, even with its damping adjusted the wrong way and 150kg strapped to the roof, manages to be grown up and tactile. This isn’t the forthright excitement of a characterful internal combustion engine, no, but this car feels rather than baldly articulates. Converses in subtleties and the gaps left by big shouty emotion. It’s a grower."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"To be clear then: we like this Renault because we like this Renault. It’s a well-chiselled shape with strong proportions and eye candy detailing. Renault is good at small EVs, and that’s what this will be when the production version launches in late 2023. Electric only."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"The thing about the Taycan that just blew me away was because it’s electric you don’t expect it to feel like a proper Porsche, and then you get in it and it does. And then you start driving it and it really really does."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"A little more laid-back than the Porsche and, let’s face it, better looking, it’s the kind of car you could cross Europe in."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"One of the great things about the electric revolution we’re all witnessing right now is it’s breathing new life into old cars. Like this one. Yep, this gorgeous old road-boat has had a full electric heart transplant, the work of the Silverstone-based EV restomodders at Lunaz Design, who have been ruffling feathers in the classic car scene for a few years now with their meticulous conversions and restorations."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"Yes it looks like a robot hamster, and the small steering wheel is a dodgy idea Peugeot can’t let go, but there’s sparkle in the design – inside and out – the range and performance over-deliver and it feels futuristic without any Back to the Future Part II naffness."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"Not a hybrid in the conventional sense, it uses a supercapacitor and electric motor to effectively chamfer off harsh gearchanges and add a torque boost at low revs. But the driving experience is sensational."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"The chassis feels commendably light on its feet, turn-in is good and the Ford is the most eager and responsive, and, with 290bhp, has the right amount of performance. The Mach-E is keen to prove it’s a Mustang."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"It’s one of those cars that sweeps along effortlessly, carrying speed easily, lightly and deftly, the sort of speed that leaves passengers clueless as to how quickly they’re travelling. There’s no heave around corners, no loss of body control and, most remarkably of all, no tension in it."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now

"I literally can’t think of another car that blends speed and comfort as well as this, another car that you could load four people into and drive so rapidly yet serenely. It’s a world away from the stomping Mercedes-AMG E63, way ahead of even an Audi RS6 or Porsche’s own Panamera."

For the full feature, pick up Top Gear magazine's Electric Awards issue now