While there have been recent breakthroughs in improving the thrust of ion drives, they and all other electric rockets still invariably have inferior thrust when compared to chemical rockets.

That doesn't mean they aren't competitive, however, or that there are not drives with decent thrust.

Magnetoplasmadynamic drives, for instance, could boast better thrust and specific impulse than existing electric rockets, and some electro-thermal rocket motors coule have impressive thrust at the cost of specific impulse.

However, higher performance electric rockets in turn require more electricity and operating temperatures. While this may require the use of nuclear power plants per given mission requirements (increasing cost and vehicular mass), their higher specific impulse relative to chemical rockets means they could employ higher energy trajectories and ultimately get to their destinations faster for less propellant.

Some kinds of nuclear rockets can also rival chemical rockets in terms of thrust, but they also tend to be very heavy (courtesy of the reactor and shielding) and expensive. Nuclear thermal rockets have been tested on Earth, though, and NASA has recently shown renewed interest in their use.