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When talking to anti-EV people, or even those who are a bit sceptical about the whole ‘movement’, one of the criticisms many have is about ‘soul’. No, not the Kia model, the emotional attachment that the driver has to the car they are driving.

What the past couple of months have shown me is that not only do EVs have a lot of soul, but also that there is a vast disparity between them that brings out a range of different emotions.

At one end of the scale is the Volvo XC40 Recharge, with its dual motors powering it to 62mph from a standstill in under five seconds. There’s over 400hp available; that’s more than double the power for all bar one of the ICE-powered versions. Now, I’m not saying that it’s always a good thing – in fact, I had to have a word with myself a couple of times – but my goodness it’s fun!

I drove the Recharge up to the Kia EV6 launch – again, a vehicle packed with performance. Drivers have the option of either 229 or 326hp, but believe me, it’s more than enough. With a mountain of torque, it’s like the accelerator is an on/off switch – although I would add that it is very easy to cruise around in too. But don’t worry if you feel short-changed by the low outputs, because there’s an EV6 GT on the way in 2022 that will offer a whopping 585hp!

With all that performance still very much at the front of my mind, a Polestar 2 then arrived, with ‘just’ 231hp. That translates to a zero to 62mph time of 7.4 seconds and, for a while, I almost felt like something was lacking. But over the course of a week, I was won over by the all-round offering of what is, especially compared with its XC40 slightly distant cousin, a very grown-up vehicle.

Not only that, but the Polestar made me realise that, just like conventional vehicles, performance doesn’t have to be king and not all cars have to offer the same characteristics. With the combination of battery and electric motor giving instant torque, it’s easy to think that all EVs should be like race cars off the line. But that’s simply not the case and we should take each car for what it is.

The Polestar, for example, was perfect for two long journeys during the week it was at Challen Towers. That’s not saying that the other two mentioned here wouldn’t be, but the fact that it was a more ‘mature’ EV option was actually a positive. Not only did it mean more relaxed journeys, but I also learned an important lesson about the new generation of battery-powered vehicles in the process!

John Challen Editor