Electric cars-got to be a viable option now?
Yes I know this has been talked about to death over the past few years but I’m slowly coming around to EV vehicles. My current business lease is due to expire mid next year and due to the current lead time with the majority of manufactures I’d be looking at a 3 month wait time anyway.
Having been off for a fortnight and only going out days I’ve visited most of the major players with EV vehicles. Firsty what a huge difference there is between dealers and what you can actually sit in and road-test. I’ve gone from literally no stock of anything, to only having demos that are sat there, to ones to view only and can’t look inside, others have allowed to actually play inside and some Ive been able to crawl all over and road- test.
So far I’ve looked at the Hyundai Iconiq5 which the wife simply dismissed, the VW id3 and 4 which is ok but leaves me a little bit meh, looked at some of the Kia range but again left a little underwhelmed. Had a good look at Tesla 3 which again the wife hated the driving position. Looked at the French options which sadly something was missing and they didn’t seem to quite hit the range. Nissan and Mazda have never done much for me so have dismissed them without looking.
By far the best model I’ve been in so far and tested has been the Merc EQC, unbelievably smooth and refined and as yet other than slightly less range than the Tesla I’m struggling to find a reason not to buy. I’ve also got a road-test booked for the EQA which I’m expecting to be very similar if not smaller than the EQC.
Real life range is going to be about 200-220 from a claimed 260, this is way more than I’m going to need weekly and will likely cost me around a tenner per charge where I’m currently spending c£35-40 in diesel. They come with free chargers and I can utilise the bulb or octopus night time tariff of about 6p per kWh to charge.
Ive dismissed leccie cars for ages but for me they’re becoming increasingly a viable option
‘Anyone else considering making the change and if so what you looking at?
FFF
Electric cars-got to be a viable option now?
We’ are going electric next but so far have only looked at the Audi Q4 E-Tron. Very nice.
The only disappointment for us was the unadjustable headrests being too far forward for our comfort.
The heads-up display disappears if you wear polarised sunglasses - no doubt that would be the case regardless of manufacturer.
Despite being a large SUV, internals feel no bigger and the boot space is definitely smaller than our current Golf. I guess the batteries have to go somewhere.
Electric cars-got to be a viable option now?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RobDad
One thing that frustrates me when I read about EV’s is a focus on the luxury/highly priced/high performance end of the market when the big change to emissions will surely be driven by adoption at the cheaper end. The other thing I genuinely don’t get is continued reliance on all the heavy, power sapping and - let’s be frank - luxury frippery we have grown to expect in a car but surely we should ditch to increase range in an EV? What’s wrong with manual wind windows, forget the electrically adjustable, heated seats and steering wheels (you’ve got hands to move the seat and a heater ffs!), hey maybe even the aircon here in the uk - we managed without all these things in the past and I can’t say my life has really been enhanced by them, they just started appearing as standard. Give me a modern electric version of the 2cv with airbags and decent safety systems and I’d buy one - imagine the running costs if the only bits could go wrong could be fixed easily at home, with a box of spanners and screwdrivers etc. If we are going to take emissions seriously we should produce the cars we need as opposed to the cars manufacturers tell us we want - like an ugly, heavy high performance electric ‘mustang’ which look like nothing of the sort! - and maybe focus on range as opposed to silly 0-60 times that might turn on the petrol heads, but Mr and Mrs average just want to know if they can get to their holiday without recharging twice on the journey!
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On my van, all the peripheral electrical frippery (not much, granted) is powered by a separate 12v battery where a normal car battery would be. Apart from the air con so I don’t use that. I open a window (electrically) instead.
I do agree that all modern cars have all sorts of electrical gear which is unnecessary and doesn’t get used which the car could do without but most of the heavy weight stuff is the now mandatory safety equipment.
It is counterintuitive but a larger (or additional) motor (hence greater performance) in an EV allows for greater regeneration and therefore greater economy. Look at the Tesla specs; the four wheel drive cars generally have a greater range than the equivalent two wheel drive and are more powerful but have the same size battery.
Electric cars-got to be a viable option now?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Chris_in_the_UK
Have you thought about a horse and cart?
I guess I’m thinking more 80’s Golf or similar - all the cars now heralded as modern classics that lacked even power steering but somehow even as a 17 year old I could manage a 3 point turn without breaking a sweat. Imagine a millennial driving with their hands on a cold steering wheel or just opening a window on a hot day, how would they cope? Poor diddums. Oh hang on, they’re the ones keen on saving the planet. You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, or god forbid operating a window using your arm muscles - although your Apple Watch would probably count that as steps on your elliptical trainer, so it would all turn out right in the end ;) ……
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Electric cars-got to be a viable option now?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Captain Morgan
I would have said that MG have already done this with the MG5
Admittedly it’s not as cheap as the car in the link, but for a medium sized electric car, I think it’s good value.