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Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

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Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#151

I'm really excited for more viable electric vehicles. But, the claim that this is the first car for the masses when it's simply 2-3k (~33k to ~35k in USD) cheaper than a Tesla model 3 is discouraging. That said, I do understand that the total cost of ownership does catch up if you keep the car long enough. I would just love to see something in the 20s, or even lower. (Further, I'm very sympathetic to the argument tha…

Why does everyone always compare with Tesla when Hyundai, Kia, Renault, and Nissan already have cars that are either cheaper than the VW or very similar in price? The Zoe is surely an electric car for the masses and is the best selling electric car in Europe measured over the period 2010 to 2017. And you can get one for about EU 25 000, at least in the UK. See https://www.exchangeandmart.co.uk/new-cars/renault/zoe/re…

Long story short: Renault Zoe is actually a terrible car. As it was the previous versions of the Nissan Leaf.

The reason why they sold quite a few number of cars is because they were the only ones in the market within their price range.

Why are they terrible? Mandatory battery rental, low range, expensive when compared to their ICE counterparts and no active cooling of their batteries which made them degrade a lot over a short time.

Those electric offerings were just some lazy attempts of expanding their product range to electric and they weren't true attempts to make a good electric product.

Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#152
post #87
post #3

European here, trying to actually buy the thing. You can't. The first reservations will be fulfilled in the middle of 2020, but those will only be the mid-sized battery versions. If you want the version with a larger battery, there is no firm ship date, but it is expected in 2021. What I find somewhat amusing is that for the past months we've been bombarded by a huge marketing campaign advertising a car that doesn't…

The possible reason to start the campaign now is that a big chunk of the market in Europe is business lease. New vehicles are not ordered in the last quarter of the year, because the resell value will drop if the car is a year old in three months. The lead time for cars ordered by employees is a bit longer than for regular customers. By building the hype over a new affordable EV which in quite some countries come wit…

> New vehicles are not ordered in the last quarter of the year, because the resell value will drop if the car is a year old in three months.

Few companies seem to bother coordinating model years with calendar years. I agree about the lead time, however.

Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#153
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is getting the ID.4 which is a compact crossover about the size of the Tiguan. It should look like their Crozz concept and should be revealed in February. The President of VW USA gave an interview recently stating the reason why we aren't getting the 3. One segment sells 60,000 cars the other sells 5 million. I think the ID.3 could sell great here and capture a lot more consumers than the typical market segmen…

VW in the US seems to me to lately be directly targeting US cars rather than trying to provide 'european imports' to the USA. There was some marketing language on their site a month or so back about the new jetta being 'blend of US and german' or something like that. I as a mk6 jetta owner personally think it looks like a ford, and thus hate it- not that I hate fords, but if I wanted a ford I'd buy a ford. My VW is s…

The modern Ford alternatives (Focus, Fusion/Mondeo) are far more German/European, ironically. They were actually designed for the European and global market first unlike the American VW products, and the differences show.

Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#154

You can buy a Chevy Bolt today and it has a longer range.

"the ID.3 will come in three variants that offer between roughly 205 and 340 miles of range"

The 2020 Bolt appears to have 259 miles of range, up from 238 for the 2019 model.

Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#155
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does everyone always compare with Tesla when Hyundai, Kia, Renault, and Nissan already have cars that are either cheaper than the VW or very similar in price? The Zoe is surely an electric car for the masses and is the best selling electric car in Europe measured over the period 2010 to 2017. And you can get one for about EU 25 000, at least in the UK. See https://www.exchangeandmart.co.uk/new-cars/renault/zoe/re…

Long story short: Renault Zoe is actually a terrible car. As it was the previous versions of the Nissan Leaf. The reason why they sold quite a few number of cars is because they were the only ones in the market within their price range. Why are they terrible? Mandatory battery rental, low range, expensive when compared to their ICE counterparts and no active cooling of their batteries which made them degrade a lot ov…

> Mandatory battery rental

You can buy the batteries these days:

https://www.electrive.com/2019/07/01/new-battery-old-price-u...

Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regenerative breaking also means less heat in the breaks I guess, so less need for cooling. Not sure how much that matters tho.

Motors integrated into the wheel might become a thing as well.

You mean make a comeback.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohner-Porsche

Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#157
post #117
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 0-60 is unannounced Anybody looking for a mid-range Golf/ID.3 type car (excluding top models like GTI/R/etc.) cares very little about 0-100Km/h times. In the same vein they also didn't announce the Nürburgring lap times. Edit. Also based on the numbers Tesla publishes for the same car the difference between WLTP and EPA is less that 7%. Is it expected that in some cases it varies up to 15%?

254 vs 240mi for SR+ but 348 vs 310mi for the LR.

Tesla M3 SR+ is advertised as 240mi (386Km) EPA in the US vs. 409Km WLTP in the EU, a 6% difference. The LR is 310mi (~500Km) EPA vs. 560Km WLTP, a 12% difference. Assuming the tests are designed in such a way that for some reason they start to diverge massively the longer the range (6% at 240mi but 12% at 310mi) then for an ID.3 with a 210mi range there is no reason at this point to assume 15% difference but rather under 10%.

Given that you obviously know the numbers your extrapolation, while it may turn out to be true, seems more bad faith than reasonable assumption at this point.

Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#158
post #63

> The central focus is a new 10-inch touchscreen that sits in the middle of the ID.3’s dashboard. But VW has also opted to rely on touch-sensitive buttons throughout the cabin. In fact, the only things that are controlled through physical buttons, VW says, are the windows and the hazard lights. I don't understand why big touch screens in cars are seen as a step forward. To me, they raise safety issues, and they lack…

You also can't use them with gloves on, and at least where I live, I'm always wearing gloves in the winter.

This. It feels insane that some manufacturers don't think about it, but I use gloves ~6 months a year when driving (even when my car has heated steering wheel).

Operating a car with touch buttons is just stupid, I can't feel any "haptic" from those and some of them won't even register anything. Getting gloves off and looking at some screen while driving isn't safe.

Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#159
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just discovered this SEAT: https://ev-database.uk/car/1191/SEAT-Mii-Electric This is something I can buy.

Hey thats a pretty good price. Built on the same platform as the ID3 apparently. 125 miles range is OK for 99% of the time. Long journeys then take a bit of planning but its very do-able.

No, it's the same care as the VW e-up!, which is not yet based on the new MEB platform.

Re: Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first affordable long-range electric car

#160
post #146

> The central focus is a new 10-inch touchscreen that sits in the middle of the ID.3’s dashboard. But VW has also opted to rely on touch-sensitive buttons throughout the cabin. In fact, the only things that are controlled through physical buttons, VW says, are the windows and the hazard lights. I don't understand why big touch screens in cars are seen as a step forward. To me, they raise safety issues, and they lack…

You get used to it. I agree it's not perfect but the car as a whole is amazing. It's just a completely different experience. As the self driving features become better this becomes even less than an issue. At any rate, you don't buy the model 3 because of the screen, you buy it because it's a great car that happens to have it's UI on a screen. Great driving experience, no more gas stations, no more oil changes, don't…

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