Your EV place to be
After initial badge-bragging of initial Turbo and Turbo S buyers subsides, the 4S likely will make up the bulk of Taycan deliveries. Taycan 4S models, if we suspect they’ll follow Porsche’s pattern with the 911 4S, are less likely to be garage queens and more likely to actually be daily-driven.
While in America, the many positive attributes of the Tesla Model 3 are well known and documented, Europe is still growing accustomed to it. Sure, Model 3s are commonplace in the Netherlands or Norway, but in other markets, buyers are still unsure what to make of them (because Tesla is a relatively new brand with no track record on the Old Continent).
The first reviews of the Jaguar I-PACE came out last week and there’s a lot to digest. I won’t go through most of the information for the sake of repetition but when it was my turn this week to be in a group of 20 journalists to test the car, I noticed that I was one of the only folks with any EV experience.
I wouldn’t want to be all prosaic when assessing the technological triumph that the Hyundai Ioniq Electric is, but I have to tell you from the outset that it has the best auxiliary controls that I’ve experienced in any new car.
I’ve completed quite a few weeks now in my varied adventures in pure electric cars (so not hybrids that also have a diesel or petrol engine). I can report that I have just about been cured of the usual complaint of the electrolyte neophyte – “range anxiety”.
The question that normally arises when a manufacturer brings out an “all-new” model is: Is it any better than the old one? Surprisingly, given the £1bn plus it costs to develop a new car, the answer is sometimes “er, no”.
One hundred and twenty-four miles. That is the most important single figure you need to know about the Renault Zoe. That, in case you’d not guessed, is its range in normal use in colder weather. I can vouch for that, and I can also tell you that you’ll find it can go somewhat further if you keep your speed down to, say, 50mph (which of course oftentimes you have to, involuntarily, because of weight of traffic or speed limits).
This I had not expected. I am lined up next to a V8-engined BMW M3, 420bhp about to burst forth into its rear wheels, as we wait to be flagged off on a sprint along the longest straight at Brands Hatch. I am in a BMW of a different letter but the same number, an i3.