Luckypants

I have used one in the ID.4 and not noticed a drop in range. Make sure you have the Skoda equivalent of my VW's 'optimised battery use' set in the car or app, to top up the 12V from the traction battery when 12V is in use when parked. This will prevent the 12V being run down.

@Tilt On the whole I rate it very highly. The whole thing in the press about haptic buttons being crap and only two window switches is just moaning for moaning's sake. Once you get used to the haptic buttons, they are fine to use. As a car it is quiet, smooth and comfortable. Climate control works well which makes it feel comfortable all the time no matter what the weather is like outside. The car rides well but you can tell its heavy on twisty roads. It is superb on the motorway with ACC. The seats are comfy for long distances. Range is good in the 77kWh model, giving 4 hours of driving time so ready for a break when needing a charge (240-300 mile real world range). Charging is fast if you understand to plug in at a low SoC. Charging at home has always been a breeze. I'd advise they get one with a powered tailgate as the manual tailgate is heavy and tends to slam shut hard if left to itself. I would have preferred to have the matrix lights on mine but the basic LED headlamps are good. The current Match trim has both these items. If buying used, get a 2024 model or newer (if budget allows) as it comes with better software and the more efficient / powerful AP550 motor. If buying an older model, endure the dealer updates the software to V3.7 and check all recalls done (biggy is the HV battery health check). Also check if any of the known gremlins have been fixed under warranty, such as front droplinks, charging flap stuck closed, door locks behaving badly (new handles needed and a VAG wide issue). As a used buy, I would strongly recommend getting a VW warranty either Approved used or the VW Extended Warranty as any major issue will be expensive. Battery/drivetrain has 8 year or 100k mile warranty. One final thing. Get them to sit in one, they are very roomy inside! We came from a Skoda Karoq with similar external dimensions, but the ID.4 is huge inside by comparison. Its the benefit of bespoke EV architecture. We've decided its too big really and we would be fine and comfy in an ID.3 with the benefits of smaller footprint and greater efficiency.

I get his point about the Audi being poor value. Its basically the same car as VW ID.4 or Skoda Enyaq but £20K more. I've had a couple Q4 E-trons as courtesy cars when my ID.4 was in the shop and I was not impressed by the interior. The seats were hard and materials felt cheap for an Audi. Driving wise its the same as the ID.4, so fine for most. Economy in the real world will be similar to ID.4/Enyaq, so better than he was making out. I'm surprised by the charge speed stated, as many MEB cars will do 175kW (even my 4 year old First Edition after various software updates) but he did not actually test charging. He only states the brochure speed which is the same as mine (135kW) but real world this is most likely wrong. Not a very good review but he's right about it not being great.

I just log my charging versus miles from odometer, like I did for ICE. Basically I measure everything going into the car, so it includes costs for pre-heating, heating, data, app control, charging losses, heat losses etc. My miles per kWh is often lower than those claimed by others who just use the car stats. For instance I just reset my long term trip which was measuring winter consumption... according to that the car did 3.2 miles/kWh over 5400 miles.... my spreadsheet says its more like 2.7 based on kWh charged.

Every two years. So biennial it turns out. Thanks for educating me.

I've posted this in the 'Cost to Charge' thread too. Posting it here as it is a truth about EVs that it is costing me a lot less to run than the equivalent diesel. I've just done my annual calculation of overall cost to charge, which I do on the car's birthday. Last year I did 12017 miles at an average cost of 3.53p/mile. Most charging was done at home and getting onto Octopus Intelligent Go in December has helped enormously to reduce that down from 5.96p/mile for 23/24. (although that higher figure includes 2500 miles around France on public charger rates in September 2023.) Additional costs this year has been the biennial service @£170 and MOT approx. £50. Not sure if the extended warranty I purchased is a 'running cost' but taken as a hedge against the fact most EV problems will be a main dealer to resolve (with associated £155/hour rate!) £260 per annum. I did make use of it last year for suspension issue and door locking issue (new car design issues but not EV specific issues)

I've just done my annual calculation of overall cost to charge, which I do on the car's birthday. Last year I did 12017 miles at an average cost of 3.53p/mile. Most charging was done at home and getting onto Octopus Intelligent Go in December has helped enormously to reduce that down from 5.96p/mile for 23/24. (although that higher figure includes 2500 miles around France on public charger rates.) Additional costs this year has been the biennial service @£170 and MOT.

