400bhp family SUVs have become common in the EV era, but they're completely pointless

I was both amused and encouraged this week to see Ferrari product development boss Gianmaria Fulgenzi dismissing the power arms race among new electric car brands.

He described 2,000bhp EVs as “not difficult” and “elephants” due to the size and weight of the battery and powertrain needed to provide their power. And his point is valid, not only for the brands (primarily from China) that see big numbers as a way to grab attention, but also for those from closer to home.

A 400bhp family SUV sounded farcical just a few years ago, but that’s what we’ve got, and it’s entirely unnecessary. I’m picking on Volvo because it was among the first to make one, but I could easily be talking about many other makers’ ‘normal’ models with the pace to hammer sports cars off the line. They have ridiculous straight-line speed, but not the full performance-car makeover. Probably because, as an engineer once told me: “Power is cheap in an EV”.

In Volvo’s case, it was the 402bhp XC40 Recharge, a sub-five-second 0-62mph SUV that still behaved like a regular family car when you got to a corner A) sooner, and B) going faster than you maybe expected.

It’s a far cry from the 237bhp Vauxhall Zafira VXR MPV from early this century that merrily spun and torque-steered its power away through the front wheels. But at least it looked the part, and had been developed as an admittedly ridiculous sporting model with chassis enhancements to match.

That was bought by people with hooligan intentions, though. Nobody asked for, or needs, their run-of-the-mill school-run chariot to be quite so potent.

At the other end of the scale is the Chinese-led race to prove provenance with increasingly powerful cars, many from tech companies that have seized the opportunity opened up by EVs to move into car making. These firms don’t have 100 or more years of heritage behind them, so straight-line acceleration and top speed are an easier route to headline-grabbing credibility.

What we haven’t seen yet is any hint that newer brands understand that corners are important too. Ferrari gets it – Fulgenzi talks about a car that makes the owner smile because they love driving it. There’s more to life than going fast in a straight line.

You can get your hands on a new Volvo EX40 for less than £45,000 through our Buy a Car service.