I see from the BMW app that ours has done 16000 miles. It’s got a service/first MOT in a couple of months, so no doubt I will find out.
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Got my first paid service coming up. Going to use Wisley ? automotive.
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We use Vines as we bought it there and it’s convenient. But I never buy service plans, so this is our second paid service.
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£249 from bmw.
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Hi Peter,
It has already started, not just with Lucid and Porsche type cars but also with Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 mainstream EVs.
800V, 350kW chargers are also being installed now on a daily basis.
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I admire your spirit but that’s just leading the way in the wrong direction. I’m all for an independent self sustainable, social and mature China: it’s the exponent of the Industrial Revolution which started 200 years ago in presumably your country but by just building nuclear plants to meet demand one throw away the option to reduce consumption and also one becomes more dependent on uranium supply.
I believe that mix and match is the best of all options.
In my country we’re experimenting with tidal energy. The UK and Netherlands share lots of investments in wind energy. Some countries do hydro energy and there is also the big research ongoing to build a fusion power plant.
I’m hopeful for the future and strongly believe in technological progress. This is precisely why I like that i3 so much: it’s a revolutionary car. A car which managed to escape the BMW labs and put itself in production.
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My dealer told me that the i3 was BMW’s most successful model ever (which I doubt) but that they made no money out of it because it cost more to build than the sale price supported (which I believe).
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I think that’s bang on. Other bmw models don’t inspire me though, I’ll never buy one of these new i models. I see some of these cars in my town and the drivers are a different audience.
You are quite correct to doubt the claim and also correct that the i3 lost money for BMW.
To be fair to BMW, they did use the i3 and i8 as test beds to pilot volume production methods for carbon fibre composites(CFRP), to test the economics of CFRP and to market test plug-in hybrid and EV technologies. It can be reasonably argued that the i3 was a great success when set in this context, the i8 less so.
Best regards, BF
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Well, I am on the last six hours of our 48 hour Kia EV6 test drive. This was a Kia initiative to get people to experience Electric driving for themselves and their promotion fitted in with my series of test drives.
It’s a great idea as I could get my wife and daughter insured on it as well so we could all drive it.
And we all really liked this car. It’s the next level up from the ranges I have been test driving but it ticked nearly all of the boxes for us. First off it had electrical adjustable seats with lumber support, cushion tilt and a memory function not quite up to our Lexus seats but certainly by far the best of any of the cars I had driven by a long shot.
Having it over a 2 day period allowed me to use it on well worn and tested routes and so the comparison was far more detailed and informative than a 30 to 60 minute drive around areas I didn’t know that well.
We drove to the seaside at Dun Laoighre in Dublin yesterday evening going via the motorway and coming back via the non-motorway route and the driving experience was a joy. Little things like not having to keep one’s foot on the break at traffic lights when stopped and the regenerative breaking set to level two I found made driving very easy, in our Lexus when one takes one’s foot off the accelerator the car really doesn’t slow down appreciably and so you’d use the break much more whereas the Kia was excellent for example at speed ramps one just had to take one’s foot off the accelerator at a certain distance away in the car to slow down the requisite amount to get over them without rattling these old bones.
Not necessarily an exciting drive, but as I outlined above none of my previous cars were ever part particularly sports models.
It certainly shows the quality of the road beneath the tyres. It wouldn’t be a very dampened ride at all which I must say I prefer. I do not like the feeling of travelling over Cotton wool as I always think it’s safer to have an idea of the quality of the road you’re on. Perhaps a jot firmer than my optimal if it was a 1-10 scale I’d probably dampen 0.5 more.
The rear view is quite restricted as it was on most of the cars I test drove but the Kia would be at the top of the list however the side mirrors are excellent and the red blind spot warning is a huge safety addition and the parking camera obviously makes up for some of the reduced rear visibility. I had thought that might be a dealbreaker for my good lady wife, but although noticed it wasn’t a “do not buy” defect. Her biggest gripe in fact were the doorhandles which are a little gimmicky but wouldn’t annoy me to the extent that they did her – she thinks it’s very poor design as it can nip her hand now and again.
I’d love to see the design reasoning for putting the vehicle speed on the left-hand side of the display in front of the driver rather than in the middle.
All in all I’m very impressed with this car and I’m reminded of the test drive I did on our Lexus way back in 2008 where the man in the garage said John if you’ve driven in LS before you really won’t be able to go back to the GS model so I feel that Our EV purchase journey has been moved up to the next segment in EV ranges and we may well have found our new car.
This will mean a jettisoning our Lexus and keeping the golf for 3 to 6 months to see how much use a second car actually gets in the house and whether it would be possible to become a one car household or the alternative would be that if 2 cars are needed our daughter “buys” our golf.
Although a wide car I was surprised to see it is slightly wider than our Lexus
The aerodynamic squeeze in the body of the Kia means the Lexus has more cabin space, but the Kia certainly is quite spacious and not having a driveshaft accentuates the feeling of space.
Time to order the home charging point I think!
.sjb
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Think they made about 250,000.
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Super feedback and I’m delighted that you made the effort to try one.
The EV6 is one of the top 3 cars in its class/group, the other 2 being Skoda Enyaq iv80 and Tesla Model Y. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is a sister car to the EV6 and almost the same under the skin, though the skin is materially different.
