Joining the electric car club

[Ewan]

You can’t use that piece of **** Lotus as a measure of all EVs. It’s just a hideous badge engineered Geely for the gullible.

True. But 0-60 in 2.9 secs for the R version, in car bigger than a Range Rover, must be quite fun. And the interior is quite fun and a nice place to be.

 

[3hcp]

Prefer this one

 

[Oneball]

True. But 0-60 in 2.9 secs for the R version, in car bigger than a Range Rover, must be quite fun. And the interior is quite fun and a nice place to be.

I saw one the other day, the cameras on the side look like they’ve been bought off Alibaba for 99p. I know it was probably pre-production but it really did look like a bad Lotus of old.

 

[Ewan]

The cameras instead of wing mirrors is a silly idea. I was offered them on my Audi, but had the sense to say no.

 

[3hcp]

I’ve heard that they are unlikely to make production even at £2m plus!

 

[gb-gta]

It does. It’s called an I3

I meant new. When a corsa is 25-30k new by the time it gets down to 5k it’s probably going to be a risky buy with all the tech in it.
Also, a lot of people can’t afford £15k anyway and can only afford secondhand £5k cars, plus or minus a few ‘000.
Where are they? All you have is 10 year old leaf’s that have a range of about 50 miles now.

 

[Phil H]

This seems to reflect other reported battery costs:

How Much Does an Electric Car Battery Cost? (UK; 2023)

We estimate that the average electric car battery costs £5,378.43 in 2023. Find out why EV batteries are so expensive in this guide.

bookmygarage.com

 

[gb-gta]

A 2 or 3 year old Peugeot 2008 EV is around £15k. There are other options, I just picked that as an example. Makes a great local run-about vehicle, and costs about £3 for a full charge (overnight, at home). This might make sense as a private buy for some people.

Current research shows that batteries should still have 95% life (charge capacity) after 10 years daily use. So the doomsday idea that all EV’s will be scrapped at about that age simply isn’t the case.

Apparently Nissan have some new battery developments coming soon. Twice the power and range at half the weight. Intended for the new GTR, but will obviously be rolled out across the board. Fingers crossed this happens (and at an affordable price!).

There is the argument that batteries require a lot less maintenance than ICE of course, and go wrong less over a 10 year period, which is a plus. However, if they do go wrong it could basically write off the car. I think earlier on the thread an 18000 euro repair bill was shown for a Peugeot EV…

Not saying ICE can’t have big ones too, I know of a 22k warranty bill for a 3 year old 718 boxster!! (Turbos and pdk issues)

 

[Motorsport3]

You can’t use that piece of **** Lotus as a measure of all EVs. It’s just a hideous badge engineered Geely for the gullible.

Only reference to the video not the car.

Consumption of Lotus suv is 2miles/KWh being one of the worst and other better examples in production being up to 3miles/KWh, while prototypes with proper next gen tech will be reaching 9miles/KWh.

In that respect when the next gen EV offering hits the market values of the previous will tank like a 60s cadilac in the petrol crisis.

Totally agree with sentiment on Lotus suv design. The car is not made for UK.

 

[safrane]

Reason why battery life is such a perceived 'issue' especially on the early Nissan Leaf is that they had no battery cooling systems... as such it toasted the battery in a few years.

First impressions last of course. Most cars do have a very good rate of degradation, probably better than lost HP in a petrol car.

For me a real life 300 mile range is what I would need as that's about as far as I would ever drive without a break.

 

[Ewan]

Teslas have the best mileage range currently (well over 300 miles for some models). But the tech is moving quickly, so battery range, power and life, will just get better and better.

I see on the news yesterday a couple from Scotland just drove from the North Pole to the South Pole in their electric car, using public charging points plus a solar panel for when in really remote locations. That must have taken some planning!

 

[DLax69]

How Reason why battery life is such a perceived 'issue' especially on the early Nissan Leaf is that they had no battery cooling systems... as such it toasted the battery in a few years.

First impressions last of course. Most cars do have a very good rate of degradation, probably better than lost HP in a petrol car.

For me a real life 300 mile range is what I would need as that's about as far as I would ever drive without a break.

How long of a break...?

 

[safrane]

How long of a break...?

Lunch or dinner, so 1 hr min and if it was a 300+ journey I would probably also have a least 1 additional 30 min stop as I would have the dogs and they need their own 'comfort' break.

As I drive to the England/Scotland border a fair few times per year with the GF and the GRs I know that the above stops are needed as the M6 is always packed apart from our January holiday which takes half the time to do the same trip.

 

[mjheathcote]

I saw one the other day, the cameras on the side look like they’ve been bought off Alibaba for 99p. I know it was probably pre-production but it really did look like a bad Lotus of old.

Made in Wuhan, China, and they stick a Lotus badge on it and then export for sale in the UK as a Lotus.

 

[mjheathcote]

The cameras instead of wing mirrors is a silly idea. I was offered them on my Audi, but had the sense to say no.

Tesla wanted cameras for their cybertruck, but they aren't legal in the US...yet.

 

[DLax69]

Tesla wanted cameras for their cybertruck, but they aren't legal in the US...yet.

Those are the definition of "polarising."

 

[midlifecrisis]

Our favourite YouTuber, Jayemm, has just released an EV specific video. It's a very balanced and pragmatic opinion of ownership. I highly recommend that you watch it, whatever your current opinion is.

 

[Ewan]

Got half way through that before finding it too boring. The summary up to that point is that EV’s are a nice way to travel, well suited to those that can charge at home or work, but that we need a better and more consistent charging network for those that can’t. So, nothing we didn’t already know.

Now to try and summon the will to watch the second half.

 

[Ewan]

Other news - the old E-Tron has gone and the new one has arrived in its place. Very nice it is to, and substantially cheaper than the previous one (by £25k). Better range, faster charging time, and higher mileage per kWh.
One (minor) complaint - the seat adjustments are old-school manual. For a £52k car with loads of high tech stuff, I would have thought that electric seats would have been standard. (Then again, the £12k seats in my Strad were manual, and I didn‘t moan at those.)

 

[philw696]