Rounding Up Geneva Motor Show and Rent Or Buy An EV? | 10 Mar 2018
Best Cars From Geneva Motor Show | Polestar 1 | VW I.D. Vizzion | Honda Urban and Sport EV | Renault EZ-GO | Second Generation Formula E Racer | Top 5 Reasons To Lease An EV | My Top 5 Responses
Saturday 10th March 2018.
BEST 7 EVS GENEVA
According to Popular Mechanics:
- Polestar 1 - Two electric motors drive the rear wheels, and a turbo- and supercharged 2.0L I4 drives the front wheels
- Lagonda Vision - batteries in the floor and motors in the wheel hubs
- Volkswagen I.D. Vizzion - a peek into what autonomous cars will look like when they no longer come with steering wheels or pedals, controllable only by voice and gesture when driven “manually.” Steering wheels are here to stay for now though
- Honda Urban EV - windshield-spanning touchscreen cleans up the dashboard and replaces a myriad of switchgear and gauges, both modernist and utilitarian at once.
- Honda Sport EV - Honda claims the Sport EV to be a proper sports car because of its low centre of gravity, which is part design choice and part a result of the now-standard packaging of batteries in the floor.
- Renault EZ-GO - The EZ-GO is Renault's vision of the near-future's taxi cab, a fully autonomous glass box you hail from your phone or at one of its permanent depots dotted throughout cites. Get in through a front hatch and sit in U-shape.
- New Formula E Racer - Heading into its fifth season for 2018-2019, Formula E says goodbye to the first-generation and hello to the second-generation racer, which looks like the Batmobile. It'll be the first season in which drivers don't swap depleted cars for fresh ones halfway through races. The new Formula E car doubles battery capacity over the outgoing from 28 kWh to 54 kWh, giving it enough juice for an entire race.
LEASE OR BUY AN EV?
- According to Nerdwallet, they say leasing is growing in popularity — now making up almost 30% of all new car sales. But when it comes to electric vehicles, 80% are leased, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Using research from ‘Swapalease’ here are their 5 reasons to lease and what I think of them.
- They say: “You can get tech upgrades faster. Year-to-year changes in conventional cars are often minimal. The technology going into EVs means each year sees more range, more performance, and more autopilot features.”
- I say wrong: OTA updates can keep your car current
- They say: “You avoid the steep depreciation. If you bought an electric car and decided to sell it even a year later, its value would have depreciated dramatically — “like a used bedsheet,” as one commenter wrote on car sale site Autotrader.”
- I say wrong: in the UK at least, used EV values increased last year
- They say: “Battery quirks aren’t your problem. Since the lithium ion batteries that power EVs are relatively new, there isn’t a lot of data on how long they last and how quickly they’ll stop holding a full charge.”
- I say wrong: EV batteries have incredibly low failure rates, and are often covered under very long warranties.
- They say: “you’ll get more incentives more often. Electric cars are incentive magnets. Federal and state governments seem to want to reward EV owners to support clean energy”
- I say wrong: Tax credits in the US are ending for some models.
- They say: “You can scoop up loyalty bonuses. Carmakers also offer both loyalty and conquest bonuses to try to retain customers or lure shoppers away from the competition.”
- I say wrong: I’ve never heard of any EV maker offering a loyalty bonus if you lease. There’s obviously the famous Tesla referral code which could bag you anything from free supercharging to a new Roadster. But what other EV does that? Have you ever heard of loyalty bonuses to lease an EV? Email me if so, hello@evnewsdaily.com
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