There are long lead times for a lot of cars at present due to chip shortages. I ordered a car the first week of May and I don’t know when we will get it. Mad lad ordered his at the same time and it is listed as being in production still. I hope we will have ours by mid August but who knows.
I found dealers reasonably responsive in our part of the world. The South East.
I wouldnt hold your breath for having a new ID.3 in your hands by Novemeber, particularly since you are only starting the process with the dealer now. Unless you were buying one from dealer stock, like an ex-demo, which wont likely be anywhere near €30k as they will be high-spec.
If budget is an issue you could wait until the shorter range version comes in. That should be under €30k, but there are no details on its price/spec yet. Likely to be 2022.
Saw that video, recognised a lot of the roads he drove on. Must have been made a while ago, temperatures were quite low on the car thermometer. Also I don't remember him saying what the total mileage was that he did, but he did mention in the comments that he did a bit of driving around as well. Should be a very easy trip with the milder weather, no need for any hypermiling. And what was the giving out about the regen?
Hi,
Still debating whether an EV is for me or not and would appreciate some feeback on the following 'typical/needed' scenario:
Commute from Galway to Limerick and back again, so ~200km round, includes say 50-70km of motorway, possibly stay the night in Limerick, and ideally charge at work when I arrive but impossible to guarantee. I will have a home charger and am okay with a 20min rest stop to charge, say a circle K in Limerick/Shannon. But I can see myself in wet winter just wanting to be home asap.
What I am worried is that my life will become a constant search/ anixety for charge - or worse out at 7pm in the evening to use work charger and hanging there for a few hours cause I have an EV., then I read don't charge to 100% and don't let it drop below 20 at which point 60% of the quoted 350km isnt ideal. I am thinking about a Family 58Kwhr, zero kids and mainly just me.
Did the same yesterday and same result, in production but no more info yet. I ordered mid May with production due first week July (model year 2022)
He doesnt understand regen!
He said he was trying to eek out more miles and do hypermiling and was trying to force more regen, which is not what he should have been doing at all. The idea is to let the car coast if you want to go further. And he was flicking between B and D continuously, when all he had to do was let the car figure out the regen for him or just use the brake pedal and that will invoke it.... continuously flicking between B and D was ridiculous.
By forcing regen he was actually make it worse... but thats Bob!
Good luck pointing that out to him. He can't take any kind of criticism at all, even the constructive variety.
I thought the regen bit was strange too. I only drove the car for a few hours but figured out how it worked fairly quickly!
The 58kWh ID.3 wont have an issue with that 200km round trip all year round. No stops or destination charging required. Just charge at home and off you go.
The advice about <20% and 100% are only to not leave the car in those states for long periods of time.... like days on end. Having the car fully charged to 100% at 7am for your commute to Limerick at 7:30am is perfectly fine and acceptable. No issue with driving the car down to <10% either... just dont leave it in that state for days... charge it up that night.
It's about 4-ish months at the moment due to a multitude of factors - high demand, supply constraints and shipping delays. Honestly though, if you're waiting a month for a test drive - go to another dealer. I assume it might be because the dealer knows what the delay is like and doesn't want the hassle (especially with trade-ins or not using PCP). I went to three different ones and was offered a test-drive within 24 hours.
Price list wise, best to check the brochure as that'll break down prices a bit more.
the one I bought at the weekend "was in production" they made it sound like we would have it by the end of Aug, Ill assume he was being honest
I saw your comment on the video.
When he was on the way home it looked like he was driving on motorway but he hardly bypassed Enniscothy on the way to Carlow as it adds a decent distance onto the journey?
He really should have shown that the car was 100% at the start and then the trip computer at the end.
I find that with a lot of Bobs EV videos. It's like he doesn't spend 10-20 minutes becoming familiar with an EV before he gets in and drives and then just complains about silly things.
Its why I prefer Nobby's videos. At least he seems familiar with the general layout and operation of most EVs.
Thanks, literally was thinking will the headlights at night leave me stuck on the motorway and will I need a jacket since I can't use the A/C - stupid things but having never done a distance or lived with an EV im clueless. The dealer also agreed with you, once you can charge at home that 200k is not an issue, but you will need to charge at home. I am just worried I am spending a ton on something that will annoy me in my commute all for the sake of 'shiny/new'
He does make a point of saying that he doesnt review/treat EV's as a special case. He wants to sit in and just drive like he would an ICE car... which is a fair point if we expect mass adoption but at the same time he is a self styled "expert car reviewer" so it does look poorly on him when he doesnt seem to understand some basics.
