Can’t afford a Ferrari Luce? Try these bargain fast EVs instead

Has the Internet stopped debating the Ferrari Luce yet? Nope? Well, how about a tempting little diversion. The first fully electric car from Maranello has tore comments sections asunder, primarily with its design, but there’s also a wee bit of chatter around its price. You shouldn’t expect change from half a million pounds with even a very light peruse of its options menu – so what kind of plug-in performance can you acquire elsewhere for a mere fraction of the cost?

This modestly used Kia EV6 GT lists at around 95 per cent less than a Luce while offering more than 50 per cent of the power. Its 577bhp and 546lb ft peaks in this pre-facelift form yield a 0-62mph sprint of 3.5 seconds – just a second behind the Ferrari’s claim. And there’s a rudimentary Drift Mode in lieu of the Italians’ typically spectacular Side Slip Control, too…

Or how about the Kia’s wilder, more rapscallion cousin? It wouldn’t be a surprise to learn examples of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N had found their way to Maranello during the Luce’s development, at the very least in the name of professional curiosity of their N e-shift simulated gearshifts and accompanying faux engine sound.

Hypothesising a Ferrari being developed against a Hyundai would have felt like a fever dream not too long ago, but the inexorable rise of N division has led us to a 641bhp, drifting, shifting EV that impishly proves a pure plug-in can be a riot to drive. Leave your search for analogue authenticity at the door and revel in a supercar-quick hot hatch that costs less than a new Golf GTI.

The original four-door battery supercar, and one of the first big ‘legacy’ performance brands to go mainstream electric. The Porsche Taycan has achieved mixed success since; it hit the absolute bullseye with the critics, impressing ‘em all with its deft handling and stupendous performance. 

The paying public, though, have wedged themselves more on the fence and the classifieds tell the story of a car which can’t cling onto its value with anything like the voracity of a 911. Which does mean you can have a 750bhp, 2.8s to 62mph sports saloon for under fifty grand…

A fresh rival to both the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT is the Polestar 5, a British-developed four-door coupe that shares much in philosophy with the Ferrari Luce but costs about a fifth of the price. That still means a six-figure sum in its quickest trim, mind, and we’re here to hunt second-hand bargains.

So how about the boxier Polestar 2, in Performance Pack trim and thus blessed with 469bhp and 0-62mph in a sliver over four seconds? You also get fancy Ohlins dampers with 22 clicks of setup potential and Swedish Gold (aka yellow) details in all the right places. A cool thing for £25k.

Or you can spend nearly half as much again and experience a true wolf in a lambswool suit for just £15k. Volvo and Polestar don’t really talk much about their relationship these days, but we’re fully aware of how cosy they used to be. You will therefore identify a familiar air to the Polestar 2 above woven through this humbler XC40, a car that deploys its dual motors for a 402bhp peak and 0-62mph in under five seconds. 

It’ll seat five and cart around their belongings with just as much aplomb as a Luce, too. And draw less attention…

Porsche didn’t go it alone with the Taycan, however, and much of what lies beneath its surfacing is shared with the Audi e-tron GT. Some prefer the looks of its Ingolstadt cousin, and seeing one of these hunkered fully down on its suspension is a sight to behold.

They’re good to drive, too, representing a slightly softer, more everyday proposition than the Porsche but feeling no less dramatic in a straight line. Not least in halo RS spec with a 637bhp peak to claim its 3.3s dash to 62mph. Those figures rise and fall to 912bhp and a Luce-matching 2.5s if you go for a post-facelift RS Performance.

Perhaps your biggest issue with the Luce is its lack of engine. Or perhaps your rage was baited even harder by the brand-new Mercedes-AMG GT 4-door Coupe and its similarly divisive design language. Well, here’s a car to efficiently solve both issues in one, all while boasting a name to quickly conclude any game of Scrabble.

The (deep breath) Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance 4-door is a relic in this list, enlisting a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 for much of its propulsion, though a healthy dose of electricity boosts its peak outputs to 831bhp and 1,084lb ft for 0-62mph in 2.9s and an almighty 196mph top speed – a mite faster than that Ferrari at its maximum. It appears to be holding value better than a pure EV, the £112k commanded here a mere sixty grand less than when it retailed at new. Just mind its piffling eight miles of electric-only range…

Maybe you crave a Ferrari Luce because of the consternation its appearance has caused the keyboard combatants. In which case you can stir much of the same disquiet with the iX, a car whose launch upset many a BMW purist and which is unlikely to sit beside too many E30 320iS saloons or E46 M3 CS coupes in their completist collections.

