Joining the electric car club

[Ewan]

if you're looking for a 5s to 60mph electric SUV it's a good time to be a buyer, the **** has fallen out of the EQC market

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That kind of power in a petrol car is a lot more money

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That is a heck of a lot of depreciation on the EV. But it means the new buyer gets all the performance of the AMG ICE version, but at half the price and with far lower running costs. So a huge win for whoever buys it now.

With depreciation like that, it’s a good job hardly any “real” people bought these EVs with actual money. They are/were just tax efficient company purchases (100% write off against corporation tax), bought on leases. So when the car goes back and is worth less the the GFV figure, it’s the manufacturer that looses, not the company owner. Which is exactly what happened with my last E-Tron - I think the trade-in price was towards £10k below the GFV - but a loss taken by Audi Finance, not me.

I imagine my old E-Tron went straight to auction. Whoever has it now has a brilliant car at a bargain price.

 

[CatmanV2]

I’d rather not. But just to be clear, there are lots of flavours (colours) of hydrogen, most of which emit plenty of CO2 in its production.

My read of the article is that BMW are introducing hydrogen power as well as BEVs so it’s more of a hedging exercise.

Rather importantly, when talking about fuel cells, they wear out and need replacement around twice as regularly as batteries and are also eye wateringly expensive.

Interesting. So Harry confirmed that if you’re having the vehicle as a company car (unlike him) and do a regular local mileage (unlike him), an EV is the best option. Whereas if you are using private money and do regular long distance towing (like him), a diesel car is cheaper. So he’s confirmed what we’ve all known all along - which is that there is not one rule for everyone. You need to pick the car that is right for you.

Careful you two! We're in danger of breaking out in agreement!

C

 

[mjheathcote]

Usual excellent piece by Harry Metcalfe;

Interesting video for sure, and I agree.
However the diesel sport is still costing him £41,600 over the three years and 30k miles of the lease.

 

[Guy]

And I would rather be in my Cayenne S V8 diesel for substantially less (26k miles in last 18 months, no depreciation, set of tyres - plus two for pot hole punctures, 1.5k servicing and brakes, fuel at 30-34mpg); lots more fun (850 Nm torque), proper V8 rumble, and proper switches and buttons instead of stupid touch screens.

 

[rockits]

Discounted the Ioniq 5 after a 4 day test drive.

It is a nice car but a few frustrations. Boot is fairly small and shallow like a lot of EV's, not really big enough for family duties, 527 litres with annoying wheel wells at the side.

Slightly annoying gear selector location, its a stretch to use the touch screen in my preferred seating position, seats not all that comfortable.

Hated the manual flush fit door handles which you can't find in the dark and don't pop out, think could be rectified by speccing a tech pack so they pop out.

No Wireless Carplay, although I'm sure you could add an adapter.

Impressive charging speed if you can find it and good tech otherwise, also fairly efficient although we only had 200 miles range at full charge even though the test car was 2wd 77kwh that has a range of "up to 315 miles" the 4WD higher power one would be official of "upto 285 miles"

Impressive cabin space though.

Went to test a used ipace.

Wow so much better in every regard. It would not charge as fast at a fast charger but who cares, will be charging with home 7.5KW charger.

Bigger and much more usable boot at 656 litres and wider/deeper.

Much nicer to drive, more refined, better ride quality (on the smaller 20" wheels and coil springs), quicker, better and easier to use tech with more buttons, and a lot more fun to drive, handles quite nicely.

Range also seems to be as good or better, indicated 230 miles in the same cold conditions.

She took some persuading to look at a Jag, but my wife couldn't believe how much more she liked it.

So going to get a 1-2 year old Ipace. This will be between 30-42k for a high spec one which seems like good value to me. Will make sure I have at least 4 years warranty on it.

As opposed to 45K on a new Hyundai that was quite good but not very exciting to own.

Probably helps that I'm already a Jag owner I guess, after mentioning it one mate has already sent me a picture of John Prescott...

P.S ruled out Polestar 2 and the XC40 Recharge as both seem to be very light on boot space. Driven both briefly...

We went the same route with a 2yo iPace and been very happy with it. Not much to fault.

Brakes like most EV's are a bit lacking when pushing on. The two stage regen isn't enough really as makes it hard to drive smoothly on high regen.

Not the most efficient but we don't do many miles and charge at home so makes no difference to our use.

Looks nice, drives really well, very practical, great spec, great sound system/infotainment and a great all round car IMHO. Quite a big wide car but hides it well as doesn't look so.

We went air suspension which is marginally/noticeably better than the coil springs but not night and day different. We.get a flooded lane at the bottom so gives some options. Easier to get in/out at rest with comfort/access setting.

