We’ve heard much about how the tipping point for electric vehicles is imminent, but let’s be realistic.
Across Europe, EVs currently have around a 1% mix of total car sales. In the UK, the situation is even worse - just 0.4% of cars on the road are battery-powered. It seems like that tipping point is still some way off.
Many excuses have been made about why buyers just aren’t enthused by EVs yet. Everything from the lack of a reliable and widespread charging infrastructure to range anxiety has meant many EV buyers who do take the plunge have one as their second car. Another issue is cost - there seems to be a vast chasm between low-end EVs such as the Renault Zoe and the more desirable, larger products like Teslas and the Jaguar I-Pace.
Hyundai and Kia may have just nailed the brief with their two new EVs, the Kona Electric and the Kia e-Niro, which is making its European debut at the Paris motor show. The e-Niro is large and practical, and can function as the sole family car.
Most impressive is the range, particularly of the larger-capacity variant. As with the Kona EV, the e-Niro can exceed 300 miles on a single charge - and that’s not on the old, optimistic NEDC testing regime but the new, more realistic WLTP cycle.
That range really isn’t very far off that of similar petrol or diesel models, and blows much costlier EV SUVs, such as the Audi E-tron and Mercedes-Benz EQC, out of the water. What’s more, it’s not at the expense of performance, as our drive of a Korean version of the e-Niro last month showed us.
But the best thing about the e-Niro is that it’s right at the cutting edge of what EVs can currently do, but will be barely any pricier than a conventionally fuelled equivalent. Expect even the larger-capacity model to dip below £30k once you factor in a government grant. And yet it’s loaded with standard equipment.
Let’s hope buyers aren’t put off by the badge (is badge snobbery really still a thing in this day and age?) or the e-Niro’s rather unexciting looks. Until Tesla can produce a truly cheap Model 3, the Koreans appear to have the best mass-market EVs on sale.
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New Kia e-Niro launches with 301 miles of electric range
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Autocar wrote:
I don't know, but your magazine never tires of telling readers how premium and upmarket various JLR models, particularly Range Rovers, are! So you tell us!
Fear of obsolescence!
The real issue for take-up is the pace of development.
Every announcement or interview with a manufacturer hints that a forthcoming model will have a greater range or that there is about to be a leap in battery technology or that batteries will soon be cheaper.
These make people think that any current model will be out of date in a year or two and the trade-in value will be badly affected.
I read BMW's trailer for an i4 to be launched in 2021 ("430 mile range, 435D performance") and thought 'Well that'd do me. I'll make the current car last until then'.
I think there's a lot of people doing the same after seeing these snippets of news.
Not enough???
Yes, I’ve read two articles on Ev’s and in both time was discussed, about how long it took to do journeys of 300 miles or more, one took 13 hours! Yes 13 hours!, another a story of a Lady who bought a Leaf with a range of up to 190 miles, well it left her stranded, she couldn’t find working charge points , was told the company who own the site would try and get their charge point to work and didn’t!, was told by said company that due to Brexit they cut back on hit squads to fix failed charge points and they didn’t operate at weekends!?, now, there’s two reasons for sticking with Fossil at the moment, never mind the fact that range isn’t enough to justify long journeys in Ev’s!