Weary of the news of the launch of another many-thousand-horsepower electric hypercar yet?
What’s interesting is that very few are being made by established brands. I hope that’s because they better grasp the contradictions.
I get the arguments for why they should exist: halo cars have never been developed just for the benefits of customers but rather for the knock-on effect they can have, be it adding some sparkle to more mundane models or establishing a brand’s credentials. For start-ups seeking to use electrification to get a foothold in the mainstream, it’s an opportunity too good to be missed. But in the modern world, these cars have never made less sense.
Why so? Because it’s widely acknowledged that the energy required to create a battery pack is by some margin greater than that required to create a combustion engine.