Needs a main dealer warranty I'd suggest for piece of mind.

 

[rockits]

Have to agree with many and even the iPace is far too heavy and far too fast for what is required. Point to point is a deceiving weapon but useless to most....especially my wife.

I'd rather a bit less power, a bit less weight and maybe a longer range might be more useful to some.

 

[mjheathcote]

The future did look Buck Rogers when BMW released the carbon shelled, light weight i3 and i8 ten years ago.
What's gone wrong in that 10 years?
I still fancy both the i3 and i8 today.

 

[Oneball]

The future did look Buck Rogers when BMW released the carbon shelled, light weight i3 and i8 ten years ago.
What's gone wrong in that 10 years?
I still fancy both the i3 and i8 today.

Harry touched on that in the video. His take was because of the tax incentives for companies, only rich people have been buying EVs so the companies that make them produce stupidly large, stupidly fast, stupidly expensive, stupidly uneconomical status symbols for demonstrating the size of you knob/boobs at the school gate/golf club/directors car park.

And then went and bought a £100k diesel Range Rover.

 

[mjheathcote]

Harry touched on that in the video. His take was because of the tax incentives for companies, only rich people have been buying EVs so the companies that make them produce stupidly large, stupidly fast, stupidly expensive, stupidly uneconomical status symbols for demonstrating the size of you knob/boobs at the school gate/golf club/directors car park.

And then went and bought a £100k diesel Range Rover.

Okay the i8 was expensive new, but the i3 design had it nailed in my view. A modern battery pack in the i3 would give a real range of 300 plus miles in a sensible light weight package.
What have BMW given us now?
I can only assume the maths didn't work for the selling price of the i3. If it did, quite sad really there isn't an i3 gen 2.

 

[Guy]

The future did look Buck Rogers when BMW released the carbon shelled, light weight i3 and i8 ten years ago.
What's gone wrong in that 10 years?
I still fancy both the i3 and i8 today.

Fully agree. i3 perfect use of the tech to make small and lightweight short range transport for school runs, shopping, commuting (for 90%). How did we end up with 2-3 tonne of inefficiency.

 

[Oneball]

Okay the i8 was expensive new, but the i3 design had it nailed in my view. A modern battery pack in the i3 would give a real range of 300 plus miles in a sensible light weight package.
What have BMW given us now?
I can only assume the maths didn't work for the selling price of the i3. If it did, quite sad really there isn't an i3 gen 2.

That’s what Harry was getting at EVs started out as Buck Rodgers but have ended up Wolf of Wall St

 

[Felonious Crud]

I'd rather a bit less power, a bit less weight and maybe a longer range ...

That sounds like a sensible personal improvement plan, Dean.

 

[Zep]

You'd think that Fuel Cell technology would have reduced in price since the Apollo missions...they were , sadly, over 50 years ago...

Interested how they wear out...any good reading recommendations on this subject?

Documents download module

Suggest this as a start.

 

[rockits]

That sounds like a sensible personal improvement plan, Dean.

LOL....love that your mind is never too far from the gutter Adam

 

[rockits]

Fully agree. i3 perfect use of the tech to make small and lightweight short range transport for school runs, shopping, commuting (for 90%). How did we end up with 2-3 tonne of inefficiency.

Yes, agreed. We should be getting lighter not heavier. Wrong direction IMHO.

 

[Gazcw]

LOL....love that your mind is never too far from the gutter Adam

Never too far out of the gutter I think Rockits.

 

[DLax69]

That sounds like a sensible personal improvement plan, Dean.

There's a thread for that.

 

[rockits]

Never too far out of the gutter I think Rockits.

LOL......that seems fair and accurate

 

[Wack61]

Wow, last time I looked at one of these I nearly fell over, £75k new in Merc Chester, that’s some hit in 3 years!!!! And that’s retail, £20k trade, £55k loss in 3 years on a boggo family SUV.

I'm trying to persuade a mate to buy one, he's got a 2017 diesel E class, I think they'll be offering a very good PX deal on one, I'm assuming hundreds have come off lease all at the same time when the market is already saturated with unsold EVs

It's a lot of car for 25k

 

[Gazcw]

I'm trying to persuade a mate to buy one, he's got a 2017 diesel E class, I think they'll be offering a very good PX deal on one, I'm assuming hundreds have come off lease all at the same time when the market is already saturated with unsold EVs

It's a lot of car for 25k

I am planning on swapping from my E class estate diesel soon and I was tempted by the EQC as they look pretty good. The range is really bad though and they are so much smaller than the E. I am probably going model S as they are 400 miles compared to 180 quoted miles.