3 ms·

It would probably cost close to that range just for the battery, but it begs the question who this is for. If your budget is £7k there are plenty of used optio

It would probably cost close to that range just for the battery, but it begs the question who this is for. If your budget is £7k there are plenty of used options around that would involve sacrificing much less than this for about double the range (thinking early Leaf/Zoe/Ion). It’s neat, but it reminds me of the Twizy. Just too many compromises to still make sense.

nicoburns 4y ago
"you don't need to have any form of licence to drive one in France" I think that might answer your question. Also, you talk about sacrificing things. Which presumably means you consider the alternative to be a car. But this is much smaller than a car, and might appeal to people who don't own a car and don't want to.
andrepd 4y ago
> Just too many compromises to still make sense. A huge chunk of car journeys are done to move 1 person + limited cargo across less than 30km roundtrip. The sort of journeys that could be served by a e-bike or public transport, but absent infrastructure for both could at least be served by a small car.
HNDV 4y ago
> If your budget is £7k there are plenty of used options around that would involve sacrificing much less than this for about double the range (thinking early Leaf/Zoe/Ion). The Zoe is a 33 000 € car brand new. Cars must start somewhere before a used market show up to cheapen them further. This one will be even cheaper down the road once it appears in the used market. As for who uses it, I know plenty of people who own one to do things like small size deliveries, citroen sells a version of this car that doesn't have a passenger seat for the sake of more cargo capacity. It's a pretty nifty car to have as long as you mostly drive it within the city, where most streets don't allow you to go past 30 kilometer per hour. For city dwellers in Europe, it works plenty fine and better than cars that are too big for some of the parking spots you might have taken with a small one like the ami.
- djhworld 4y ago
  > The Zoe is a 33 000 € car brand new. The Zoe has been around since 2012, although you're probably want a model from 2015 onwards. There's a big used car market for Zoes out there. I get your point though, more modern EVs are only just coming onto the market now so it'll take a while for them to filter through.
masklinn 4y ago
So far it seems to be very popular as an alternative to buying a scooter for the kid, for parents with enough income. Especially with the £100/month plan. The nimbleness and ease of charge (the thing comes with what's essentially a hoover charging cord) make it rather convenient for city dwellers or close suburbanites. It's also much cheaper than license-free cars (Aixam, Chatenet, Ligier).
- Robotbeat 4y ago
  I think a lot of people who don’t have electric cars don’t realize that essentially every electric car can be charged with a “Hoover charging cord.”
  - masklinn 4y ago
    Charging a Model S over an american household plug takes 3 days.
    - csa 4y ago
      > Charging a Model S over an american household plug takes 3 days. … from zero to full. If you just want to top up the 30-40 miles that are driven in a day, then 10-12 hours overnight is fine with a regular plug. People ask me all the time about how long it takes me to charge my tesla. I tell them that it’s a different mentality than ICE cars: 1. Instead of a cycle of low/empty —> full —> low/empty, it’s a cycle of use —> top up when not using —> use. For most people, a regular wall outlet is fine. 2. If a regular wall outlet is used as the main charging source, then a supercharger may need to be used after long trips to top up. If you have days when you don’t drive much or at all (e.g., if you work from home or have a short commute), then even this can be skipped since you will eventually get full. 3. For road trips, something people seem to think requires long wait times, aim to keep the battery in approximately the 20-60% charge range. This allows for two hour recurring range with a margin for error while maximizing battery charge speed at super chargers. Typical charging time will be the amount of time it takes to go to the bathroom and get something to drink plus maybe a short stretch if those things go very fast. For me personally, bathroom and drink of some sort at a nearby Starbucks (which are frequently near superchargers) is almost perfect timing. 4. The only genuinely sucky thing about EV charging is road trips during peak travel times, especially holidays. The current infrastructure doesn’t handle peak demand well, but I think that will be fixed over time.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
recuter 4y ago
It is <€1500 for the battery and <$1000 for the motor/inverter. People have diy built higher capacity electric ducati-type sports bikes on YouTube for about the cost of this clown car. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGDhgAUeBL8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGDhgAUeBL8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxTZkSj_qV4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxTZkSj_qV4 Range 200 miles, top speed above 100mph, street legal all for $6000-7000 by two dudes in some garage who make it up as they go along..
genezeta 4y ago
> who this is for I've seen a few of these around my city. Also Twizy's and a bunch of 50cc ICE cars that you can drive with a moped licence. From my admittedly anecdotal information, it's mostly -90%- "rich kids". I mean, I don't know if they are rich, obviously, but they are teenagers in at least nice areas. I've even seen some of them around the tiny cars using them as a bit of status item. They don't need to carry much luggage, they don't need to carry more than 1 lucky friend / love interest, and they don't need to go very far or that many places.
whynotmaybe 4y ago
Family member own one, he permanently lost his driver license because of multiple dui but he can still move around the village with this
opportune 4y ago
To me the size is an advantage. Living in SF this would be easy to park and probably more maneuverable. A used car comes with maintenance costs, and in practice for this price range would probably be an ICE. Personally I would be comparing this more to a micro mobility device than a traditional vehicle. In which case it’s a couple times more expensive than a good e-bike but more convenient for errands

