ᐅ BEV – Battery Electric Vehicle Experiences and Recommendations
Created on: 23 Jan 2025 15:14
T
Tolentino
Dear forum members,
I know this is a homebuilding forum, but relevant car forums tend to be either very brand-loyal or strongly critical of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Since I assume there is a significant overlap between homeowners and BEV owners, I’m posting my question here. I chose this subforum because it seemed somewhat related—discussing household technology felt off topic.
I’ll soon be returning my ZOE and am currently exploring options for a replacement. It should again be a small to compact car, with 80-90% urban driving and average daily distances of about 25 km (15.5 miles). Occasionally, I drive 40-50 km (25-31 miles) in the city (about once a month) and very rarely 180 km (112 miles) on highways and country roads.
Absolute exclusions:
Tesla, for ethical reasons
Vehicles with a new price over 50,000 EUR (approx. $53,000), because the financing rate would be too high
Less preferred:
VW Group cars
Obvious SUVs
Another ZOE
Models I am interested in:
Renault 5 (possibly too new and expensive)
Hyundai Kona Electric (this is my upper limit for SUV styling)
MG4
Opel Corsa-e (though it didn’t perform well in ADAC tests)
Mainly looking for personal experience reports.
So, please share your thoughts—thanks in advance!
I know this is a homebuilding forum, but relevant car forums tend to be either very brand-loyal or strongly critical of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Since I assume there is a significant overlap between homeowners and BEV owners, I’m posting my question here. I chose this subforum because it seemed somewhat related—discussing household technology felt off topic.
I’ll soon be returning my ZOE and am currently exploring options for a replacement. It should again be a small to compact car, with 80-90% urban driving and average daily distances of about 25 km (15.5 miles). Occasionally, I drive 40-50 km (25-31 miles) in the city (about once a month) and very rarely 180 km (112 miles) on highways and country roads.
Absolute exclusions:
Tesla, for ethical reasons
Vehicles with a new price over 50,000 EUR (approx. $53,000), because the financing rate would be too high
Less preferred:
VW Group cars
Obvious SUVs
Another ZOE
Models I am interested in:
Renault 5 (possibly too new and expensive)
Hyundai Kona Electric (this is my upper limit for SUV styling)
MG4
Opel Corsa-e (though it didn’t perform well in ADAC tests)
Mainly looking for personal experience reports.
So, please share your thoughts—thanks in advance!
Phew, no, that price is way too high for me. I’m currently looking at about half that amount.
So, the Ioniq 5 is off the list as well.
On Carwow, the MG 4 gets better ratings than the Kona Electric or ID.3. No idea why.
I still have to wait a bit to see what the ZOE dealer offers me as a follow-up vehicle.
He does a kind of used car “leasing” with imports from the Czech Republic. Officially, it’s financing, but he always takes the car back at the end of the term.
Lately, things have been a bit odd with him because the subsidy conditions for the ZOE changed shortly before, and the grant was canceled. So, he probably didn’t make any money with the ZOE through me. Since then, he hasn’t answered my emails.
Maybe he’s just not interested anymore. Although I think this way he’d at least have a chance to get back into profit with me.
I need to call him in the next few days and find out what’s going on.
So, the Ioniq 5 is off the list as well.
On Carwow, the MG 4 gets better ratings than the Kona Electric or ID.3. No idea why.
I still have to wait a bit to see what the ZOE dealer offers me as a follow-up vehicle.
He does a kind of used car “leasing” with imports from the Czech Republic. Officially, it’s financing, but he always takes the car back at the end of the term.
Lately, things have been a bit odd with him because the subsidy conditions for the ZOE changed shortly before, and the grant was canceled. So, he probably didn’t make any money with the ZOE through me. Since then, he hasn’t answered my emails.
Maybe he’s just not interested anymore. Although I think this way he’d at least have a chance to get back into profit with me.
I need to call him in the next few days and find out what’s going on.