But holy moly, is it quick: this once range-topping M60 packs 611bhp and 811lb ft to shuffle its near 2.7 tonnes to 62mph in under four seconds, bringing a whole world of drama to its plush, spa-like ambience inside. These are brilliant limos – and not merely because its front grilles can’t be seen from inside.

Tesla was once easy to celebrate as a disruptor. A pioneer. The beacon of a fascinating automotive future. But the intrinsic link between the brand and its owner makes the issue a whole lot murkier. Many folks won’t be willing to separate the artist from his engineers’ art but for those that can, a Model S Plaid goes toe-to-toe with a Luce on paper thanks to its 1,020bhp output and mite-over-two-second 0-60mph time when you remove the US-specific rollout. 

It arrived late enough in the Model S timeline to be left-hand-drive only and it’s not even a wheel on the ‘wrong’ side, but a slimmed-down yoke. Better get the hang of where to grasp it before deploying that explosive accelerative force…

Buy a Model S and everyone you pass will recognise its badge and have a thoroughly robust opinion about it. The car here, less so. The Genesis GV60 is a quietly terrific thing, packing much of the knowhow of the EV6 GT and Ioniq 5 N into something much calmer, subtler and more likely to whoosh silently under the radar.

There’s a Drift Mode, sure, and an almighty 483bhp to consider every time your toe flexes as the traffic lights turn green. But this is a car which embraces life with a more insouciant attitude – the interior design and ambience have been parachuted from several classes above and there’s something quite delicious about people not knowing what’s just murmured past them. This one’s two years old yet already half price.

The Ferrari Luce isn’t the first time Italy’s renowned motor valley has launched a fully electric car with some hallowed heritage badges. There’s the Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce, fairly fresh but already dipping down to thirty grand, or its more rapscallion relation for a few grand less.

The Abarth 600e shares rather a lot of the Junior’s wiry bits and offers the same 276bhp potential, but wears a much wilder costume and offers a whole heap of silliness in this Scorpionissima spec with its limited-slip differential, Formula E-bred tyres, racing brakes and tuned chassis. Its rather brash, binary idea of fun aligns surprisingly neatly with the multitude of tuned Fiat 500s (and 124 Spiders, don’t forget) that Abarth has sold for the last 20 years, making the leap from ICE to EV much less of a head scramble than it feels anywhere else.

Or perhaps you want your tonne-and-a-half, OTT electric crossover to have a whiff of British heritage about it. We say ‘a whiff’ because these are currently built in China via an alliance with Great Wall rather than alongside petrol Mini hatches in good ol’ Oxford.

Though much like the Abarth, there’s still a convincing aura of ‘Mini’ about everything the Aceman John Cooper Works Does. Cartoonish interior? Tick. Overly stiff ride? Tick. Vivaciously spinning front wheels with a mere glance at its throttle pedal? Tick, tick, tick. Assess this car with militant objectivity and it’s all too easy to dismiss. But with your sense of humour active and about a quarter of its value snipped off (after just 3,000 miles), it might just cajole you into giving it a chance.

It’s hard not to pity the marketing teams of Ferrari. And before them Jaguar. And if we wind the timeline back further, Ford. Yep, the Mustang Mach-E perhaps proves there’s no painless way of whipping off the sticking plaster and going electric. Using one of the most iconic muscle car monikers was always going to cause a stir, of course, but the Mach-E at least handled neatly and accommodated habitably enough for the madness to simmer down quite quickly. Well, until Ford announced the new Capri…

There’s surely plenty to like about this £27k Mustang Mach-E GT, however, painted in vibrant Cyber Orange and in possession of a beyond useful 480bhp to ensure its straight-line performance – if not noise – lives up to the legendary billing. And if any of the old Mustangista are heckling you, you’re at least assured of a brisk getaway.

If this list proves anything, it’s that brands with a long and illustrious sports car heritage don’t get an easy pass in going fully electric. The Kias, Hyundais and Teslas of this world are lauded for their innovative tech and whirlwind performance, while the Fords and Ferraris must appease a braying mob whose own, rose-tinted vision of their favourite brand doesn’t align with an electrified vision of its future.

Lotus surely faced the roughest ride of all, its showrooms transitioning from a bunch of welterweight Elise and Exige specials to the 2.5-tonne-plus Eletre and Emeya in just a few short years. But there’s little argument with their performance: for less than the price of a new, 360bhp Emira Turbo you can have this lightly used, 905bhp Emeya R saloon. Should tide you over until your Luce’s ready for collection.