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EV general discussion
- Thread starter Ricochet J
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Man of Honour
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- 12 Jul 2005
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- Aberlour, NE Scotland
I think Audi must be in a competition with BMW to see who can design the ugliest front end. I really don't like the fabric dash and door cards, that is going to be a dust magnet. At least plastic or leather can just be wiped clean. Another piano black hater here, my Leaf is covered in the damn stuff!!
Some Renault EV's have them, it looks like someone has cut up a pair of old trousers and stuck them on a dashboard.
I'm comparing it with when Audi used to have decent dashboards and interiors when the A4 B9 was around. Since then I've never been impressed with their black plastic versions common with other cars.
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Possibly but where? Audi used to set the benchmark for interior quality, now it seems they're just copying other manufacturers.
I'm guessing some liquids don't come out of fabric as easy as wiping plastic dashes
When I refused a new mini because of the interior changes to fabric from the nice soft touch dash they had I was told (no idea on the truth) that they could cost cut the interior because Audi had done it. So the car they could also cut the quality on interior materials. I think you can get away with these crap fabrics in something like an R5 or a skoda fabia, seat arona but I also hate them in anything I would buy.
Soldato
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- 23 May 2006
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oi! my parents had a moris marina..... and it had a vinyl roof as an optional extra.... you don't get those on your poxy modern EV's.
On a serious note with all the news about the government relaxing the phase out of ICE cars I think there should be a genuine concern that the new pay per mile coming in is going to massively mess up EV sales.
we have a PHEV along with our EV due to my wife who bought into all the range anxiety FUD (despite her going beyond the there and back EV range of the car once every 12 months tops) so we will benefit from it.... but it's not right imo.
To all intents and purposes it's an EV...... but one where you lug around an engine and it is less efficient than it should be because of it.
once this new rule comes in , with hybrids only having to pay half of the pay per mile of a dedicated EV surely isn't that going to encourage people to buy a PHEV over an EV ..... even people who an EV would work just fine for?
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Soldato
- Joined
- 23 May 2006
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- 9,756
what is it with modern cars and horrendous front grilles?.Christ Audi what have you done? https://www.audi.co.uk/en/models/a2-e-tron/a2-e-tron/
Fabric covered dash
I don't mind the rear or side profile... and am not offended by cloth interior. ... but that front end!!!!!!
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To be fair they're part of the VAG group and VW has already said they're axing SEAT so I'd imagine that the R&D coffers are well and truly shut for cost saving. They'll be pinching every penny they can atm.
Not as bad as the BMW 7 series. Now that is hideous.
I get that some kind of pay-per-mile is going to be needed, since the Govt needs their pound of flesh from EV's too, but I still can't wrap my head around the "how" of it all. I can't see it being effective without some element of telemetry involved, and that will (rightly) put many people on alert because we so absolutely need more monitoring of our whereabouts /s
This part of it would be more likely to mess up EV sales, than the actual cost of it per mile. But any other method of reporting miles is open to abuse. Currently the only time the Govt gets anything mileage related from you is from the MOT, so that rules out new cars unless they introduce something that a testing station has to do for them too.
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The government just need to get ahead of it with the spin.oi! my parents had a moris marina..... and it had a vinyl roof as an optional extra.... you don't get those on your poxy modern EV's.
On a serious note with all the news about the government relaxing the phase out of ICE cars I think there should be a genuine concern that the new pay per mile coming in is going to massively mess up EV sales.
we have a PHEV along with our EV due to my wife who bought into all the range anxiety FUD (despite her going beyond the there and back EV range of the car once every 12 months tops) so we will benefit from it.... but it's not right imo.
To all intents and purposes it's an EV...... but one where you lug around an engine and it is less efficient than it should be because of it.
once this new rule comes in , with hybrids only having to pay half of the pay per mile of a dedicated EV surely isn't that going to encourage people to buy a PHEV over an EV ..... even people who an EV would work just fine for?
"Yes, you will be paying 3p / mile in equivalent fuel duty. If you don't want to pay that you absolutely have the option to drive an ICE and pay double that in fuel duty plus double the fuel cost verses off peak home charging. Your choice."
In reality, people are going to be swayed by whatever their obsession is. Like a chap I knew who traded in a lovely top spec, mint condition low mileage Fiesta against a bog spec B-Max at a massive cost. The beaming grin on his face as he announced "Twenty quid road tax" showed the driving factor behind the financial disaster of a decision.
I'm not sure people will try and game it by running a PHEV to save 1.5p/mile verses an EV. What it does do is weaken the key selling point of a PHEV in the first place, ie. no expensive public charging. Now instead of paying £2.89 duty on a gallon of fuel to take you 45 miles, you'll now be paying £3.57. Which might lead people to "might as well just stick with petrol then". While the general consensus seems to be that "no one plugs in PHEVs" my experience differs to that so it is still a step in the wrong direction if you are looking at electrification on a per mile, rather than per vehicle basis.
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Picked it up today, very pleased. It handles and drives so much better than the iX and seat comfort is much improved.
The acceleration in this thing is really strong. I think BMW have it 0-62 in 3.8 but many have timed it at 3.3.
Makes my Z4 look like a tiny baby car.
To no one's surprise, I returned the i5. The biggest issue was the car was clearly owned by a smoker, and despite it being run through their "fumigation" the smell returned. Add in some strange loose trim rolling around behind the air vent and the rear seats squeaking due to not being properly attached, I had them take it back. We also both agreed that the BMW seats just aren't working for us, the lower part of the lumbar which cannot be deflated causes us both aches.
So we used this as an opportunity to scale back the budget (we weren't that happy with the amount the iX and i5 cost) and get something that is more familiar.
We knew we wanted Audi, as our B9 A4 Avant was very comfortable. We tried a lot of different options from them:
Q8 e-tron - not convinced by this as an EV. Pushed the budget up £6-7k for what we would want anyway.
Q4 e-tron - my wife liked it, but the integrated headrest into the backrest caused her immediate discomfort.
We took a model 3 on an extended test drive as they are very reasonable on lease, but ultimately the seats didn't do it for us and the lack of CarPlay would annoy both of us.
So while not full EV, we decided to take a step back and go for a hybrid for the next 4-5 years. Picked up an Audi Q5 55 TFSIe Competition, with that lovely b9.5 interior. It's in fantastic condition, 22,000 miles. For our driving, 90% will be done on the battery.
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