On 16/03/2019 at 07:44, Skoffski said:

The 'Boss' said a new Family City Car EV.  Surely there will be a petrol hybrid out of the new model range.

There is the Kamiq and that is not short. Looks a bit estate like / spaceback like!

The thing is what will be Fabia priced in the range?

£10,000 - £18,000/19,000 sort of money.

 

 

Small electric hatch would make sense. Fits into the same demographic as the 208 electric, Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe, BMW i3 etc etc. Would be a good step in the right direction in my opinion. Something to consider down the line.  

Even a small EV is unlikely to be cheap for a few years.

That depends in the UK how serious the UK Government is on their introduction and take up and the grants and what the Import tariffs are.

In Scotland the Government give a 6 year interest free loan on EV cars, and interest free loans on buying EV Motorbikes, Scooters & Electric pedal assist bikes.

 

VW say they are going to do a £18,000 or so EV.

But then they say lots about far into the future without taking into account money value years ahead.

 

If you get fee EV charging and parking and access to congestion zones that with Tax Breaks for Business Users might be a saving of £3,000 a year.

£9,000 over 3 years making a £25,000 cost of a vehicle a better deal than buying a £18,000 Petrol or Diesel car.

Edited 19 March, 20197 yr by Skoffski

The 'cheap' aspect will be relative, of course. No EV at this point is particularly cheap, but with increased production, it stands to reason that prices should come down. If there is one available in 4 years time, when my PCP comes to a close, I'll definitely consider EVs, especially if my mileage is a little less than it is currently, or if prices are a little more competitive. Or if the capacity of the cars increased, mileage-wise.

Edited 19 March, 20197 yr by Benz3ne

My big concern over EVs is the potential costs of replacement batteries after warranty.

Even thought they won't break very often the cost when they do it's another £500+ (possibly £1000) quid bill to add into the mix of things to go wrong.

I guess once there are 'compatibles' this shouldn't be as much of an issue.
 

That will always be a problem or worry with VW, even though they have spoken about EV's for long enough, just not built much other than e-Up's or e-Golfs

with batteries and very poor range.

 

Toyota & Nissan know about Warranties, as do Hyundai / KIA and they are on 2nd generation cars.

Renault lease batteries if you want.

 

So really it is the German Manufacturers that are late to the party that need to prove their abilities.

Vorsprung Durch Technik.  

14 hours ago, abaxas said:

My big concern over EVs is the potential costs of replacement batteries after warranty.

Even thought they won't break very often the cost when they do it's another £500+ (possibly £1000) quid bill to add into the mix of things to go wrong.

I guess once there are 'compatibles' this shouldn't be as much of an issue.
 

Cost is possibly a lot more than GBP1000.

 

Most of our local taxi fleet  have gone over to Toyota Hybrids.  It's not uncommon for them to still be going strong at 600,000km.  By then the body, interior , switchgear and suspension have given up and the battery is the least of your problems.

I'm not talking about the risk I'm talking about the cost.

As in there are now more things that can break that can make the car an economical write off.

Which is why if buying and owning a vehicle a comprehensive manufacturers warranty of 5 or 7 years is essential.

Not something VW do in Europe for ICE unless you pay extra. We will see what they do with EV's and Warranties.

 

As to renting cars like a ICE or EV then that is a different kettle of fish.

I can't see them dropping the Fabia. Ignoring the SUV lineup- the Scala is Golf-sized. The new Octavia will be the size of the Golf Estate/Jetta. There's plenty of room beneath the Scala for a new Fabia in a few years time, and it's a huge market segment in Europe. The Scala is really a replacement for the Rapid Spaceback, which is significantly bigger than the Fabia, while being significantly smaller than the Octavia. 

 

What will go (IMO) is the Fabia estate. But I can't see the hatch going anywhere soon. Especially as it's likely that the Up/Mii/Citigo won't be replaced by an ICE car, instead becoming EV-only, due to tightening emissions regulations squeezing all profitability out of the smallest cars. 

On 19/03/2019 at 13:54, abaxas said:

My big concern over EVs is the potential costs of replacement batteries after warranty.

Even thought they won't break very often the cost when they do it's another £500+ (possibly £1000) quid bill to add into the mix of things to go wrong.

I guess once there are 'compatibles' this shouldn't be as much of an issue.
 

 

Battery cost is enormous at the moment but coming down. The Nissan Leaf battery packs were costing £19,000 just 4 years ago!! Don't know what they would cost now. The whole car was just a few thousand pounds more than that. So that's why the battery packs can now be leased instead of purchased. New battery materials will make batteries lighter, more powerful and cheaper in just a few short years, and they'll last a lot longer too. So the future looks bright.