Category: Speed

• A Porsche Cayenne EV prototype secretly competed in a hill climb competition.
• It broke the previous record by four seconds.

The electric Porsche Cayenne, which should be revealed sometime this year, just smashed a hill climb record. Despite it not being exactly finished and ready for prime time yet, a camouflaged Cayenne EV prototype showed up at the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb in the United Kingdom this past weekend and swept the floor with the competition.

As spotted by The Drive, the purple electric Cayenne was driven by Gabriela Jilkova, development driver at Porsche’s Formula E program, who gave it everything. In complete silence, Jilkova wrestled the battery-powered SUV along the 1,000-yard (914-meter) track in just 31.28 seconds.

That’s four seconds faster than the previous record for SUVs at Shelsley Walsh, set by a Bentley Bentayga W12, and a hair faster than the fastest production electric car, a Porsche Taycan Turbo S, which did the climb in 31.43 seconds.

“I’ll tell you what, for a big car, that is scuttering up the hill–something special,” the announcers said

Now, it’s worth noting that the Cayenne EV isn’t a production car just yet, but it’s still mighty impressive that an SUV was quicker than a sports sedan. In other words, if you were worried that the upcoming electric Cayenne would be boring or slow, this result should put your mind at ease.

We still don’t know a lot about the upcoming electric Cayenne. Based on the same PPE platform as the new Macan EV, the battery-powered Cayenne will be sold alongside a heavily reworked version of the current gas-powered model well into the 2030s. Initially, the new Cayenne was supposed to be electric-only, just like the new Macan, but Porsche toned down its ambitions recently after disappointing sales.

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Besides the electric Cayenne and Macan, Porsche is planning on introducing yet another crossover that will supposedly become the new flagship for the German automaker. Codenamed K1, the SUV is expected to offer seating for seven people when it hits the market sometime toward the end of the decade.

The Shelsley Walsh hill climb, where the Cayenne EV smashed the SUV record, is part of the 2025 British Hill Climb Championship. Located in Worcestershire, Shelsley Walsh is the oldest motorsport venue in the world to still use its original course, with the first recorded use going back to August 12, 1905.

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• Edmunds pits the Dodge Charger EV against the BMW i5 in one of its special “U-Drag” races.
• The two cars are very evenly matched on paper and it shows in their real-world performance.
• The BMW wins all three races, but only narrowly.

They may be quite different cars with very different buyers in mind, but the BMW i5 M60 and the Dodge Charger Daytona EV Scat Pack proved to be remarkably close in a head-to-head race. With their nearly identical power-to-weight ratios, there’s almost nothing in it in a straight line, and both cars struggle to scrub off speed under hard braking. Yet one is just a little bit better at going around a corner than the other.

This has to be the closest and most exciting race in Edmunds’ U-Drag series, which pits two cars in a traditional drag race with a 180-degree corner at the end of the run, followed by accelerating back to the start line. It’s definitely more revealing than a simple straight-line race would ever be, since the winner needs more than just sheer acceleration. The test covers braking and cornering, too.

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With 670 horsepower, the Charger is the more powerful of the two. However, the 593-hp BMW is over 700 pounds lighter, and it just edges the Dodge out when it comes to horsepower per pound. It has a claimed 0 to 60 mph acceleration time of 3.4 seconds, which is one-tenth off the Dodge’s official sprint time, although both are expected to post nearly identical quarter-mile times of around 11.5 seconds.

Actually racing the two vehicles, some key points stand out. Through the three runs, which the BMW always narrowly won, the German car seemed to comfortably pull away and maintain a lead before the corner. It also brakes a bit better than the near-6,000-pound Dodge (although stopping over 5,230 pounds from high speed is no mean feat) and it’s also predictably better through the corner.

However, through all three runs, even though the BMW is always the first to come out of the corner, the Dodge appears to have better acceleration from a roll, and it regains some lost ground. In the second run, the closest one to a photo finish, it almost nudges in front of the BMW. It would have won had the run been a bit longer. Both drivers activated their cars’ respective boost modes for extra power after the corner, but the Dodge seemed to be the quicker straight-line machine.

We drove the Charger EV recently, and while we liked a lot of things about it, cornering and handling, generally speaking, weren’t so strong. It looks great and it’s really fast in a straight line, but it still handles like a muscle car, which is not a compliment. The BMW, on the other hand, is not only fast in a straight line, but it works some kind of magic through the corners, hiding its heft and driving like a much smaller and more agile car.

Neither of these two cars is especially good at braking, but as an overall sporty package, the BMW does come out ahead. In a head-to-head comparison between the i5 and the new four-door electric Charger sedan, the latter’s additional weight would tip the balance further in the BMW’s direction.

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• Can the world’s first electric muscle car keep up with a Tesla Model 3?
• The Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack weighs roughly 6,000 pounds.
• The Tesla Model 3 Performance is nearly 2,000 pounds lighter, but also down on power.

Weight. It’s the enemy of speed and nimbleness. That’s why, despite their relatively low power output, the featherweight Mazda Miata, Porsche 718 Boxster, and all the Caterhams are a blast to drive.

When it comes to electric cars, however, things get complicated. There’s a huge battery that weighs thousands of pounds, in addition to all the other bits that makes a car do car things. You can add more powerful motors, but weight will always come back to bite.

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And the Edmunds video above is a testament to that. It features the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack and the 2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance. The former is described as the world’s first electric muscle car, while the latter is a four-door family sedan that happens to be quick.

With 670 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque, the Charger Daytona should eat the Model 3 for breakfast. The Tesla only has 510 hp and 546 lb-ft of twist.

The plan is simple: start with a quarter-mile sprint, then brake, do a U-turn, and sprint back down the quarter-mile to finish. It’s a test of acceleration, braking, and handling, bundled into a single race. Two runs are on the menu, and after each run, drivers switch places to keep things fair.

From the first two seconds of the race, the outcome is quite obvious. The nearly 6,000-pound Daytona struggles against the underpowered but comparatively slim 4,000-pound Model 3. As a result, the Model 3 Performance smashes the Daytona in almost every category, including the zero-to-60 miles per hour sprint and the quarter-mile time. The Daytona, meanwhile, outperforms the Tesla in the corners.

There’s also the issue of price. As tested, Dodge’s electric muscle car costs $85,965, while Tesla’s performance sedan has an MSRP of $56,630. And it has four doors.