They’ll take your heart but you won’t hear it… because in 2020, as the latest humming hotties prove, there’s a lot more to electric cars than simply motoring without the nasty emissions

[ Word Alistair Charlton, Leon Poultney, James Day ]

The Geneva Motor Show is typically the place to go in order to ogle the most exciting new cars, whether that’s a madcap concept vehicle from an obscure supplier or the latest iteration of a popular hatchback.

We all know what happened this year, but that didn’t stop the world’s biggest auto brands from teasing us with glimpses of future models online. Dominated by electric, hybrid and alternatively-fuelled machines, the unveils showcased a break with styling convention - and ludicrous performance becoming accessible to the many, rather than the flashy few.

The facts stand: car makers are tasked with reducing the average CO2 levels of their entire fleets to just 95g/km by next year onwards. To make this a little easier to swallow, the EU came up with the notion of ‘super-credits’, which see every car with CO2 emissions of less than 50g/km count more towards meeting the fleet average.

It’s complicated, but essentially that means everyone is going to offer a hybrid or electric vehicle very soon. Good news for the consumer, because it equates to more choice, with an array of designs and innovations that will be dangled like enticing battery-powered carrots. Whether your penchant is for a hugely powerful sports machine or a relaxing family wagon, there’s going to be an electric car for you.

TESTED PORSCHE TAYCAN

It was about time someone took the fight to Tesla, and boy has Porsche delivered with the Taycan. An electric four-door four-seat saloon car that slots into the Porsche range somewhere between the Panamera and 911, this is the EV that petrolheads have been waiting for.

In full-fat Turbo S flavour, the Taycan serves up a haymaker to the gut when you step on the accelerator, dispatching 62mph in 2.8 seconds thanks to 750hp of power with Launch Control and the Overboost function enabled. This might sound a touch slower than a Tesla Model S Performance, but hey, life is more than a game of EV Top Trumps - a couple of seconds after launch, and as a Tesla’s power tends to wane, the Porsche still has you pinned into the seat. Anyway, the German maker always was conservative with performance figures.

Adding more drama to proceedings, and more of it than any Tesla can serve up, is how the Taycan shifts up through its two-speed gearbox (unique among today’s EVs), and how the optional Electric Sport Sound system treats your ears to a sci-fiamplification of the two motors feeding a mountain of torque to all four wheels.

Despite its not-inconsiderable size and weight, the 2300kg Taycan has a dynamism that can’t be matched by other electric cars. It may have a bulky battery in the floor, but that keeps the centre of gravity low and its cornering abilities high. Once up on its toes, the Taycan is far more fun than you might expect, with a balance and surefootedness that encourages you to press on.