EVS WON’T KILL OFF PURE DRIVER’S CARS YET

THE CAR INDUSTRY of the future may not seem the most welcome place for the traditional car enthusiast brought up on big naturally aspirated engines, manual gearboxes and ‘pure’ chassis dynamics.

Electric cars can deliver incredible performance levels, but it’s a very different kind of performance – and much as some people still prefer vinyl, there’s room for analogue thrills in a digital world. Thankfully, the ‘posteron-the-bedroom-wall performance car’ is still thriving.

Take BMW, which proves this several times in this issue alone. While BMW is plotting a necessary and huge push towards electrifying its range to meet future legislative requirements (p4), it has at the same time announced plans to at long last make an M3 Touring (p7). It has also produced another quite brilliant pure driver’s car in the M2 CS, road tested this week (p24).

The rise of the electric car is to be welcomed. It’s progress in an industry that ruthlessly moves forward, and the latest breed are truly fantastic to drive. But there’s still room for more than one gig in town and the rise of multiple electric cars off largely homogenised platforms and with mass component sharing arguably now makes it easier to justify lower-volume internal-combustion-engined performance niches.

Remember: car makers are car lovers, too.