OV9

I have never been in an ev

Is this the most boring version of "I have never..."?

I'll go next. I've never been in a Dacia Logan.

I bet you non-EV people have in fact been on a tube train or other electrically powered train.

I bet we've all driven and enjoyed Dodgem cars in the past?

Jobbo wrote: Sat Nov 04, 2023 12:08 pm I bet you non-EV people have in fact been on a tube train or other electrically powered train.

A large swathe of black cabs in London are now hybrid, and they're actually pretty pleasant as a passenger.

I think those black cabs are treated as fully electric vehicles - the engine is a range extender.

I heard a fact today; 90% of all electric vehicles are still on the road.


The other 10% made it home.

Fisker… Again!
My mum has been looking for an EV for a while, she prefers a SUV but been put off by their lower range, and she doesn’t like coupe SUVs as they look like squatting dogs. I did show her the Fisker which looked like a more conventional SUV but had a real world 300+ mile range. She read about it a bit and seemed to like it enough to visit the showroom - conveniently just 10 mins from where I live so I accompanied her to ask the important questions.

Also I did spent a while explaining to her that this is a startup company - it has approximately enough cash to survive until Q4 2024, worst case scenario it goes bankrupt and you have a car with no parts availability or warranty. It will depreciate worse than a known brand. Sounds like a terrible idea just typing this out!

So the car

It has more lights than any other car I think. The badges, exterior letters, door handles all illuminate and it even does animations on the ground. In this picture it’s in California mode. The rear 3/4 windows and tailgate windows open. The black plastic lower parts of the car and the underside were designed by Boeing engineers. I guess they know a thing about making a fat turd fly in an efficient manner…


The roof is a set of 2 solar panels. The front one opens up and the panels themselves are translucent which gives a cool effect from inside. They have a beta iPhone app which shows how much power the roof is producing. Shows how new the car is - the iPhone app for it isn’t ready yet!


POWER! 560bhp of it I think. But it’s weird. I think it’s under 500bhp in normal use and then if you use a boost button you get more. But you only get 500 uses of said boost button before you knacker the battery. They then need to give the battery a check up and if you’re lucky you get another 500 uses.


3 spoke wheels in 2023! The carbon is just an aerodynamic trim so if you kerb it the wheel isn’t a write off. 22” wheels but chunky sidewalls to retain comfort but the tyres are run flats. It is also on steel springs.


The steering wheel is thiccc. It’s almost like holding a wrist. The interior is otherwise decent, mainly covered in alcantara. The car is built by Magna Steyr in Austria on the old BMW G30 line. It feels premium and well put together. Also not the massive camera on the A pillar starting at the driver to make sure they’re not sleeping


Another distorted picture with the wide angle lens - just showing that the interior display rotates. And it has physical AC buttons. Looks much better in a horizontal configuration.


And finally, it does vehicle to grid and vehicle to vehicle charging. So you get rescue a stranded EV or use it as a generator.

The cars are the same price as the Tesla Model Y, top spec is £60k but they are far better put together and come with more specification and a much bigger battery.
There’s a lot of bullshit green stuff, they claim it’s a class leader in terms of having 40kg of recycled materials, I think they said fishing nets or something. But that means there’s still 2.4 tonnes of virgin material
The battery chemistry is also cobalt lithium. Awkward.

Anyway mum booked a test drive for some time next week, I won’t be around for that though. Went downstairs to their new customer cars area just to see other specifications - apparently they had delivered 96 cars so far but there was a blue car for sale already - perhaps someone had cold feet. Another red flag maybe! Also shout out to the staff for actually being decent people for once.

TLDR - my mum is quite interested in buying an EV from a startup which may be bankrupt by the end of next year.

Saw a few on the road in Denmark and Sweden this summer, and I'd imagine they've sold a fair few in Norway too.

They get a years free supercharging in the EU/Scandinavia. Technically the offer also exists in the UK but it's with a random European based supplier who only have a few chargers here so it's useless...

Those Fiskers had passed me by completely. I had no idea that model existed let alone was already being made and sold over here in RHD. Looks a genuinely interesting alternative to a Model Y and seems better value. Not surprised your mother is interested.

Looks nice apart from that steering wheel?! WTF were they thinking?

Have you seen the new Kia SUV? EV9 or some such? Similar to that heffer but at least it might work.

There’s also a fully EV Genesis..

Barry wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 7:30 am Have you seen the new Kia SUV? EV9 or some such? Similar to that heffer but at least it might work.

More expensive, less performance and smaller battery again. The Fisker has a massive 113kwh battery with 107kwh usable. The WTLP range is 440 miles but that still equates to a real 300+
The Kia range is only 349 miles WTLP.

IanF wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 8:41 am There’s also a fully EV Genesis..

I am only see the GV60? Seems even worse than the Model Y.

Mito Man wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 8:57 am

IanF wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 8:41 am There’s also a fully EV Genesis..

I am only see the GV60? Seems even worse than the Model Y.

There’s a fully elec GV70 and saloon G80, I thought there was an SUV 80/90 also but appear mistaken/premature.

https://www.genesis.com/uk/en/electric/go-electric.html

I think the only other car which comes close in terms of price and range is the newly announced Lucid Gravity - but they seem to be a while away from production and Lucid aren’t focused on the RHD market currently.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/usa/lu ... ated-range

Another almost bankrupt manufacturer
Can the legacy brands pull their finger out already

Mito Man wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 9:14 am I think the only other car which comes close in terms of price and range is the newly announced Lucid Gravity - but they seem to be a while away from production and Lucid aren’t focused on the RHD market currently.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/usa/lu ... ated-range

Another almost bankrupt manufacturer
Can the legacy brands pull their finger out already

Perhaps that's the strategy? Let the startups do the innovating and take the financial hit, then buy the IP when they run out of cash.

Rich B wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 6:53 am Looks nice apart from that steering wheel?! WTF were they thinking?

Yeah, it is a bit ridiculous. Would need to sit in one to see how bad it is to hold.

Now that I've had a look at Fisker's website I am very curious about the price. The configurator seems to be in USD only and the versions with all the equipment and decent battery are $60-62k. Which does not normally translate to £60-62k in the UK. Is there an official UK price list somewhere?