TG Electric Awards 2022: Paddy McGuinness’s pick

There’s some prime contenders out there, but my favourite electric car I’ve driven in the past year would have to be the Electric Classic Cars Defender.

A Defender is a classic, we all know it, but I was driving one in a drag race, and, well, a Defender is not something you want to be doing a drag race in. So, I got in and I thought, “OK, it’s electric... instant torque... here we go... it will be what it will be”. And then I put my foot down.

The powertrain is donated from a 450bhp Tesla Model S, it’ll do 0–60mph in 3.8secs, and it’s the most fun I’ve had in any car ever on Top Gear, and I’ve driven some epic cars over the years. It was unbelievably fast. Literally, the front end came up, the back pinned itself down, and I was just hanging on for dear life. It really shocked me and it put a massive smile on my face. I mean just look at it.

We didn’t do any off-roading in it, actually we didn’t do anything else in it. I just drove it in a straight line and trust me, that was enough. As of now I’m all for putting electric drive in classic diesel and petrol cars, I was very much pleasantly surprised. Could I see myself buying one at £125k? Totally.