If you’re thinking of making the switch to an electric car, our award winners are the ideal choices to help you make the move…
The winners of the What Car? Electric Car Awards for 2022 were announced on Wednesday.
Held in association with OVO Energy, these are held every year to celebrate the finest cars in this emerging class of car which will from 2030 be the only type of car you’ll be legally allowed to buy new.
They now come in all shapes and sizes. So, to help you choose, we’re not only naming the best new models, but also our favourite used options. Let’s dive in:
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Demand for electric cars is on the rise in Europe and elsewhere around the world, prompting BMW to ramp up production of the i3 and VW to build the e-Golf for longer than originally planned.
BMW has significantly increased production capacity compared to the original plan for the second half of 2020 at its Leipzig plant in Germany. The company is extending shifts and shortening breaks to increase the number of vehicles built per day from 114 to 130.
BMW i3 120Ah (Image: BMW Group)
In addition, the automaker has cancelled the one-week summer break for the i3 assembly line. Automobilwoche reports the decisions are motivated by increasing demand and the need to recuperate the long production stoppage in the second quarter of the year caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. In the first half of 2020, BMW built just over 12,500 i3 EVs, while in the entire 2019 calendar year production reached 38,937 units.
As for the VW e-Golf, production will continue at the Transparent Factory in Dresden until Christmas, contrary to initial plans. However, e-Golf production ended for good at the Wolfsburg plant on July 23.
VW currently makes 74 e-Golfs every day but aims to reach an output of 80 vehicles per day. Mind you, this will only continue until Christmas, when the Dresden plant will be converted to build the ID.3 starting January 2021.
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Charging an electric car with £5 of energy will see it travel almost double the distance of a petrol or diesel motor using a fiver’s worth of fuel.
Electric vehicles carry drivers 40 miles further than the closest competing transport type, according to new research.
Surprisingly, one in five motorists think the low-emission vehicles are pricier to run than other cars.
The study found that a VW e-Golf could be driven for 102 miles on a £5 charge.
VW e-Golf (Image: Volkswagen.co.uk)
A comparable diesel Golf travelled 56.5 miles with £5 of fuel, while a petrol equivalent clocked just 49.6 miles.
Spending £5 on a bus or train ticket would see travellers covering only a fifth of the distance reached by electric cars.
Regional electricity prices were used to work out the price per kilowatt hour to charge a VW e-Golf’s battery before being compared with regional fuel and public transport costs.
Distances travelled using public transport from 10 different major cities were then averaged.
An electric car owner in London can travel as far as Bristol or Worcester on a £5 charge, while a diesel driver would only get as far as Oxford or Winchester.
A petrol car would reach Basingstoke or Milton Keynes, whereas spending a similar amount on a bus or train would barely get you out of the M25.
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A little disclaimer before we start this article. I don’t consider myself an environmentalist and I don’t constantly talk about things like sustainability or my carbon footprint.
As a lifelong gearheard, I’m also not one of those who feels like every drop of fuel burned in the name of fun is a crime. Nor am I a tech-obsessed Tesla fanboy who kneels at the altar of Elon Musk and praises all things the company does. But after driving about 50,000 miles behind the wheel of EVs, I’m fully sold on electric cars for daily life and I want to tell you why.
I’ve been obsessed with cars of all shapes and sizes since I was a toddler. I love the sounds of engines, the feeling of shifting through the gears and the distinct ways different types of cars deliver their power. I dig big V8s, loud turbos, built engines screaming to redline and fuel-sucking carbs—and I always will.
VW e-Golf (Image: Volkswagen.co.uk)
I’m also a person who is constantly annoyed by the oppressive emission laws in my home state of California, especially the ones that have no real impact on emissions but make it difficult or impossible to enjoy the automotive hobby the same way people in other states do.
But despite all of this, I’ve become a convert of the EV movement, and after half a decade of driving electric vehicles day-in and day-out I’m at the point where I can’t really imagine myself not having at least one of them in the garage.
For me it all started back in the summer of 2014 when I heard from some friends about how cheap you could lease the Fiat 500e EV for. With all of the upfront discounts and post-purchase rebates people were telling stories of driving a brand new electric car for less than they were paying for their cable bill each month.
