welcome everyone to Top Gear's top five
electric cars from the Frankfurt Motor
Show and believe me there are quite a
lot to choose from but we start here on
the mini stand with a mini an electric
mini it doesn't look like an electric
mini does it it looks very normal mini
has obviously taken the stance that
customers don't want to be scared off
they want some new looks normal that
doesn't feel like too much of a leap but
this is an electric mini in fact they
produce an electric mini back in 2008
that was a prototype they used it for
gathering information and for testing
and that one didn't have any backseat
because that's where this enormous block
of batteries had to sit but we've come
quite a long way in 11 years technology
has developed the batteries no longer
take up the back seats this is a fully
fledged mass production electric car how
can you tell that it's a mini electric
well there are a few little giveaways
the first at the front is no not that
number plate that's just for the Motor
Show this grill so it's blanked off you
don't need the cooling you do in a
combustion engine car so that's blanked
off and you get these signature yellow
stripes and the electric badge this
yellow color is what many like to denote
they're electric models with you can
have the stripes or you cannot it's up
to you they're optional this is a Cooper
S bonnet so on a Cooper S this is an air
intake for the engine but here it's just
blanked off it's just for show it's just
to show you that this car has the
performance equivalent to a Cooper S
very handy
come around the sides more giveaways
here namely these optional wheels
17-inch I think yes 17-inch Korona
wheels asymmetrical look a little bit
like a three-pin plug whether that's
intention or not I don't know and you've
got these blanked off panels between the
spokes because that helps with
aerodynamics helps extend your battery
range more yellow elements here in the
indicators on the wing mirrors it's a
three door only that's your charging
port in there and that's about it
the interior is pretty standard mini as
well you get a new kind of floating
digital instrument cluster behind the
wheel they're gonna roll that across the
whole mini family eventually but the
mini electric gets it first it's very
normal
this isn't gonna scare people off I have
them running for the hills because it's
just another mini that happens to run on
electricity in terms of performance
well 181 horsepower will do 144 miles on
a charge and it will do naught 6 in
about 7.5 seconds so as I said Cooper s
levels of performance but the big story
with this car is priced because Mini is
pricing it very aggressively despite
being a premium company so it starts
from twenty four thousand four hundred
pounds once you've taken off the
government three and a half thousand
pound grant which is quite a lot less
than the Honda II it's less than the e2
o8 the Peugeot yeah quite go deal that a
bargain which I didn't think I'd say
about a mini but this car is going to be
the story of the show I feel the fact
that electric cars are going mass
production they're entering the
mainstream they don't look scary and
jazzy and sci-fi anymore they're just
cars oh yes it's the Porsche ty can you
might have heard of it it was revealed
last week and the Internet's been a
little bit on fire ever since now we
have done a full in detail walk-around
of this car absolutely everything you
need to know so you can go and watch
that video separately on top gear calm
or on top gear's youtube channel so I'm
not going to go back into all the same
details but because there's been such a
response to this guy
online I thought there were two things
that I wanted to talk about the first is
the fact that the tie cane configurator
has now gone live the car we had in the
studio in a shed somewhere in Germany
last week well it was in a rather dreary
navy blue paint with black wheels it's
kind of a cute car spec this is the one
you want they're calling this the
mission e pack for obvious reasons
because it relates to the mission e
concept white car
these white wheels 21s this is the turbo
S model so you get the twenty ones and
you see that rim around the edge of the
wheel there so you can have that and
body color but you don't have to have Y
you can have green or red or blue or all
sorts of colors if you haven't been on
the configurator go on it right now your
waist at least a couple of hours you can
even have these amazing fan wheels you
can have them in silver black sort of
Goldy champagne color lots and lots of
fun and the second bit is this whole
Tesla Model S P 100d comparison with the
turbo S model okay let's get this out of
the way the specs for the Tesla are
better it's faster nought to 60 it has a
longer range and it costs less money but
specs guys and girls are just a tiny
part of the story
what Porsche has been trying to ram down
our throats is the fact that the
performance of this car while not quite
as sharp as a Model S in a straight line
well it's more repeatable and it will be
much faster than the Tesla around the
track I'm not saying one car is better
than the other
I'm just saying each has different
strengths and different weaknesses and
we need to recognize that you know what
it's even okay to like both imagine that
so the other thing that's got the
internet quite angry is the turbo badge
on the back of the Tyco and now don't
get me wrong I think it's as bad an idea
as anyone else it seems quite lazy in a
way doesn't it but as many commenters on
the internet pointed out there are other
things in the world with the name turbo
that don't have a turbocharger Gillette
mach3 turbo for example was one I
particularly liked now I don't know
maybe I just let water brush off me
more than most but to know what that
it's what it's called we're gonna get
used to it let it go people
let it go and in the spirit of having a
bit of fun come over here because
there's something quite interesting the
poor should put on their stand a little
bit fun come on this have a look so for
everyone wondering how fast is that I
can really well Porsche set up this
highly scientific demonstration here
basically you've got this rotating dial
here so I can choose what we race
against 918 spyder
cheater Formula One car we got here a
jet aircraft or my personal favorite the
Saturn 5 rocket from the Apollo 11 moon
landings I think we'll go against that
because you know you don't make it easy
for the Porsche
I've got a feeling that it's going to
win all of these because well why
wouldn't Porsche rig it and why let's
give this a go ah look at that
they've even rigged the rocket up
horizontally
what's the car
ah
walk in the park so there you have it
the portrait I can faster than a Saturn
five rocket okay so we couldn't do a top
five V's without mentioning the VW id3
could we now like the tie can we've done
a full walk around video of this car in
a studio a couple of weeks ago so all
the details you need are in that video
