Silent at 200 km/h, 500 kilometres between coffees and a chassis that hides two tonnes. The electric GT has arrived, and the arguments against it are mostly out of date.
The grand tourer has one job: to move two people and their luggage across a continent in comfort and at speed. For a century that meant a large petrol engine and a long bonnet. The electric car does the job differently, and in several respects better, and the men who drive the long way to the coast are beginning to notice.
What has changed
Range and charging. A 2026 Porsche Taycan covers 500 real kilometres and adds 300 in eighteen minutes at a fast charger. The charging network along Europe’s motorways is now dense enough that route planning is a matter of choosing where to have lunch. Battery preconditioning, built into the navigation, means the car arrives at the charger warm and takes power at full speed. The anxiety that defined electric driving five years ago is, on the main routes, gone.
What the electric GT does better
Silence, first. Six hours at 130 km/h in a car with no engine note and no vibration is a different kind of tiredness, or rather the absence of it. Then the low centre of gravity: a battery in the floor means a two-tonne car corners with a composure that a petrol saloon cannot match. Then the torque, delivered without a downshift, for overtaking on a two-lane Alpine road. And, in cities at the end of the journey, the ability to move without noise or fumes.
The grand tourer was always about arriving fresh. Silence, it turns out, is the last luxury nobody thought to specify.
Four to consider
- Porsche Taycan, from about €105,000. The driver’s choice. Sports Turismo body for the luggage, 4S for the balance of range and pace.
- BMW i5 Touring, from about €75,000. An estate, quiet and comfortable, with the best infotainment in the class. The sensible answer.
- Polestar 3, from about €80,000. Scandinavian restraint, a superb interior and a ride that flatters bad roads.
- Mercedes-Benz EQS, from about €110,000. The most range and the most silence. Less a car than a lounge that moves.
What it still does worse
The passes. Above 2,000 metres with a heavy car and regenerative braking, the electric GT is competent and slightly detached. The sound of an engine on a mountain road is a pleasure electric cars cannot offer and do not pretend to. Charging in rural southern Europe still requires planning. And the first-year depreciation on a €100,000 electric car remains brutal; lease rather than buy, or buy two years old.
Who it suits
The man who does the long drive to the second home, the airport run, the client visit three countries away. Who has a garage with a charger or a workplace with one. Who has, or will keep, a lighter and louder car for Sunday. The electric GT is not a replacement for the analogue sports car. It is a replacement for the diesel saloon, and a very good one.
Questions we get asked
How long does a charge really take?
Ten to eighty percent in eighteen to thirty minutes on a 300 kW charger, which is roughly the length of a coffee and a walk. Overnight at home on a wall box.
What about the battery in ten years?
Manufacturer warranties cover eight years or 160,000 kilometres to seventy percent capacity. Real-world degradation on modern packs is running at two to three percent a year and slowing.
Is a plug-in hybrid the compromise?
For a man with no home charging, possibly. For everyone else it is two drivetrains, more weight and the disadvantages of both.
