EV Thread

[Barry]

My folks have an Ioniq5, and it is pretty huge. Drives tidy though so I bet this has some ability to excite. Still a heavy beast though.

[Rich B]

Fake gears and pretending to be sporty don't really interest me. The one interesting thing EVs have is being massively quick.

[mik]

Jeezus - that’s awful

[Mito Man]

Yep it was bloody irritating. That Hyundai thing was opposite the Ineos stand (separated by a thin wall) and I was chatting to the people there I said “that generator must get on your nerves after a while” only to be told that it’s the Hyundai.
At idle it’s louder than a regular performance car - cold start levels of loud. And it sounds exactly like a rubbish heavily compressed PS1 Gran Turismo recording of a car.

[V8Granite]

That truly is horrific

Dave!

[nuttinnew]

Did they confirm they were out of electrons?

No, it had a puncture. The point still stands.

[Beany]

Yep it was bloody irritating. That Hyundai thing was opposite the Ineos stand (separated by a thin wall) and I was chatting to the people there I said “that generator must get on your nerves after a while” only to be told that it’s the Hyundai.
At idle it’s louder than a regular performance car - cold start levels of loud. And it sounds exactly like a rubbish heavily compressed PS1 Gran Turismo recording of a car.

Yeah, I was thinking BeamNGs engine sounds are better than that. Like, waaaaay better. And it's got nothing like the money behind it of the Forzas and Gran Turismos of the world.

You'd hope a global car manufacturer could do a little better.

The tweeter being impressed by it is, err, rather sad.

Yeah, I'd say BeamNGs engine noises are better than what's on show in that Hyundai. It has different layers for a start. That Hyundai geniunely does just sound like a single pitch shifted/sped up sample

[Mito Man]

Yeah, I was thinking BeamNGs engine sounds are better than that. Like, waaaaay better. And it's got nothing like the money behind it of the Forzas and Gran Turismos of the world.

You'd hope a global car manufacturer could do a little better.

The tweeter being impressed by it is, err, rather sad.

Yeah, I'd say BeamNGs engine noises are better than what's on show in that Hyundai. It has different layers for a start. That Hyundai geniunely does just sound like a single pitch shifted/sped up sample

I was hoping that person was being sarcastic!
The electric Fiat 500 Abarth can fuck off too. The Taycan does it right, gentle unusual sound which alerts pedestrians but isn't obnoxious. Why the fvck are EVs piping engine sounds outside the car with ridiculously loud speakers... I don't point my speakers out the flat window when I'm playing Forza do I...

[Ascender]

I was talking to someone yesterday who has had an i3 for years now and loves it. They have an ICE car for long journeys, but use the i3 for commuting and journeys within the city and to villages on the outskirts etc. They've been looking to replace it but are saying there's a lack of a modern equivalent as everyone seems to be obsessed with packing in large batteries to get max range and obviously the continuing trend that everything has to resemble a small SUV or actually be an SUV.

Is that really all the market is doing these days?

[integrale_evo]

Yep.

Only way to increase range is fit bigger batteries, only way to fit bigger batteries without compromising interior space is stick them under the floor raising the whole thing up.

Mind you, the fake suv thing has been going on for a good few years now anyway, the electric revolution just makes it almost impossible to have a ‘normal’ style small car.

[Mito Man]

There's quite a few city cars but I can't think of anything which is RWD. In terms of a dedicated EV platform you only have the Fiat 500 and Honda E but I don't think any of these are better than the i3 yet.

[Carlos]

Yep.

Only way to increase range is fit bigger batteries, only way to fit bigger batteries without compromising interior space is stick them under the floor raising the whole thing up.

Mind you, the fake suv thing has been going on for a good few years now anyway, the electric revolution just makes it almost impossible to have a ‘normal’ style small car.

You've missed the point that the chap doesn't want or need more range, 99% of 2 car families don't do more than 100 miles a day in 1 of those vehicles.

I read a great saying yesterday, people aren't struggling with transition to EV's because of range anxiety, they have change anxiety

In 2 years of i3's i've never needed to charge publicly.

[integrale_evo]

What about people who don’t have the ability to charge at home and want enough range that they only have to bugger about with public chargers once a week?

Maybe in the future manufacturers will be able to offer a range with more niche models which they can’t at the moment while they’re trying to offer a mix of ic, hybrid +fev in a range of shapes and sizes.

[Carlos]

A 40kw battery charging at 150kwh would take less than 15 minutes to fast charge from 10-80% but like Mike mentions a small fun city car doesn't exist yet as manufacturers have switched to making electric X5's as people resist change so default to an electric version of what they have!

A 50kw i3 with 150kwh charging for £30k ish what be a fantastic 2nd car and easily developed but the customer focus groups don't reflect that.

The Renault 5 looks promising though.

[Rich B]

£30k for the 2nd runaround car isn't really great value to most people. If you're only doing a few hundred miles a week max (and you still want a new car) then you might as well spend half that on an ICE car, fill it once or twice a month with petrol and never worry about charging networks.

Although, I did just click on fords site to see how much a basic fiesta costs and did scare myself... over £19k!

[Carlos]

And they stopped making them this week.

A Ford Puma is £25k base!

Or you could have a Dacia Sandero in white for £14k and be smug knowing you couldn't get a new car for less

[Jobbo]

There's quite a few city cars but I can't think of anything which is RWD. In terms of a dedicated EV platform you only have the Fiat 500 and Honda E but I don't think any of these are better than the i3 yet.

The Honda E is rwd.

[simon_g]

Mind you, the fake suv thing has been going on for a good few years now anyway, the electric revolution just makes it almost impossible to have a ‘normal’ style small car.

It's not just an EV thing, SUVs have been slowly killing off the estate, MPV, family hatch and now superminis for decades. Might make you feel old (it does for me) but the Qashqai has been around for nearly 20 years, the CRV and RAV4 for 30.

For the most part "fake SUV" is true, something like the Kia Niro has a lower roofline than the i3. These are mostly normal cars with slightly raised ride height and a bit of plastic cladding.

[Holley]

Yep.

Only way to increase range is fit bigger batteries, only way to fit bigger batteries without compromising interior space is stick them under the floor raising the whole thing up.

Mind you, the fake suv thing has been going on for a good few years now anyway, the electric revolution just makes it almost impossible to have a ‘normal’ style small car.

You've missed the point that the chap doesn't want or need more range, 99% of 2 car families don't do more than 100 miles a day in 1 of those vehicles.

I read a great saying yesterday, people aren't struggling with transition to EV's because of range anxiety, they have change anxiety

In 2 years of i3's i've never needed to charge publicly.

Nearly 5 years of i3 ownership, 70k miles and never used public charging.

As a second car for us, 100 mile range has been fine.

But offering a car that fit's needs rather than wants doesn't always work. If we were replacing the i3 and offered the choice of a 100 mile or 200 miles range, i'd probably pick the latter even though I know I don't need it. Makes no sense at all.

Fortunately that's a hypothetical scenario as there's nothing currently out that would tempt us out of the i3 (it's become almost like a family pet).

[V8Granite]

It’s a frustrating set up as the large electric SUV ones have a crap range when not tooling along at 60mph, plus the space for big stuff in the boot is limited. Add in any kind of towing and they are a step backwards in use but massively more in cost.

Now something like an i3 really appeals, a genuinely clever bit of design which still looks current but most of the mileage in our 2 seater is weekends away and big trips with the wife. I can’t be arsed with a small range in that scenario.

They need to make a modular Kia Bero, one 2 seater with a 60kwh battery and one with a 100kwh battery and a decent towing limit.

Kia, get on it.

Dave!