EV general discussion

b0rn2sk8 said:
I know they have signed up to use the MEB platform in Europe but I can’t really see that being sustainable. They will not be able to differentiate their products sufficiently from VAG and everyone they sell makes VAG a bunch of money.
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Maybe they'll just use it as transition technology to allow them to develop their own small/medium car/SUV platform over the next 5-10 years.

b0rn2sk8 said:
To me it seems like Ford isn’t going to be able to be competitive in their traditional ‘car’ segment here.
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It does look that way in the current climate, I'd think they must want to continue the success they have had over the last several decades/half century. I think competition from the Chinese market may just push out most of the lower end cars that are built locally/EU.

I ask the question how long can Ford wait to supply a Corsa-E/Zoe/e208/Dacia/ID.3/Cupra type car before people stop considering them in those segments at all.
 
Exactly, I’ve not seen any rumours or concepts for an EV Fiesta/Focus car from them at all and that’s their bread and butter here. Only the announcement that I have seen is it will be MEB.

It seems they have taken a very USA focused view to the transition and not really woken up to Europe at all.

Don’t get me wrong the Mach-E is a good car, I just don’t see it being able to sustain their brand presence on the EU until they can expand the BEV range.

I think I have seen one in the flesh so far, but I’ve seen loads of Ionic 5’s knocking about by comparison and the other brads just seem to have so much more momentum compared to Ford.
 
There must be a huge untapped market for EV alternatives to cars like the Fiesta and Focus. Not everyone wants to move to an SUV style car but might still want an EV.
 
It’s the material cost difference in those segments that are presently the issues. They will come as costs continue to drop as the supply base and production moves to the electrification. You can kind of hide it in the SUV segment.
 
It's a shame the range is so poor on the Mini Electric - what a lot of EV fans didn't like about it (It's just an ICE car thats now an EV!!!!!!) I thought was probably its greatest strength. Just a normal car - perhaps the same as the one you already drive - but fully electric. I have high hopes for the next generation, given the F56 platform is what, 8 years old this year.
 
Yeah no one is buying £35-40k fiestas. But European OEMs need to watch for some of the Chinese OEMs don’t push them out. It’s likely brand image U.K. customers will avoid Chinese OEMs though. Let’s see
 
[TW]Fox said:
It's a shame the range is so poor on the Mini Electric - what a lot of EV fans didn't like about it (It's just an ICE car thats now an EV!!!!!!) I thought was probably its greatest strength. Just a normal car - perhaps the same as the one you already drive - but fully electric. I have high hopes for the next generation, given the F56 platform is what, 8 years old this year.
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The new Mini (EV) is on a totally separate platform to the new ICE variant, and will be built solely in China. If that matters to you.
 
I don’t think anyone is suggesting £30k-£40k Fiestas, you could pick up a pre-reg top spec Corsa-E for £20k before the great car apocalypse so not exactly mega money, there a bit more now mind!

I also think customers in the U.K. will happily buy Chinese cars if they come in at the right price.

MGs are everywhere now and the U.K. market embraced Dacia with open arms.

Yes I know Dacia isn’t Chinese but I doubt many Dacia owners know it’s an old Renault underneath, the point was more that it was an entirely new brand.

The Ora Cat or whatever it’s called will be the first big test and it genuinely looks like a really good car for the price.
 
Maybe Ford will re-engineer their fiesta production lines for the vw ev polo sized chassis, so Ford+vag will keep manufacture inside europe to their mutual benefit,
keeping the chinese out - Biden is giving preferential subsidy on cars from usa workers, which could catch on (in addition to rules of origin import tarifs) in Europe
 
steve5424 said:
When will the next Mini EV be getting launched. I really love its style but such a poor size battery/range.
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2023 apparently, not sure how accurate that will be for the UK market, it could be a bit later. Also they've not said when in 2023, it could be Q1 or Q4 or anywhere in between.
 
The quality of my Chinese built Tesla is a lot better than the Germany built Golf R I had before.

To the point that I'm trying to find out if the new Model S refresh will be produced in China, I won't bother with it if they are all built in the US.

The Ora Cat is getting high praise for its materials and build quality too.
 
The term ‘Chinese build quality’ used in a derogatory way is just a nonsense really these days. It’s like no one has noticed that in the last 20 years China has positioned themselves to be able to basically build anything at any quality.

The issues of dodgy quality almost exclusively stem from their western paymasters corner cutting and cost saving (aka profit enhancing) measures.

The Chinese are as good as anyone else at design and engineering these days.
 
Chinese metals are pretty terrible. That has been a thing for years. You get a lot of contamination.

They cut corners in the places most people don't look or notice.
 
[TW]Fox said:
It's a shame the range is so poor on the Mini Electric - what a lot of EV fans didn't like about it (It's just an ICE car thats now an EV!!!!!!) I thought was probably its greatest strength. Just a normal car - perhaps the same as the one you already drive - but fully electric.
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Come on, it’s kind of a BMW so bring your a-game logic to the party Fox… do you not think those factors might be linked?
 
Surely the i4 is the car for Fox anyway. He wants a car that was designed as an ICE, but with an EV drivetrain shoehorned in, and he loves the current G20.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
The term ‘Chinese build quality’ used in a derogatory way is just a nonsense really these days. It’s like no one has noticed that in the last 20 years China has positioned themselves to be able to basically build anything at any quality.

The issues of dodgy quality almost exclusively stem from their western paymasters corner cutting and cost saving (aka profit enhancing) measures.

The Chinese are as good as anyone else at design and engineering these days.
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Slightly OT but my hisense television that I bought for our bedroom is still going strong whilst my flagship Samsung that I bought has screen bleed like it is going out of fashion.

People were the same when Japanese cars came over and the same when Korean cars came over. China will learn from the west and end up being better as a result.
 
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