I have found over the past 3 summers that air-con cooling uses far less power than heating the cabin. It is rare to see power use for aircon above 0.7kW for sustained periods and normally less than 0.5kW. Air-con power consumption does go higher when cooling a hot cabin, but that can be mitigated by opening the windows until the cabin cools. Whereas heating the cabin can start at a power draw in excess of 5kW on very cold days and often remains in 2-2.5kW region maintaining temperature. Heating an uninsulated metal box is really a fool's game and the heat just leaks out.

Dave takes on Arnold Clark....

I've not posted here for a while as its hard to keep up with all the new hubs opening. However, here is one of note - the largest single operator hub in the UK. The new Instavolt hub at Winchester. Still at those prices, I doubt they'll be busy.

I had my smart meter activated before Christmas (long story) and I'm now on Octopus Intelligent Go tariff which means the car is charged with electricity priced @7p/kWh. That gives me 2.25p / mile currently and that will improve as the weather does, On the SVR price before that it was around 6.5p / mile. both are significantly less than my previous Skoda Karoq which would be 14.7p / mile on current local prices.

200k mile Tesla still good...

Did you have to use their app? Did you need to pre-book?

More vapourware. Not even a complete interior. VAG and their trailing of models not even off the drawing board is annoying,

Saw my first 25-plate car yesterday, it was an EV. A Peugeot E-3008 charging at Aldi (probably first ever charge)

Indeed and as an owner of a 66 plate (MY2016) Monte Carlo (the same car as the OP) I can confirm there is no clutch interlock switch on this model of Citigo.

Nope! Our 66 plate Citigo Monte Carlo is exactly the same, it starts without the clutch down and in gear. Always has done.

I'm assuming here this is similar to the WeCharge app on my VW ID.4 - it allows you to search for chargers via Google software? What I found is after software update to V3.7 a newer version of the app was required and upgrades to apps are done via the shop. When an update is required, the existing installed version is lost.

All done? Similar update on my ID.4 was without problem.

I do / have done additional items. Pollen filter changed annually instead of bi-annually (DIY £25) Front brake calipers cleaned/lubed annually - not specified in VW service checklist. MEB platform car's brakes get a bit sticky/grabby over time, I suspect liable to seize after a few years. Done as part of MOT visit to local garage.

Here's a link to a post on LinkedIn from Be.EV which has a video showing how their new 'Charging Oasis' in Manchester will look. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/be-ev_frompetroltopower-manchester-activity-7298023451150200833-jiGQ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAA0PdpEB9IFf1D4eVfpZ4HpASKA2Dhai22Q

My Citigo needed new front discs and pads earlier this year due to rust. The car is 8 years old with 21K miles, so often parked up for days. The discs were delaminating on the inside face so not picked up be me, but my mechanic had been warning they were getting poor until he called time on them this year. He said the OEM VAG discs were prone to rusting and the lack of use made it worse. He expects the new discs to last better as they are not VW. In fairness though, this is the first expense for mechanical issues in 8 years. The tyres were also replaced last year at around 18-19K miles due to age cracking at 7 years old.

I've just had my VW ID.4 in for some warranty work (the ubiquitous VAG electronic door handles failing) and got sent the visual health check video. The brake pads are still at 80% after 50K miles. This is slightly higher than the mileage I would be expecting to replace pads on my ICE cars. The second service is next week which is the usual visual checks, suspension checks, new pollen filter and replace brake fluid. It will be done at my local (EV qualified) independant garage for a lot less than VW want (£360) with an MOT. Servicing is every two years with no mileage limit. Proof that in my experience EVs are cheaper to service.

Be. EV are still going great guns, announcing a new partnership and a new hub yesterday. 8 x 150kW bays at North Valley Retail Park, Colne (top of M65). Be.EV opened a similar hub last week at Hulme Retail Park, Manchester.

A new Tesla Supercharger site open to all has opened in York with 16 stalls. That makes 100 Supercharger sites open to all on UK mainland and one in NI (Dungannon)