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The practical reasons against electric are disappearing – and now councils are stepping in to help
This feels like one of the “You’re the expert” questions that appear in Guardian Money every week. I have an old-ish petrol-fuelled car, sitting parked outside my terraced home, which I use only at weekends. And I have a brother-in-law who is evangelical about his Nissan Leaf. I’d like to be more like him. Yet the closest charging point for me is a 10-minute walk away, and often busy. Is it just too early to ditch my old car and go electric?
The question marks over electric vehicles used to be about battery technology and the cost. But “range anxiety” has largely been conquered. The first Nissan Leaf batteries took you about 80-85 miles without needing a charge; the latest ones do 150 miles. The new Kia e-Niro family car manages 300 miles, while at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Mercedes was showing off its Vision EQS model with a “comfortable” range of 435 miles. Given that the average car journey in the UK is just 10 miles, according to the RAC, fears over the usability of electric cars are fading fast.
Kia e-Niro EV (Image: Kia)
Sadly, prices for new electric cars remain higher significantly higher than for petrol or diesel, with the eGolf at about £30,000 compared with petrol ones starting at about £20,000. But as we highlight this week, a used market is now developing in electric vehicles, with entry-level prices as low as £5,000 – with no annual tax, and low servicing charges to boot. What’s more, driving costs are a fraction of the cost of petrol, without even mentioning the enormous benefit to the environment, especially in cities.
So why aren’t we all switching over? The knee-jerk response is now about charging times, for city dwellers like me without the luxury of a drive or garage. Who in their right mind is going to spend half an hour queuing for a charge point, then sit there for an hour or so while it fills up? Or faff around finding the only on-street overnight charge point available, then walk home in the rain for half an hour? It’s not going to happen.
The correct response is that the climate crisis means we will have to live without the hyper-convenience we became accustomed to. If the average journey is just 10 miles, why not take the bus or use an e-bike? And if you must insist on a private car, is a 10- or 15-minute walk to a charging point really such a sacrifice to save the environment?
Volkswagen may have been a little late to the game for crossovers in the US, but it’s done a commendable job of catching up with offerings like the new Atlas and redesigned Tiguan. But the automaker has no intention of falling behind when it comes to electric vehicles.
We sat down with Volkswagen Group North American CEO Scott Keogh at Geneva to discuss a wide range of topics, among them VW’s upcoming EV lineup launch. Keogh believes that 2022 will be the “sweet spot” on the market when there’ll be enough EV products out there for them to become mainstream. But there’s work to be done beforehand.
“Profitability, let’s make no mistake, comes from scale. In my mind this is an opportunity to take the scale of the (VW) Group with the (all-electric MEB) platform and be one of the first to push aggressively into the volume side,” Keogh said.
“With electric cars, we can have the scale compared to many of our competitors in the US on the internal combustion engine front. When you start talking about tens of millions of cars on the platform, you can get the pricing into a good place. But if you ask me the more important thing is not on the profitability side but on the revenue side. Can we get enough people to buy the cars?”
VW e-Golf (Image: Volkswagen.co.uk)
There’s been a gradual consumer acceptance of EVs over the past few years and that will hopefully translate to solid sales. But an essential element of making a new product or technology successful is market introduction timing.
“When I look at market research in the US (for EVS), it started with ‘I don’t know what an electric car is’, then it migrated to ‘I know EVs but I’m never going to buy one’, then it went to that interesting place of ‘they’re kind of cool but they’re for someone else.’ Now, it’s moved into ‘I’m going to take a look at one for my next car.’ Make no mistake, timing is certainly a part of that.”
Leasing costs of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have fallen throughout 2018 according to data experts at Cap HPI.
The study looked at five of the best-selling models in the UK and discovered that monthly lease costs had fallen by 9.5% on average.
The UK’s best-selling electric car, the Nissan Leaf saw monthly lease values fall by 6.6% between January and November 2018. Monthly lease prices for the Renault Zoe fell by 16% between June and November.
