This week's EV bargain that I'm not buying

@fafy - even the first i3 back in 2013 had one pedal driving. That was years before even Tesla had it. BMW was very far ahead of the curve in electrification of vehicles at the time. Unfortunately the incoming BMW CEO during that era was a diesel fan and didn't believe in EVs. He almost drove BMW to the brink but it looks like they kicked him out just in time.

Fluence is an ideal city car for lots of short trips, extremely comfy even for 3 adults in the back. Very cheap to buy, reliable and costs near nothing to own and run. But range of them is very limited, think 60-80km max and they can't fast charge either

But of course if somehow you just hate the looks of it or something then you're not gonna buy it. Did you try a Leaf? Far bigger in the back than an eGolf. You still don't say your budget, makes it very hard to give advice.

The definition of one pedal driving is that if you lift off the accelerator, the car comes to a complete stop. Pretty much all BEV / PHEV / HEV have regen braking, but that doesn't count!

Sold now. Hope someone in here bought it? 2020 Model 3 in a nice colour for about €23-24k or so. Lot of car for the money...

It's simple: risk vs reward. The B class BEV out of warranty is a huge risk, as @sk8board rightly mentioned, a serious battery fault and the car is end of life (although the batteries will still have significant value then). That risk has to be rewarded. The price has to be sufficiently cheap for someone to be willing to take that risk

I think you got me completely wrong. I'd buy an out of warranty 2018 BMW 530e in a heartbeat. The battery is readily available from BMW and much cheaper again second hand on eBay or from a scrapyard. The replacement is an easy DIY job if you have a lift to take it out. Two men can lift the pack. As a matter of fact, I actually bought the full pack from a 2019 BMW 530e myself a few months ago from Kilcock dismantlers for €1200, took it apart, reconfigured it and fitted it to my '96 BMW 318tds (converted to electric) 😂

That's it there fitted to the "Red Arrow", all 9.135kWh of it 😁

In your case if your battery goes, I have no idea what BMW would charge to replace it but I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't have much more than a few grand left from €10k. Not many indies that would take that job on in Ireland but they are coming / growing as we all make the transition to electrified transport

My main point in this case was that the partnership between Tesla and Mercedes ended many years ago and afaik, Mercedes do not have any parts, nor can they get any. And the parts are not the same as with Teslas. These BEV B-class were produced in tiny numbers. All adding to a big risk but if you know what you are at and you are inventive enough to find a replacement part, then sure go for it.

Yep. It's all on my thread above. I got the car in a terrible state and spent quite some time and money getting it ready for the NCT. But when the car failed on structural failures (that I can't fix), I took out and sold the battery and charger that I had bought for it and I donated the car back to its maker, Damien Maguire, legend of EV conversions and well known in those circles all over the world. He is working very hard to get it back in shape again, subscribe to his channel for all the follow ups. The conversion playlist is also well worth your while:

Yep we have a few threads about taxi BEV alright. @Gumbo has posted about them a lot. Iirc you used to be able to get a brand new MG5 for €13k as a taxi driver. It is beyond me that there aren't any more. Guy in my estate is a taxi driver, and he just doesn't want to know about them, for the usual prejudicial reasons like the battery will be dead in 2 years costing €10k to replace, the range will drop from 300km to 100km within a year, they go on fire, can't use them in the rain, etc. Maybe he reads the sun or something 😂