W
wiltshire23 Jan 2025 23:29nordanney schrieb:
But please don’t buy an electric car!If you mean durability – it’s worth making some distinctions. I usually charge at home at 0.25C. This way, the battery lasts very, very long. Of course, if someone always charges at full power with 2C or more, the battery will naturally wear out faster.Tolentino schrieb:
Or for 25 EUR less, get an MG4 Luxury with 10,000 km/year and only 24 months lease, then see...The Toyota bZ4X (unfortunate name) is high-quality and available with an attractive leasing rate. With Chinese models, as well as Tesla, I lack trust that they handle collected data in a user-friendly way. It’s easy to forget that you’re buying a connected, always-on device that doesn’t just have GPS tracking, but also microphones and cameras, which you can’t control the activation of like on a smartphone.
N
nordanney24 Jan 2025 09:25wiltshire schrieb:
If you mean durability – it’s worth differentiating. I usually charge at home with 0.25C. That keeps the battery lasting very, very long. Of course, if you always charge at full power with 2C or more, the battery will naturally wear out faster. Not durability. I can estimate that quite well – I’ve already gone through over 2,000 charge cycles on my plug-in, which would equal around 750,000 km (470,000 miles) for a regular BEV.
I mean technological progress and depreciation (which is why e-car leasing is about five times more common than combustion engine leasing).
W
wiltshire24 Jan 2025 09:39nordanney schrieb:
I mean the technological progress and depreciation (which is why electric car leasing is five times more common than combustion engine leasing). The major trend in automotive development is the connectivity and integration of vehicles into people’s digital lives. Rapid technological obsolescence affects cars in this regard regardless of the type of propulsion. It becomes especially concerning when systems are no longer supported by software—and this is increasingly happening independently of the drive type. Considering the updates my last diesel BMWs (F31 and G31) received and how susceptible EGR systems are, I’m no longer so optimistic about the inherent value retention of combustion engines built today.
I am currently driving the Corsa-e, which will be returned at the end of the lease. The car itself is great, but the software is not so good.
The successor model is still undecided. I was considering the Hyundai Ioniq 5, but unfortunately, it is too small (I am quite tall). I have looked at the MG4, Hyundai Kona, VW ID.3, and I am seeing the Skoda Enyaq tomorrow. The MG4 is a matter of personal taste, and the driver assistance systems are reportedly not very reliable. My current favorite is the Enyaq.
The successor model is still undecided. I was considering the Hyundai Ioniq 5, but unfortunately, it is too small (I am quite tall). I have looked at the MG4, Hyundai Kona, VW ID.3, and I am seeing the Skoda Enyaq tomorrow. The MG4 is a matter of personal taste, and the driver assistance systems are reportedly not very reliable. My current favorite is the Enyaq.
Tolentino schrieb:
At the moment, I’m put off by the fact that I can only get it somewhat affordably with a maximum of 5,000 km/year (3,100 miles/year) and a 60-month term in the Urban Range Edition. And then I think I’d rather take the ID.3 in the 77 kWh version with V2H functionality for 20-30 EUR more. However, you shouldn’t overestimate V2H – currently, there are neither affordable wallboxes officially supporting it and approved by VW, nor should you underestimate how limited VW’s discharge cycles are (4,000 hours and/or max. 10,000 kWh). As it stands, it hardly makes sense overall.
Tolentino schrieb:
Or take an MG4 Luxury for 25 EUR less, with 10,000 km/year (6,200 miles/year) and just 24 months term, then see how it goes…
Ah, decision paradox at its finest. With MG, besides questions about data handling (and appearance/build quality, though that is subjective), I would primarily focus on the service aspect, especially when problems arise.
Although this example could be viewed negatively, my ID.4 had an issue with one of the cameras used for the 360-degree area view right from delivery. Because of that, the car was in the workshop at least five times, sometimes with the entire side taken apart, phone calls to Wolfsburg, experts brought in, until after about two years they finally fixed the problem (two pins on a cable were plugged in incorrectly).
You can probably either laugh about it or shake your head at why it took so long. On the other hand, they always provided loaner vehicles, called me themselves to ask if and when I could bring the car in because they wanted to try something else, and of course, everything was done free of charge. I would seriously doubt you can expect the same level of service from MG’s comparatively limited dealer network.