5:49 am, July 31, 2011
There are always some who arrive early to the party – especially when it comes to new technology.
Manufacturers hope that by diving in first they can steal a march on their rivals and capitalise when the new-fangled idea really takes off.
And that’s pretty much what’s happening now with electric cars and the automotive industry.
The rush to be at the forefront of EV tech has begun and now consumers can buy relatively affordable, family-sized, emission-free vehicles.
Okay, so Tesla launched its Roadster some time ago, but at £90,000 and with only two seats it’s hardly practical.
Instead it’s Nissan and the Peugeot-Citroen- Mitsubishi alliance that offer buyers electrically- powered alternatives to family cars.
Nissan’s Leaf has already won some impressive accolades – it’s the current Car of the Year and added the World Car of the Year gong to its trophy cabinet soon afterwards.
With five seats, a range of 109 miles and impressive levels of kit, it’s certainly come out fighting on electric avenue. Most buyers will purchase on a lease at £399 a month, rather than the £25,990 asking price, which is after the government’s £5k grant has been factored in.
The iOn is the Peugeot-badged model that can also be bought in Mitsubishi iMiEV and Citroen C-Zero guises. It’s essentially the same car costing £28,115 after the government’s £5k bung. With a range of 93 miles it can’t go as far as the Nissan and it costs slightly more on lease at £415 a month.
To find out what emission-free motoring is really like, Car Dealer lived with both for a week. Here’s our take on the EV life.
James Baggott, editor…
I MUST admit I’ve been highly critical of electric cars and the start of my week with the Leaf did nothing to solve that. The plan for this test was a simple one: Book in electric cars, live with them for a week and see if they really are viable.
And by viable what I mean is try to find an answer to the question ‘is a 100-mile range really practical?’ Well, after being forced to leave the Leaf sat on my drive for the first four days of the week, my answer would be a negative. For each of those days my trip would total more than 100 miles and with no practical recharging points at any of the destinations, the Leaf was forced to languish at home and a fossil fuel-powered equivalent sought instead.
It wasn’t until the Friday of our test that I got the chance to get behind the wheel – but it was then that the car finally put a smile on my face. With a long Bank Holiday weekend ahead, I got the chance to use the Leaf as it was intended: Around town. Short hops to the shops and trips out to see friends with the family were all completed in the Leaf and it wasn’t long before I was trying to work out how to get one in my life. The Leaf really is great to drive.
The fact it makes no sound and all its 280Nm of torque is available instantly means it’s sprightly to drive and it’s extremely comfortable.
The thing you need to remember with electric cars is that they’re only suitable for certain types of buyers. Like a Lotus Elise isn’t practical for a family, or a Range Rover for a pensioner, a Leaf just won’t suit everyone. When you stop comparing it to ‘normal’ cars and start accepting it for what it is, you realise that for some it really does make complete sense.
Firstly there are the cost benefits. For just £2 of electricity it can travel 109 miles, owners don’t have to pay road tax or the congestion charge and EVs get free parking in increasing parts of the country. But the biggest benefit is to company car drivers – there is no Benefit in Kind taxation on EVs, so whereas a company car driver in a Ford Focus diesel will lose £4k out of their wages, the Leaf driver pays nothing. That’s a £4,000 pay rise!
But that doesn’t mean I’m 100 per cent sold. Although a Leaf makes perfect sense for some, it’s still inherently flawed in that it can only do 100 miles before needing an overnight recharge. And £25k – or £399 a month – is a lot to pay for a car that can’t do everything an £8k Kia Picanto can. For the Leaf to really make sense it needs to be half the price and have double the range. If that was the case Nissan wouldn’t be able to make Leafs fast enough.
James Batchelor, staff writer…
UNLIKE Mr Baggott, as soon as the man with the van dropped off the iOn I jumped into it like a shot, desperate to try it out. This was
the first time I had ever driven an electric car, and by spending a week with an EV I really did experience a rollercoaster of emotions.
Let’s start at the beginning: The start-up procedure. The iOn has been designed not to concern itself with futuristic features like keyless start and an ultra-modern gearbox, instead using a traditional key, and a rather basic auto gearbox with a stick. The whole arrangement looked and felt like a Vauxhall Cavalier circa 1982, but these ‘normal’ features only made the ‘un-normal’ driving experience seen even more extraordinary.
On start-up you’re met with a bong and a little light on the dash that says ‘Ready’. Slot the gearstick into ‘D’, take your foot off the brake, and you move seamlessly and silently away. Prod your foot on the throttle hard and you can feel the full force of the iOn’s powertrain – a 64bhp electric motor coupled to an 88-cell, 16kWh lithium ion battery pack, with 180Nm of torque on offer. Doesn’t sound much does it? But what you must remember is that power is available instantly, and with the single-speed gearbox, progress in the city is positively, well, electric.
Once I’d stopped messing around, the excitement turned into fretting. The car had been dropped off with a range of 60 miles – but a couple of quick getaways and the air-con blasting had taken its toll on the range – it had plummeted to 46. Turning the air-con off immediately pushed it back up to 58, and some stressful and careful driving meant that by the time I got home I had a range read-out of 65.
The term ‘range anxiety’ may sound ridiculous but once you have tried driving an EV with a journey of 25 miles to do and a plummeting range read-out, nothing focuses the mind more. By the middle of the week, the honeymoon period was over. While I admired the iOn’s simple instrument binnacle and astonishing turning circle, I disliked the roar from the skinny tyres and the daft looks I received.
But it’s the interior which really angered me. Apart from a bit of stick-on chrome, the driver is met by an unremitting sea of black plastic which turns to a bluer shade on the door cards.
It’s brittle, the steering wheel is horrible to hold, and I just couldn’t shake off the general feeling of being miserable while driving the iOn.
Peugeot may argue that the car we had was an early example, so it did without a leather steering wheel and gearknob, and better dashboard plastics, but even with the cars customers will be buying it’s hard to see where their money will be going. Peugeot would answer with the technology, but I’d rather save £3k and buy a Leaf – and I think most EV buyers will do the same.
