Macan EV Official Launch Date!

[MacanArif]

Get yourself a 2016/17 diesel E220 Merc. I have one as my long distance and airport car park vehicle and it’s amazing with its lightweight twin turbo engine and way cheaper than an EV. £20 a year road tax, average £400 a year servicing by a main dealer and averages 60mpg with an 800 mile range on a full tank. I once got 72mpg and that’s driving at decent speeds

I have the option of a company EV and even running an MG EV or BYD doesn’t come close on running costs.

Not sure about that - I charge my EV at night which comes in at less than 9p per KWH - which works out at about 3.5p per mile. At 60mpg it works out at roughly 10p per mile. £0 a year road tax and £120 main dealer service history

Charging at home is the key.

[Jon A]

Get yourself a 2016/17 diesel E220 Merc. I have one as my long distance and airport car park vehicle and it’s amazing with its lightweight twin turbo engine and way cheaper than an EV. £20 a year road tax, average £400 a year servicing by a main dealer and averages 60mpg with an 800 mile range on a full tank. I once got 72mpg and that’s driving at decent speeds

I have the option of a company EV and even running an MG EV or BYD doesn’t come close on running costs.

Not sure about that - I charge my EV at night which comes in at less than 9p per KWH - which works out at about 3.5p per mile. At 60mpg it works out at roughly 10p per mile. £0 a year road tax and £120 main dealer service history

Charging at home is the key.

Agreed. Plus I had a 2016 E220d in 2016 and the only time I would get 60mpg was on a long (and very steady) run on the motorway. It averaged about 42 which is still good for a big car

[Skyway]

Get yourself a 2016/17 diesel E220 Merc. I have one as my long distance and airport car park vehicle and it’s amazing with its lightweight twin turbo engine and way cheaper than an EV. £20 a year road tax, average £400 a year servicing by a main dealer and averages 60mpg with an 800 mile range on a full tank. I once got 72mpg and that’s driving at decent speeds

I have the option of a company EV and even running an MG EV or BYD doesn’t come close on running costs.

Not sure about that - I charge my EV at night which comes in at less than 9p per KWH - which works out at about 3.5p per mile. At 60mpg it works out at roughly 10p per mile. £0 a year road tax and £120 main dealer service history

Charging at home is the key.

Agreed. Plus I had a 2016 E220d in 2016 and the only time I would get 60mpg was on a long (and very steady) run on the motorway. It averaged about 42 which is still good for a big car

I really only do longish runs in mine so my average mpg is high. I agree it drops a bit locally but it’s been an amazing car which I’ve owned completely for several years now. Even with the tax savings a BYD or similar would cost around £350-400 a month.

[Moriarty]

I thought this was an interesting follow-up to the story about Hertz US replacing their EV rental fleet with petrol cars. It says one of Hertz’ reasons, coupled with the high cost of repairing the EVs, was the higher rate of customers crashing the cars and the higher amount of damage done for each crash. The article rambles on a bit before getting into the reasons why there are more crashes in EV cars - primarily for people who have less than a year of ownership experience.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/18/busi ... index.html

For those who don’t like to click links and read through an article, the reasons for the excess crashes are:
- Faster acceleration than the driver is used to
- Different throttle response - unexpectedly high acceleration from stationary or at low speed, and drivers pressing the throttle too hard, like they would in an ICE car
- Accidental take-off not realising the car is switched on automatically when you enter the car and there is no ‘start’ button
- Unfamiliarity with one-pedal driving, where lifting off the throttle brakes the car and the brake pedal is less commonly used
- Low awareness of speed due to lack of engine noise
- Higher weight of cars means more damage is done in a crash

[wab172uk]

I thought this was an interesting follow-up to the story about Hertz US replacing their EV rental fleet with petrol cars. It says one of Hertz’ reasons, coupled with the high cost of repairing the EVs, was the higher rate of customers crashing the cars and the higher amount of damage done for each crash. The article rambles on a bit before getting into the reasons why there are more crashes in EV cars - primarily for people who have less than a year of ownership experience.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/18/busi ... index.html

For those who don’t like to click links and read through an article, the reasons for the excess crashes are:
- Faster acceleration than the driver is used to
- Different throttle response - unexpectedly high acceleration from stationary or at low speed, and drivers pressing the throttle too hard, like they would in an ICE car
- Accidental take-off not realising the car is switched on automatically when you enter the car and there is no ‘start’ button
- Unfamiliarity with one-pedal driving, where lifting off the throttle brakes the car and the brake pedal is less commonly used
- Low awareness of speed due to lack of engine noise
- Higher weight of cars means more damage is done in a crash

I've also heard commentators saying range anxiety was also a major factor in some area's. It's not like here, going from Birmingham to London. City to City in the USA is usually far greater distances than any EV could ever manage ATM.

See some stories on Youtube regarding both Ford and GM are loosing Billions as they can't sell their EV's. Trying to charge dealerships £1m 5to become EV centres. Unsold stock, so production line output heavily reduced with redundancies.

I think some major car companies are going to go bankrupt shortly. Being forced to invest Billions and make car's the vast majority of people don't want, or can afford. Maybe

[Scooby_Doo]

The really cold weather in the US is playing havoc with EVs , longer charging times and reduced range .

[Moriarty]

The really cold weather in the US is playing havoc with EVs , longer charging times, reduced range and IIRC frozen batteries.

Any idea what sort of range reduction you get in -30 degree temperatures (I picked -30 because it’s the same in fahrenheit and celsius, and many of my colleagues in Chicago have had that in recent days)?

[Jon A]

…and back to pointless EV bashing…

[Moriarty]

…and back to pointless EV bashing…

I dunno if all of it is pointless. When people are considering a Macan EV coming from petrol, it helps to understand some of the differences and things that could be drawbacks depending on your situation. Reading the things I posted a short while ago about the driving quirks that have led to crashes, it was all stuff I hadn’t considered and it made me realise my wife (as an occasional driver) would probably be very scared of driving it. She can be heavy-footed coming out of junctions when she hasn’t driven for a while, and I think she would really struggle to adapt to one-pedal driving.

It also made me think I’d like to have a go in one of these dodgems, and I should ask for a Taycan test drive. I wouldn’t buy one - living in a rented house and I can’t install a proper charger, plus it would be our main car and I would need to do some long drives.

There’s so much new to think about before switching to an EV and if you haven’t lived with one it’s difficult to even know what questions to ask about EVs.

[Woodhouse]

I had my loaner Taycan go from 100 miles when parked at night to 65 the next morning -1C. Heated windscreen cost me 10 miles, steering wheel another 10, cabin heaters 15 miles. Scary to see them tick down like that.

Good only knows what -30 would do, but doubt I’d leave home to find out!!