Nothwithstanding that, he did give it a glowing review!
Don't think you will be able to get a straight answer regarding lead times, seems to vary a lot and that is not just for cars. Don't know where you are located but we certainly had no problem getting a test drive and the dealer currently has life, style and family models listed on there website.
Granted these are all above the 30k. Are you looking to do a straight purchase? The current 0% finance makes this a good option at the minute.
Recently had the chance to sit in a Life base model and a Family model, and saw Moonstone grey colour and stonewashed blue, nothing major but on the off chance anyone wants to ask about the feel of either model.
No, fear not. It will be a pleasure to drive that 200km's. Adaptive cruise control on and relax! :)
On the topic of lights, radio, wipers, a/c.... they play no part really in the range of the car. They use so little power that you wouldnt notice the difference whether they are on or off.
What does significantly affect range are... wet roads, high speed and cabin heating (not cooling).
Not much you can do about wet roads.
You wont have an issue with high speed on your 200km commute... drive at whatever speed you wish really as its well within the cars ability all year round.
Cabin heating can be counteracted by pre-heating the cabin at home while its plugged in. Again, not really an issue for you on your daily drive as you wont be short on range but if, for instance, you were driving somewhere else (e.g. Dublin) and you were going to be close to the range of the car it would make sense to pre-heat the cabin at home so that less of the cars battery would be used to heat the cabin while on the road.... plus its nice to get into a warm car while your neighbors are out with their ice scrapers!
Had to make use of the emergency charge cable release when trying to use the 50kw at Galway Plaza. Plugged cable in and could not initiate charge and light went red and nothing would release it. Phoned Ecars with no joy, locked/unlocked car no joy and had to resort to opening the little boot lining to find the release cable. Charger then promptly went off line on the app so seems to have been an issue somewhere.
For those ever needing to do same - On the right hand side of the boot there is a little square of the liner fabric pre-cut with a little plastic tag on it that needs to be pulled to gain access to the release handle which is a yellow coloured cable inside.
Current state of play appears to be:
I'd like a MY2022 Business. Have been offered MY2021 Business models from two separate dealers, neither of which would budge from the MY2022 price...
I've had a charge cable "locked in" before like that, but a double unlock (not a lock/unlock) on the fob did the trick. Did you try that?
tried that alright, no joy this time although it had worked before.
We have a car we'd either like to trade in or sell privately first (circa 8/9k) and then are looking at a 20k loan and a few grand from savings, but since these savings are earmarked for upcoming mat leave hoping to limit it to around 30k. Sounds like I've been a bit naive about lead times etc. We could go finance if it made more sense: were looking at a 6% APR loan, don't like the idea of 'bubble payments' or hire purchase tbh.
We basically want a family car with enough range to do Galway/Belfast on one charge and fit two car seats and usually child paraphernalia without being a massive 4x4. Other option is a second hand e-Kona or e-Niro, or maybe even the estate MG, but the first two also seem out of budget and then there's warranty issues second hand, and the third gets mixed enough reviews.
Also, I see from the spec the rear camera is only in top spec of the id3: is there any way to retrospectively add one? We live down an awkward lane with increasing number of kids out playing and blind spots, it would be really reassuring to have one but they don't seem to be as standard in any cars.
For MY2022, all specs have rear camera save: Life (base spec) and Style.
With two children if I were going ev for our sole car I’d look at e-Niro or ID.4. 0% available on Kia now too and they have cars in stock.
Collected my id3 last week and love it. It's really fun to drive and I do look forward to getting into the car- and I'm not usually a car person. I've been following this thread for the last few months so thanks to all the posters.
I've done quite a bit of driving and really impressed with the range even on motorways. To the poster above who is querying the 200km range having had the car for a week I'd be saying it will easily do that. I do something similar about twice a week for work and while I've been off work for the last few weeks i now gave no worries based on the last few days.
Thought the play/pause stuff was supposed to only be for 1st models.
VW Wexford said they could supply and fit a VW canera for €680 that’d be just like the factory one. But that with all the sensors and park pilot there’s no need. The sensors remove blind spots
How are people finding motorway driving (120kph ), does it eat into range much?
That's actually tempting me at the minute. The 0% is on HP not PCP but they have cars available immediately.
VW stock shortage is a problem, and their dealer service is absolutely disgusting.
Your dealer service has been bad but I don't think many of the rest of us has had any problems.
My guy was excellent from day one and I'll definitely be talking to him again in three years time.
