If you couldn't tell by my name and avatar, I tend to like electric types in general. Not sure why, but I've used all of them listed in the OP a lot, as well as a few more like Magnezone, Rotom-H, Galvantula, and Eelektross.
One of the nice things I notice about ~half the electric types in OU, including the two most common, is that they have a ground immunity. That essentially makes Electric a free 2nd type, in that it carries no additional weaknesses but gives 3 resistances and another STAB.
That's part of why Thundurus, Zapdos, and Rotom are so good vs. Birdspam. They essentially got a free flying resist, while not getting any weaknesses through that electric type that the opponent can exploit via coverage moves. Of course Raikou and Mega Manectric are also great against bird spam, but that's because they can outspeed all three birds and OHKO them with Thunderbolt before they can use their own coverage, and they don't have to worry so much about the flying type priority because of their resistance. No fly spam team is sweeping past a Mega Manectric or a Thundurus because of this. Also Electric is the only flying resistant type to not be weak to fighting, so no need to worry about Staraptor or Pinsir Close Combat (you say Close Combat on Pinsir is unviable now, but what if it did hit electrics for super effective?)
Anyway, the big part of being an electric type is the speed control. Electrics have their own Thunder Wave to annoy the crap out of a lot of stuff and basically nothing can sweep while paralyzed, while being immune to paralysis themselves. Thunder Wave is a bit centralizing to the point that your sweeper/scarfer is a lot worse if it can be paralyzed by Thundurus' Thunder Wave, because then it can be checked very easily and it will never pull off a sweep. It's part of the reason why Garchomp is the most popular scarfer right now, and Excadrill is pretty common too. It's also why Jolteon fell out of OU this generation. You don't need Volt Absorb to take Thunder Waves, any other electric type can take them too now. Extra competition it didn't have before from Thundurus and Mega Manectric hurt it too, and Raikou's extra bulk is a lot more meaningful in XY.
Most electric types aren't particularly slow, except for Ampharos and Magnezone, but they can actually use that to their advantage with Volt Switch. Well, not to their own advantage, but to some frail teammate's advantage. For example, I find Mega Ampharos and Specs Magnezone (even Analytic) make good cores with Greninja. Those two electric types put in work not just giving Greninja free switch-ins, but they actually break down the switch-ins to put them in Greninja's KO range. Meanwhile, Ground types have a massive advantage vs. Electric types with immunity to their STABs, Thunder Wave and stop Volt Switch from switching out, but Greninja has the coverage to KO all of them, between Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, and Grass Knot. Or you can just hit the painfully obvious switch-ins with your electric's other STAB/coverage moves:
252+ SpA Choice Specs Analytic Magnezone Flash Cannon vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 321-378 (89.6 - 105.5%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ SpA Mold Breaker Mega Ampharos Dragon Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 420-494 (117.3 - 137.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Trololol RIP Scarf Chomp, you made a good example out of yourself.
Anyway, outside of my teams, the most common Volt Switchers in OU are Rotom and Manectric. Both of them spam Volt Switch because they force switches. Rotom does it defensively, and by threatening Will-o-wisp, while Manectric does it offensively, being able to outspeed literally 99% of the meta and has nice coverage to with it (Intimidate helps too, but a -1 attack drop doesn't turn Mega Manectric into an unbreakable wall). If you put Mega Manectric in vs something weak to Volt Switch, it works a lot like Scarf Genesect, except Ground types can still block it. But the opponent is forced to give up the KO on whatever they have in, or give Manectric only a little damage but another free turn when it immediately counters your switch-in. So in general, Volt Switchers tend to do more damage than U-turners, but they can also have their switches blocked.
One other characteristic of OU electric types is they are all special attackers, except Defiant Thundurus. Not a lot of Electric types have good physical attack to begin with, basically just Eelektross, Zebstrika, Thundurus, Electivire, Luxray, and Zekrom, obviously some of these suck, one is banned, etc, and in the end Thundurus is the only one we see in OU. The other part is the lack of good electric moves. Outside of a few signature moves, the only strong physical electric attack is Wild Charge, which is only as much base power as Thunderbolt but has recoil. But some of the things that special attacking electrics cause:
Some ground types aren't very good counters, because every OU electric type can effectively use Hidden power Ice, and that means Garchomp, Landorus(t), and Gliscor are shaky counters to electric types. On top of that, every good Ground type has better physical defense than special, except Excadrill, so even just hitting them with a second STAB can be very effective (see the calcs above). The best Ground types for taking on Electric types are specially defensive Hippowdon and Gastrodon, who have great HP to back up their special defense, and aren't 4x weak to Ice.
The other effect is on Water types, who make great physical tanks, because Kyurem-B and Victini are the only physical attackers who have good electric attacks to use on Water types. It also makes Crocune and Manaphy good Calm Mind sweepers, with Calm Mind patching their electric weakness.