so on top gear comm it's on our youtube
channel go and watch it after you finish
watching this but I thought it was worth
revisiting this car because if you're in
any doubt about how important this is to
Volkswagen and its future well you only
need to look at it stand there's
probably one two three four five six
seven eight 15 ID threes got it around
the stand down there you've got a lineup
of every ID concept they've ever
revealed there isn't a single combustion
engine car on the entire Volkswagen
stand it is ideal and today alright so
just a quick recap on the id3 specs you
can get to power outputs 148 horsepower
and 201 horsepower I think and then
three sizes of battery the first one
gives you 205 miles of range the second
one 260 and the third one 341 miles of
range now last night I was having dinner
the bloke who runs Vauxhall in the UK
the guy who's just launching the Corsa
II at this event with just over 200
miles around and when I showed him the
id3 could do 341 miles in its biggest
battery configuration he almost choked
on his salad it is quite astonishing
numbers to be right up there with the
Tesla Model S's of this world the other
thing I can talk about now is because
the id3 was actually revealed yesterday
evening we've had loads of feedback on
our video on social media everyone's
talking about this car and the two big
things that seem to be coming through is
one the interior quality doesn't look up
to scratch I can assure you it is and
the second one is that the design is a
little bit bland
I see where you're coming from this is a
car that's trying to give you the
minimum amount of reasons not to go
electric it's not taking risks it wants
to look normal it wants to fit into your
life it needs to be spacious it doesn't
want to be shocking but that's exactly
what the Gulf always was it was a car
that wasn't adventurous but it just
worked it wasn't pretty but it wasn't
ugly either it didn't make any statement
about your lifestyle the id3 is doing
the exact same thing for electric cars
have you asked me it's very clever
indeed
this is the high-end i45 concept a car
that previews all future electric cars
from Hyundai I'm told and if you're
getting a bit of a retro vibe well
you're not wrong because this thing is a
homage to the pony coupe a concept from
1974 which is also why it's called 45
that is 45 years ago and also because
they thought they're cramming another
meaning to the name there there's plenty
of 45-degree angles look at that that's
45 degrees isn't it it's a lovely angle
regardless it's a good-looking thing
isn't it what is it a hatchback a
fastback a kind of five-door coupe a
raised up I mean it's on absolutely
enormous wheels absolutely mesmerizing
design I think you're gonna get other
road users driving next to you falling
asleep when they stare into those down
here you've got an LED light indicator
what this does is tells you how much
battery you've got how much range you
got without actually having to get into
the car so you could be peering out at
the kitchen window doing the dishes
thinking yeah I've got enough to get to
the shops these cameras from wing
mirrors nothing new on future concepts
and even production cars these days
these ones are quite clever though they
pop out and then they pop back in and
when they pop back in a little brush
cleans the lenses so any road grime or
dirt or anything else is wiped off there
this is also a vision of its autonomous
future so high-end eye has made the
front seats rotate so you put it on
autonomous mode spin round and you can
have a little chinwag with the people in
the back in the front super minimalist
so just a big screen behind the wheel as
per the norm in concept cars these days
the passenger gets a projected display
in front of them and a little shelf for
some reason anyway that's what it's all
about it's a really well put together
thing this a really really gorgeous
piece of concept car design remember
when high-end eyes used to be a bit crap
yeah it seems like a distant memory
isn't what you're looking at here is the
Mercedes vision EQs it's basically the
next generation s-class masquerading as
an electric car but it's also proof that
Mercedes are going to make a full
electric saloon a big large luxury
saloon and it's quite a striking thing
isn't it absolutely perfectly rounded
not a crease on it anywhere just a word
on that EQ badge EQ that's the Mercedes
electric family so you can already buy
an EQ see there's an e QV electric van
over there we've seen an EQ a electric
concept this is the S you're starting to
see how it works the first thing I'll
mention is this silhouette because it's
electric because you don't have an
engine under there those wheels are
pushed right out to the edges massively
long wheelbase because that's where your
battery goes and you get what they call
a one bow design which is basically this
stubby bonnet flowing right into the
roof line flowing right down into the
tail you can basically draw the
silhouette of this car with one sweep of
the penny well you could if you're any
good at drawing anyway now they've done
some really clever things with the
lighting on this class and none more so
than the headlights up here so these are
holographic headlights you'll see in
there they're mimicking the lenses on
real headlights don't quite see the
point of it but it looks very cool
indeed this grille well it's not a grill
at all is it because it's an electric
car you don't need the cooling that's
completely flat and just full of blue
LEDs then you've got this blue line that
divides the entire car it runs right
across the front all the way along the
side creating this kind of piano black
floating roof area on top and then this
silver area at the bottom and it runs
right around the back which is where you
find taillights
made up of 229 individual Mercedes red
stars and I know that because I count
two
than myself promise the interior
that's quite jazzy as well the idea here
is it's inspired by luxury yachts so
you've got this huge high center console
screens everywhere envelops the driver
and the passenger there's a rails
running down the side of the car which
are screens as well as arm rests it's a
very very beautiful thing you want to
notice in numbers don't you electric car
as I said 100 kilowatt hour battery
slung between the wheels a motor on each
axle so it's four-wheel-drive 470
horsepower nor does 60 in four and a
half seconds and get this it will do
about 430 miles on a chart from a
battery that's the same size as a Tesla
P 100 D so they've obviously got some
tricks up their sleeve to make that work
it's also level 3 autonomy that's not
the full house take your hands off the
wheel that's just a bit of help on the
motorway but the thing is all this
technology exists doesn't it electric
motors batteries basic autonomy this car
isn't that far off this is the new
s-class that makes sense doesn't it for
it to be electric silent smooth fast
this is the future I'm happy
you