Between in the 12 months up to November 2018, the BMW i3 saw lease prices drop by 9.2%. The Volkswagen e-Golf saw prices drop 14% over the same period.
The Jaguar I-Pace saw the smallest price drop with a fall of only 1.7% since April 2018.
Jaguar I-PACE Electric Car (Image: T. Larkum)
Mark Turnbull, global head of consulting at Cap HPI, said: “Over the next few years the new price of BEVs will come down as more affordable ‘mainstream’ model ranges are introduced by many manufacturers.
“Used buyer perception will continue to improve as battery ranges are extended and charging times are reduced, and electric car technology proves to be robust and reliable. So subject to adequate investment in charging infrastructure, and positive government legislation, I believe their residual values will be stronger.
“A pincer movement of lower new prices and improved RVs will mean less depreciation in pound terms, and cheaper lease rates will speed up the adoption of this technology.”
Free charging for electric cars will be available for customers at some Tesco stores from next year.
Tesco, in partnership with Volkswagen, plans to install almost 2,500 charging bays at up to 600 stores by 2020.
A standard 7kW charger will be available for free, but drivers will have to pay for a faster service.
Customers will be able to leave their cars to charge while doing their shopping, which should give time for a “substantial” free charge, VW said.
VW e-Golf (Image: Volkswagen.co.uk)
How long it will take to fully replenish the battery will depend on the type of car. A company called Podpoint will build the charging facilities for VW and Tesco.
Volkswagen has two electric vehicles on the market in the UK, the e-Golf and the e-Up. It has sold about 1,350 of the cars since they went on sale four years ago, but has plans for a massive expansion.
By 2020 it wants to offer an electric version of all its models.
It is fair to say that the regular Volkswagen Golf is one of the best all-round buys – competitively priced when new and holding its value well. Does ditching an internal combustion engine make it a better day-to-day bet than a bespoke electric car?
Our car: Volkswagen e-Golf List price when new: £32,730 (excluding PICG grant) Price as tested: £35,490 (excluding PICG grant) Official fuel economy: n/a
November 13, 2018
Average consumption: 4.3 miles/kWh
This week, I thought I’d highlight two aspects of the e-Golf that have particularly caught my attention – one electrical, one mechanical.
The electrical has – perhaps surprisingly, for an electric vehicle – nothing to do with the e-Golf’s powertrain. No, what I’ve been particularly struck by, as the clocks have gone back and the nights have closed in, is the lighting system.
VW e-Golf (Image: Volkswagen.co.uk)
All e-Golfs, unlike regular Golfs, have LED headlights and C-shaped daytime running lights (DRLs) – and they’re very bright. LED lights are becoming increasingly commonplace on modern cars, filtering down model ranges and from premium marques to be found on mainstream cars.
Their greater brightness (compared with xenon lights) is a valuable safety feature, allowing a car to be seen from a greater distance and enabling the driver to see further ahead. In addition, they use less power than xenon lights, so are more efficient – an advantage for all cars, but a definite boon to an EV, where you want as much of the electrical energy as possible assigned to powering the car.
It’s noticeable how much brighter the e-Golf’s LED lights compared with those of oncoming cars and, allied to the DRLs, they improve the face of the car.
June was the second-best month all time for plug-in electric car sales in Europe with more than 38,000 units put on the road.
With year-over-year growth of 37% in June, market share jumped to 2.4% (2.2% for the first half of the year).
The total sales in the first six months nearly hit 185,000 (43% more than a year ago) and it’s expected that more than 400,000 is possible in all of 2018.
Ultra-low emission registrations up (Image: OLEV)
The top five best selling models in Europe – for the year are:
Nissan LEAF – 3,377 and 17,944 YTD
Renault ZOE – 3,425 and 17,016 YTD
BMW i3 – 2,002 and 11,301 YTD
Volkswagen e-Golf – 1,447 and 9,796 YTD
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – 2,174 and 9,662 YTD
Renault ZOE this time managed to beat Nissan LEAF and close the gap a little bit in the race for the best selling model.
As usual, the last month of the quarter brings some decent numbers from Tesla – 2,105 Model S and 1,829 Model X in June and 7,699 and 5,600, respectively for the year-to-date.
