In last year’s Awards, I wrote it was getting harder and harder to drive interesting cars, as constructors shift to electric models and do not want that much hype around combustion-engined vehicles anymore.
This strikes me as odd, since more news come out every day regarding the dwindling electric car market and how almost everyone in the industry is back-pedalling and even retrofitting thermal engines on electric platforms.
Anyway, when deciding what to write in 2024 about the best cars of the year, I came to the conclusion I could not leave electric cars out of it and I, therefore, settled on handing out two awards: one for the best car I drove, the other for the best electric car.
Let’s begin with the last one and for one simple reason: it’s easier to, as I have not even driven it yet and chose to include it here because it is an absolute design masterpiece. The Renault 5 electric.
Okay, I know what you are thinking. A car I have not driven is the best electric car of the year – how? Well, to me, and from my experience driving electric cars, they all feel basically the same. With more or less performance, bigger or smaller screens yes, but the underlying experience is very similar.
I recently drove the new Porsche Macan electric. It’s an extremely good car that, in many ways, feels like only a Porsche could. But is it as different from the competition as the petrol Macan always was? Not really. A few years ago, I attended a launch of an electric car from one of German’s premium brands and asked the engineer responsible for the project what was his biggest challenge in the development process.
He didn’t say anything about range or acceleration times, or comfort, or even efficiency. He said: “It’s very hard to make an electric German car feel as different from a Hyundai or a Kia because the ingredients are pretty much the same. That will be the German industry’s biggest challenge.”
Well, you need only to look at the news of how things are going in Germany regarding electric cars at the end of 2024 to realise they knew what was coming. They just don’t know how to fix it. Yet.
That is why I think my favourite electric car of the year can be a car I have not driven yet. The new Renault 5 is the French constructor’s way of reminding us that cars were once small and simple and that some shapes cannot be improved upon. Just look at the thing. It’s fabulous.
Okay, confession time: my father had a Renault 5 in Thunder Blue when I was around four or five years old, and so I have a soft spot for the new one; but I think I can still be objective, and I find it absolutely spectacular. In fact, I wish there was a petrol version (sorry, Renault) and I would most definitely buy one.
I will drive it soon and report on how it drives and all the versions available. But it doesn’t matter all that much because it will drive mostly like any other EV. What matters is, it is the most beautiful thing Renault have made this century; it’s small and practical, so it makes sense as an electric, and is so unbelievably cool it should have its own state subsidy so everyone could have one. It would be called the cool-grant, and it would be awarded only to the coolest EVs. I would decide which ones made the cut, of course.
Obviously, because you have seen the pictures before starting to read, you have gathered my winner this year is the Mercedes E-Class All-Terrain. Yes, a family wagon was the best car I drove in 2024, not some supercar or a 700-horsepower saloon with mind-boggling electronics.
In fact, the All-Terrain I drove was not even the six-cylinder version, which must be better than the four-cylinder which was available as a press car, meaning it could be even better than the one I drove.
Still, it is an incredibly good car that shows Mercedes have not forgotten their core values. Comfort, quality, timeless design, cutting-edge technology – whatever you look for in a car, the E-Class has it in spades. And this off-road lite version is the most appealing of them all, offering a level of practicality and versatility no other Benz can.
Forget SUVs: a great station wagon is the best family car in the world and this one is, very likely, the best you can buy nowadays. It is the only car I drove in 2024 (together with the diminutive Jeep Avenger, for totally different reasons) that I wish I had in the garage – and maybe will.
I end with this thought. How about these as the perfect two-car garage? I say they take some beating. A cute as a button electric hatchback for the city and a perfect cruiser – that will go off road if necessary – to take the kids, the bags, the dog and everything else you (don’t) need, for those family trips around the country.
Now, where did I put Santa’s e-mail…?
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