Four Fast Electric Cars That Are Also Affordable

The Wall Street Journal's Joseph White has gotten the message that electric cars don't have to be slow, and it was something of a Road to Damascus conversion for a reporter who'd been somewhat skeptical about the prospects for EVs. Electric cars have waxed and waned over the last 100 years, he said, and right now they're waxing.

The catalyst for White's conversion was a drive in a Tesla Roadster Sport, the new gilding-the-lily model that adds $20,000 to the $109,000 base price and a hair-faster 3.7-second zero-to-60 time. White writes, "The steering is stiff. The suspension is jittery on rough pavement. There's gobs of wind noise, and hitting a pothole causes the car's carbon-fiber composite body to shake, rattle and roll. But you can have enormous fun within the legal speed limit as you whoosh around unsuspecting Camry drivers, zapping from 40 to 60 miles per hour in two seconds while the startled victims eat your electric dust."

Exactly. I drove EVs in the 90s that were indeed slowpokes (and some, like the Indian-made Reva G-Wiz, still are) but for the most part it's time to retire that hoary cliché. I've been behind the wheel of almost all the EVs that will hit the road in the next two years, and not one of them is a snooze.

Here's a brief rundown of some recent close encounters with fast EVs:

Chevrolet Volt. I drove a "mule" version of the Volt (it was in the body of a Chevy Cruze) at the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan in June. What a blast. None of the writing about the Volt has focused on it as a fun ride, but here's an excerpt from what I wrote then: "The Chevy Volt will give you a jolt; it's as much a kick in the pants as some caffeinated colas I could name. I have seen this range-extended sedan, which some consider the brightest light on GM's horizon, all over the U.S., but always motionless, and usually turning on a show stand. [The Tech Center offers] not only plentiful Canada geese but also great roads for getting this little rocket up to speed. The Volt can go 40 miles on its battery pack alone, so we had range to spare. With the help of its onboard 1.4-liter gas generator, the Volt can travel about 400 miles."

Ford Focus. I wrote in June from Dearborn, Michigan: "The car I'm driving on the Dearborn proving grounds is a battery-electric Ford Focus, and it's way, way more fun to drive than it has any right to be. Electric motors have a major performance advantage: 100 percent torque at zero revolutions per minute, which means they take off like a bat out of hell. Who knew EVs could be so much fun? The Ford test track (once an airport built by Henry Ford himself) is full of bumps and fast turns, and it's vastly entertaining to negotiate it in this little pocket rocket. Was that a brutal GT-40 that just went past me in a cloud of exhaust fumes? You bet it was." I later drove a version of the same car (with helpful suspension modifications) on Jay Leno's test track in Los Angeles, and it was even more fun.

Mini E. The Mini E is an electric version of the popular Mini Cooper, and 450 of them (two-seaters because of the battery packs) are being leased for $800 a month on the east and west coasts. I got into one of these AC Propulsion conversions in August, at BMW's headquarters in New Jersey. Yesterday, BMW announced an EV version of its 1-Series coupe, with similar driving characteristics to the Mini E. Here's what I said after my summer drive: "I spent some quality time with the Mini E, the very limited-edition battery version of the popular British car (actually made by BMW, but it still has a Union Jack on the roof as far as I'm concerned). The two-seater Mini E has some serious torque: It's actually possible to chirp the tires from 40 mph. Its great fun to throw around on New Jersey byways around BMW headquarters."

Nissan Leaf. Drove this one in Los Angeles in November, also in "mule" guise (it looked like a Versa). The conditions weren't ideal, but the experience was vivid anyway:  "Since there were so many people waiting, we were allowed a short drive around a cone course in the parking lot, with an anxious Nissan guy riding shotgun (there are only two of these ‘mules' in the world). I wasn't trying to make a spectacle of myself, but I'm a notorious doofus around cone courses and that led me to a serious braking test -- they worked great, and I left such dramatic rubber that everybody rushed over to see if I'd crashed the car. No, just reduced the lifespan of its low-rolling-resistance tires. The car is much improved since I drove it last in Bear Mountain, New York. At that time, it was in the body of the then-new Nissan Cube. Previous flat spots on the Leaf's acceleration at around 50 mph appear to have been straightened out and the car now accelerates dramatically well up to at least 60 mph (people were diving out of the way) and handles well, with only minor body lean. The actual Leaf may differ, of course, but probably not all that much."

I've driven others, including the Coda sedan and the Bright plug-in hybrid van. None were tortoises. All were hares. Get ready for fast times at the EV corral.