I lived for 3 years with a 100 mile range EV as my only car. Very rarely did I need more range than that. When I did I just rented a car for $40/day. When I upgraded to a 220 mile range car it felt like infinite range. I was able to charge at home, though, so it was much easier to deal with.
It’s a citroen though. They’re not exactly known for making expensive cars and batteries are still somewhat expensive. Maybe they could have a little bit more range on a dedicated EV platform through weight savings, better aero, etc, but until they still produce ICE vehicles too, it costs extra to develop two platforms and the factories would have to have different tooling likely.
They claim 320 km range for the electric version of the C3 and that only has a 44 kWh battery, so that seems like excellent efficiency to me actually. Many of the bigger, more expensive EVs have 80-100 kWh battery packs and they usually don’t get 2-2.5x the range of the C3.
I’m still on ICE vehicles myself, long story, but I can’t afford anything particularly new myself and can’t get a lease or anything for the foreseeable future because I got burnt hard financially for believing my ex when she said she was on the pill. But when I do get an EV (and it’ll likely be a used and depreciated luxury one because that’s how I’ve always preferred my vehicles, I’m driving a 1800 EUR Audi currently), the deciding factor for me, besides comfort, will be whether it has a heat pump or not. Early Teslas and many other EVs suffered huge range loss in the winter in colder climates, but when an EV has a heat pump, it’s much more efficient to heat up on a cold winter morning, so the range loss is much less noticeable.
Budget EVs, even from expensive manufacturers (looking at you, Q4 E-Tron!), don’t usually bother with those. IMO even 300 km of range can be okay if the charging network is robust (which it pretty much is these days in my country), but if you lose 50% of your range in the winter, it’s not. So where I live, the heat pump matters much more than dedicated vs shared platform, and even more than the battery size to some degree.
Oh, also, another bonus point to shared platforms: Shared parts.
Example: Before Mercedes did their dedicated EV platform, they had the EQC as their first mainstream EV. Electric version of the GLC class, which itself is a crossover version of the C-Class. Which shares some parts with the E-class. Which is also the basis for the CLS class. That’s what, 5 very different models? Nearly 10 if you count all body styles of each model. But all share the same wheel bearings, same strut mounts, control arms, etc. Meaning when your EV’s suspension components wear down (which it will, because it’s heavy and all cars get wear), you get decent aftermarket parts availability since the ICE vehicles your car shares parts with are way more common. I go on the parts catalog to find same parts for the EQE (dedicated EV platform shared only with the EQS) and I can’t find aftermarket parts for a lot of common wear items. No front control arms whatsoever, only rears which they managed to use the ones from the S-Class for their EV platform.
When ICE vehicles are dead for good, it’ll make more sense to make dedicated EV platforms, but for now, the shared ones seem to be the best option in terms of cost to design, manufacture and for the owner to maintain.
Most European EV’s look like real cars too.
Some are even the same car available as ICE or EV
…which usually makes them worse because they need to design them for both cases.
Yeah well if anyone’s throwing away one of these worse EVs, just tell me and I’ll get it off their hands
…if it has enough range to get you home.
400 km or so is typical for shared platform BEVs, even more for newer models
The main issue with the older ones is slower charging but that’s not because of the platform, it’s because of when they were designed.
the new citroen i was eyeing gets like 260, and that’s probably ideal conditions.
I lived for 3 years with a 100 mile range EV as my only car. Very rarely did I need more range than that. When I did I just rented a car for $40/day. When I upgraded to a 220 mile range car it felt like infinite range. I was able to charge at home, though, so it was much easier to deal with.
It’s a citroen though. They’re not exactly known for making expensive cars and batteries are still somewhat expensive. Maybe they could have a little bit more range on a dedicated EV platform through weight savings, better aero, etc, but until they still produce ICE vehicles too, it costs extra to develop two platforms and the factories would have to have different tooling likely.
They claim 320 km range for the electric version of the C3 and that only has a 44 kWh battery, so that seems like excellent efficiency to me actually. Many of the bigger, more expensive EVs have 80-100 kWh battery packs and they usually don’t get 2-2.5x the range of the C3.
In the real world, seems it’s more like 250 though but this is also a city driving vehicle, not a dedicated highway cruiser. With the C4 he got about 300 km, at 90 km/h.
A Polestar 3 also has an ICE/BEV shared platform (Volvo/Geely SPA2, also used in XC90), but can do 400 km at 120 km/h and 570 at 90 km/h, but it’s also a much more expensive vehicle with a bigger battery.
I’m still on ICE vehicles myself, long story, but I can’t afford anything particularly new myself and can’t get a lease or anything for the foreseeable future because I got burnt hard financially for believing my ex when she said she was on the pill. But when I do get an EV (and it’ll likely be a used and depreciated luxury one because that’s how I’ve always preferred my vehicles, I’m driving a 1800 EUR Audi currently), the deciding factor for me, besides comfort, will be whether it has a heat pump or not. Early Teslas and many other EVs suffered huge range loss in the winter in colder climates, but when an EV has a heat pump, it’s much more efficient to heat up on a cold winter morning, so the range loss is much less noticeable.
Budget EVs, even from expensive manufacturers (looking at you, Q4 E-Tron!), don’t usually bother with those. IMO even 300 km of range can be okay if the charging network is robust (which it pretty much is these days in my country), but if you lose 50% of your range in the winter, it’s not. So where I live, the heat pump matters much more than dedicated vs shared platform, and even more than the battery size to some degree.
Oh, also, another bonus point to shared platforms: Shared parts.
Example: Before Mercedes did their dedicated EV platform, they had the EQC as their first mainstream EV. Electric version of the GLC class, which itself is a crossover version of the C-Class. Which shares some parts with the E-class. Which is also the basis for the CLS class. That’s what, 5 very different models? Nearly 10 if you count all body styles of each model. But all share the same wheel bearings, same strut mounts, control arms, etc. Meaning when your EV’s suspension components wear down (which it will, because it’s heavy and all cars get wear), you get decent aftermarket parts availability since the ICE vehicles your car shares parts with are way more common. I go on the parts catalog to find same parts for the EQE (dedicated EV platform shared only with the EQS) and I can’t find aftermarket parts for a lot of common wear items. No front control arms whatsoever, only rears which they managed to use the ones from the S-Class for their EV platform.
When ICE vehicles are dead for good, it’ll make more sense to make dedicated EV platforms, but for now, the shared ones seem to be the best option in terms of cost to design, manufacture and for the owner to maintain.
there’s a long weekend coming up
not for me :(
You’re still welcome to celebrate Italy’s Republic Day
Which Republic is this one for?