Tesla Model Y and Model 3 definitely have cheap interiors (I drive a 3). The big benefit of Tesla is the integrated, abundant and relatively cheap Supercharger network.
They’re also reintroducing the flagship Phaeton luxury saloon, Ferdinand Piech’s last pet project.
Yeah mine's a Shanghai car and it's noticeably nicer inside and less rattly/creaky than the US built loaner I was driving for a couple of weeks whilst mine was being repaired. It's still very spartan and built to a price though. They've managed to sell it as "minimalist chic" when in fact the reason it's minimalist and that there is only a single central screen and no switches is because that's the cheapest way to provide the functionality.
VW's strategy seems to have been to have a completely separate model line up and naming convention for their electric range. This may have made some sense if it was going to be a 20 or 30 year transition, but it's pretty clear that other than a few niches, pretty much all new cars are going to be EV only within a decade. Agree they have totally missed a trick, and it;s doubly odd as they did produce an eGolf which is actually very well regarded in contrast to the iD range to date.
The eGolf was that generation Golf but with batteries stuffed in. It's well regarded as that generation Golf was a well built, premium car. The subsequent Golf and ID3 both feel cheapened, with the move to everything on the screen being an obvious cost cutting measure.
It doesn't. Sunak and his team got the headlines they wanted by appealing to the pro-fossil fuel lobby. In the mobility industry funding for charging infrastructure is as yet unchanged (thankfully).
The German manufacturers such as Mercedes, BMW and Audi do very well with our "little island".
What would put me off from buying a used one is the £10,000 cost if the battery fails.
The iD3 when it was first released pre-covid was much more reasonably priced (I believe around £25k). once the chip shortage etc hit VW put the pricing up to insane levels, but still had a 1 year + order backlog, because they couldn't get the components to build many. They seem to still be struggling on that front. If you can sell every car you can produce at a high price, why not?
Didn't bother me when I bought my 2 year old Tesla. 8 year or 120,000 mile warranty on the battery and powertrain and most brands have something similar. As it happens I've just had the rear drive motor replaced by Tesla under warranty (circa £3k repair) without any hassle or argument whatsoever. I thought it was a wheel bearing issue but they said not. They loaned me another model 3 with free supercharging for the 2 weeks mine was off the road. No arguments at all and I didn't even need to utter the word "warranty", I just got a cost estimate of £0 to approve in the app for them to proceed, and then got an invoice discounted down to £0 when it was finished.
An ICE engine is seen as a more trusted technology than a EV battery.
If you buy a car such as a Tesla with warranty, you should fine.
Most cars or pretty new, lets see how reliable the batteries are as they age.
A ball park figure. Perhaps someone could give a more accurate price for a replacement.
I don't know but how often does that happen.
Plenty of old Teslas going around with only a little degradation.
Depends on the size of battery and the labour involved to swap it. Less than £10k, list Li ion prices are public and are fairly low nowadays.
More frequently than EV batteries failing.
The MG4 was released in 2022 and has a 7 year 80,000 mile warranty on the battery. It comes with a 51 or 64 kWh battery.
My BMW i3 is 7 years old and its battery health is sitting at 87%. Still one year of battery warranty left, and I only ever use rapid chargers, which are harder on the battery
What is the actual guarantee? That it won't be dead at 100,000 miles, or that the battery at that stage will still retain a stated percentage of its charge?