An i4 an eye

Hammer and tongs, tooth and nail; the rivalry between these musclebound electric cars will be seriously hard-fought

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NEW

BMW 14 M50

• Target Price £63,905

BMW's legendary M division has been responsible for producing some of the finest driver's cars of all time, so we have high hopes for its first pure electric model

Tesla Model 3

Performance

• Target Price £59,990

The Tesla Model 3 Performance blends supercar speed with an impressive range and a spacious interior. It will be incredibly tough to beat

Remember when Elon Musk tweeted in support of Kanye West's presidential run, or when he suddenly announced that Tesla would accept a form of a cryptocurrency named after an internet meme? The Tesla CEO's Twitter page is full of wild claims and questionable statements, but perhaps the most memorable for us car lovers is when he claimed that the then yet-to-be-released Tesla Model 3 Performance would be quicker around a racetrack than the legendary BMW M3.

As statements go, it was bold. Sure, an electric vehicle (EV) may be quicker in a straight line than a petrol-powered performance saloon - indeed, the larger Models had already proved that. But an EV that could outperform an M3 around a track? It just didn't seem possible, until all of sudden, it was.

Within months of the Model 3 being released, various people around the world proved that, in the right conditions, it could indeed go quicker than the BMW around a racetrack. This not only generated great publicity for the Californian company but also gave more credence to those who see Musk as something of a marketing genius.