If the EV6 is almost a bullseye for you, I would recommend trying the Skoda Enyaq iv80, the Tesla Model Y long range and the new Kia EV3.
Each of these 4 have their own strengths & weaknesses; they are really quite different and you will know which one is for you very quickly. Fortunately, all are good options at the moment, so long as you insulate yourself from open-ended depreciation via some form of lease or financing arrangement.
Enjoy the process and thank you for sharing your journey with us.
Best regards
BF
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FYI, a number of these have been designed & made to consumer electronics standards for indoor devices, so don’t last very long outside.
The better ones also have control functionality built in so that they can link with other devices like your car, a solar PV array etc. to actively manage how & when you want the car to be charged.
The Myenergi Zappi is the benchmark to beat, both in terms of build quality and functionality. Others are catching up though. I recommend taking the Zappi as your benchmark, then make a final choice after comparing your other options to it.
Best regards, BF
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If you do get a home charger, get a tethered one. Otherwise you have to get your charge cable out each time.
If I was in the market for an EV right now, I would consider a s/h low mileage good example of the outgoing version of the Tesla 3 long range - prices have gone down substantially and this is still very much the EV to beat. And at £35k and less there would be excellent, well-kept (avoid company cars) examples.
And many thanks for your contribution.
I’m afraid Tesla is ruled out (for me and my wife) because of their CEO, I just cannot get past him much the same way as if I’m in Doonbeg in County Clare I wont be staying in the hotel that’s owned by a US presidential candidate that isn’t Kamala.
They VRT (vehicle registration tax) in Ireland is reduced in cars up to 50k and the Enyaq in its 80 guise costs above this so is about 6-8 k more expensive than the Kia EV6 (which totally puts it out of my bracket).
You’ve mentioned the EV3 before, it’s expected here in October according to the Kia Rep today, what do you think will be special about it?
WRT depreciation Kia currently have the current offer ( I know very little about PCP) what would your comment on it be?
.sjb
Just be carefull about what milage limits you go for. Mate of mine has an EV through work and to afford it, went for 10,000 miles per year. Which doesnt even cover going to/from work. What a numpty. Lovely car, but he cant use it at the weekends !
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I love my EV6 Gtline S, 18/12 and 25k miles in.
Re rear visibility, I agree in part but removing the central rear headrest helps. Most of all the rear park system gives a great ‘top down’ view on screen that is just brilliant. Might not be on the base models?
The door handles are fine unless it rains, then freezes! De icer spray needed.
My only other grumbles are slightly awkward placement of seat heater controls and a preponderance of warning chimes; but that is true of all modern cars and some can be switched off. I could happily list the ‘likes’ and it has been totally reliable and the interior durable etc. The paddle adjustable regen is a big plus for me, fun and practical.
I imagine the EV3 will have a long waiting list, and no discounts.
Bruce
PS Oh, the HiFi is mediocre even with the Harman Karrmon upgrade. Might be a deal breaker!
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Ruling out Tesla? Fair enough. Its CEO is quite Marmite.
I suspect that the ridiculous ergonomics of both the interior & exterior door handles, the stupid credit card key, the tiny typeface for the clock & state of battery charge on the huge display, the absence of essential driver information directly in front of the driver etc. would warrant a veto by one or both of you anyway.
Depending on the range you need/want, the Enyaq iv60 is well worth a look too. Best go for the smallest road wheels too. Larger ones weigh more, reduce range, have more expensive tyres & worsen the ride quality.
The new EV3 looks like a bigger & better Kia Niro with the advantage of a proper battery EV platform (so more space inside) and next generation electronics, motors & control system. It will be a touch smaller than the EV6 that you have driven and a step further on in terms of various technologies. I have not seen definitive prices & specs yet but expect an EV3 long range with a circa 78kWh battery (so real world range of about 280 miles) to cost a shade less than the EV6. Hence if choosing between the EV3 and EV6, choose on the basis of the car you prefer as price is unlikely to be the deciding factor.
On the Kia EV6 offer, a couple of thoughts. There’s no discount in your illustration but I suspect you may find about 5-6% discount if you buy via Carwow or equivalent and still be able to secure the 0% PCP deal, as Carwow acts via the Kia main dealers anyway.
After 3 years, you will have paid the €16,642 deposit plus 37 lots of €280.76, so €27,000 in total. You then have the option to buy the car outright for an additional €20,800 at that point.
By way of comparator, our Enyaq was about £46k new and was valued by We Buy Any Car and its rivals at £27-31k after 2 years and 30,000km in the UK. The battery state of health was about 99% at that point, so 1% degradation in 30k km. End of first life is generally stated to be after 20-30% degradation depending on the car maker.
To put it another way, you could probably buy a 2 year old EV6/Enyaq for the cost of owning a new one for its first 3 years. It’s a personal choice for you to make. No right or wrong on this one.
@Thegreatroberto observation about allowing a few more miles per year than you expect to do is very well made, as the car company will charge you a per km additional fee for every km that you travel over the PCP limit.
Hope this helps, BF
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A big thank you from me, for providing the charger & battery info, I had never heard of Nyobolt, or the fast charge demonstrator, very interesting, anything that speeds up public charging gets a big thumps up from me.
Gary
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