Electric Cars:what's available?

[Skull]

Cheers Neil

Peugeot e208 GT report has a few errors in it but they're all grammar - car looks OK but no 3 door ....

Same with the Renault Zoe R135 ZE 50 2019 review
From £14,245 got me all excited

[NewcastleFalcon]

Yes there is no reason why Manufacturers shouldnt be pitching a basic EV under £20,000, and exciting more prospective purchasers. Such vehicles are being produced in China by Great Wall, and India by Suzuki.

The sting in the tail with the Zoe is the battery leasing Arrangement. In theory if you wanted to keep an EV for over 8 years, and replace the battery and give it an extra 8 years life you should really set aside over that period enough to meet that big cost hit.

The leasing in some ways does this (providing throughout that period you and former owners have meticulously followed the conditions), but it is a finance deal and set to make profit for the provider, and probably cost more than a PCP deal at full price "buying the battery".

REgards Neil

[myglaren]

Some rather disappointing news on Tesla Updates

Tesla’s latest autonomous diving software update has been panned by some owners after their cars ran into garage doors, headed off in the wrong direction and almost drove into the path of oncoming vehicles.

The new feature, called Smart Summon, is designed to drive the car up to 60 metres through a carpark to meet you.

Tesla says it can “navigate more complex environments and parking spaces, manoeuvring around objects as necessary to come find you in a parking lot”.

But owners have complained that the technology, which is operated by smartphone, isn’t ready for release, as it appears to have difficulty recognising more complex driving environments.

[NewcastleFalcon]

KIA Niro gets a positive review from AutoCar, including a trip to rural West Wales! If you run an EV there ( or England's last wilderness otherwise known as Northumberland) you can run one anywhere! Some nice shots of Giraffes and a Rhinocerous too, which I presume must have been at Longleat on the way!

Still far too pricy for the greater mass of the general public, but selling hand over fist with demand way outstripping supply.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ki ... erm-review

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

I occasionally mention the Maruti Suzuki Wagon R EV set for launch in India in 2020.

Out of the showroom before any subsidies, it is likely to cost rs 10 Lakh which in GBP is £11,424.86.

This is what it looks like

screenshot

I reckon they would sell a few at that price over here.

Regards Neil

[Mandrake]

KIA Niro gets a positive review from AutoCar, including a trip to rural West Wales! If you run an EV there ( or England's last wilderness otherwise known as Northumberland) you can run one anywhere! Some nice shots of Giraffes and a Rhinocerous too, which I presume must have been at Longleat on the way!

Still far too pricy for the greater mass of the general public, but selling hand over fist with demand way outstripping supply.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ki ... erm-review

REgards Neil

I agree. I think the Kia e-Niro is a great EV - not as fast or sexy as a Tesla (or as expensive...) but if you're looking for a good, conservative looking, reliable family hatchback that also happens to be a great, long range EV this is it. Real world range well over 250 miles, and more boot space than my Xantia hatchback. (Albeit in a taller form factor) Lots of good things about the design and implementation of the e-Niro including the liquid cooled/heated battery and charging systems, and at 214 bhp and something like 395Nm of torque it's no slow poke either despite the portly ~1800Kg curb weight. I would gladly have one as the main family car if someone just handed one to me.

It's about £10k more expensive than it should be though, despite this demand has totally outstripped the meagre supply, so they're almost unobtanium unless you're willing to wait 12 months, which is just bonkers. With that demand they will of course be happy to sell them at the current high price, but hopefully that will go down as supply catches up to demand a bit and economies of scale kick in. Clearly there is a demand for the car or a car like this.

Despite the currently high price its a good example of what a good family EV could be like, if only production volume and availability can go up and prices down. Kia and sister company Hyundai have made some good EV's including models like the Ioniq, however they have really struggled to produce them in sufficient numbers even more so than other manufacturers. Rumours are that they are still having difficulties securing sufficient supplies of batteries and that is the main bottleneck for them producing more EV's. They use both LG Chem and SK Innovation batteries, so do have two sources, but those battery manufacturing plants are in high demand from other EV manufacturers as well.

[Mandrake]

A good video here by Youtuber EVM (Electric Vehicle Man) who has owned Leaf's for about 5 years now and done loads of EV related videos, about why the latest 62kWh Nissan Leaf is a huge disapointment and is at the bottom of the list to replace his existing 30kWh Leaf:



The quick summary is that it's a lazy facelift of a 2011 design, still no battery thermal management, (so issues with battery overheating and very slow rapid charging) only 215 miles range from a 62kWh battery (vs about 270 for the larger, heavier e-Niro) and most importantly more expensive than every other competitor in the class - if you thought the e-Niro was expensive (which it is) this is more expensive and isn't nearly as good! Add a few spec options and you can get it over £40k and be subject to "luxury car" tax and cost more than an extra level Tesla Model 3.

Nissan have completely dropped the ball with the latest Leaf unfortunately and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Here is a previous short roadtrip review EVM did of the e-Niro back in May:



He subequently reserved an e-Niro, but then many months later cancelled the reservation when the price went up about £2k on what was originally promised and the lead time stretched out from 9 months to 12 months...

[Gibbo2286]

Noted in our local rag the Nissan dealer has a three used Leafs at the top of his advert this week.

I've never looked at them before so know nowt about their values.
They are:

Acenta 30kwh 21k red £15,495

Teckna 24kwh 25k grey £10,999

Acenta 30kwh 12k bronze £16,295

This place ahs been Nissan dealer since Nissans were Datsuns and has recently added Dacia to his range.

[NewcastleFalcon]

The Corsa-e is on its way from PSA's great British brand Vauxhall (made in Zaragoza Spain)


Autocar have a bit of info on it here

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new- ... -supermini

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

While I dont expect Bosch to be an electric car brand anytime soon, they will hope that their "Pyrofuse" becomes universally adopted to ensure electrical safety in the event of an accident involving an electric car, both from the point of view of the occupants and first responders.

It goes something like this

https://www.bosch-presse.de/pressportal ... 00641.html

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Dyson dumps electric car.

[NewcastleFalcon]

I dont think anyone will shed any tears that this "revolutionary" 7 seater Electric SUV isnt now going to be made in Singapore or anywhere else. The world doesn't need another "revolutionary" 7-seater SUV.



REgards Neil

[white exec]

Are you saying it sucks?

[Mandrake]

I was sceptical when Dyson said they were going to enter the electric car market, it looks like my scepticism paid off!

[Hell Razor5543]

BBC Click is worth watching today. Amongst other things VW are guaranteeing the batteries for 8 years (so if the battery drops 25% over its' lifetime VW will replace it). They will also make replacement batteries available in most European countries.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m9ry