nicoburns 4y ago

"you don't need to have any form of licence to drive one in France" I think that might answer your question. Also, you talk about sacrificing things. Which presumably means you consider the alternative to be a car. But this is much smaller than a car, and might appeal to people who don't own a car and don't want to.

andrepd 4y ago

> Just too many compromises to still make sense. A huge chunk of car journeys are done to move 1 person + limited cargo across less than 30km roundtrip. The sort of journeys that could be served by a e-bike or public transport, but absent infrastructure for both could at least be served by a small car.

HNDV 4y ago

> If your budget is £7k there are plenty of used options around that would involve sacrificing much less than this for about double the range (thinking early Leaf/Zoe/Ion). The Zoe is a 33 000 € car brand new. Cars must start somewhere before a used market show up to cheapen them further. This one will be even cheaper down the road once it appears in the used market. As for who uses it, I know plenty of people who own one to do things like small size deliveries, citroen sells a version of this car that doesn't have a passenger seat for the sake of more cargo capacity. It's a pretty nifty car to have as long as you mostly drive it within the city, where most streets don't allow you to go past 30 kilometer per hour. For city dwellers in Europe, it works plenty fine and better than cars that are too big for some of the parking spots you might have taken with a small one like the ami.

djhworld 4y ago
> The Zoe is a 33 000 € car brand new. The Zoe has been around since 2012, although you're probably want a model from 2015 onwards. There's a big used car market for Zoes out there. I get your point though, more modern EVs are only just coming onto the market now so it'll take a while for them to filter through.

masklinn 4y ago

So far it seems to be very popular as an alternative to buying a scooter for the kid, for parents with enough income. Especially with the £100/month plan. The nimbleness and ease of charge (the thing comes with what's essentially a hoover charging cord) make it rather convenient for city dwellers or close suburbanites. It's also much cheaper than license-free cars (Aixam, Chatenet, Ligier).

Robotbeat 4y ago
I think a lot of people who don’t have electric cars don’t realize that essentially every electric car can be charged with a “Hoover charging cord.”
- masklinn 4y ago
  Charging a Model S over an american household plug takes 3 days.
  - csa 4y ago
    > Charging a Model S over an american household plug takes 3 days. … from zero to full. If you just want to top up the 30-40 miles that are driven in a day, then 10-12 hours overnight is fine with a regular plug. People ask me all the time about how long it takes me to charge my tesla. I tell them that it’s a different mentality than ICE cars: 1. Instead of a cycle of low/empty —> full —> low/empty, it’s a cycle of use —> top up when not using —> use. For most people, a regular wall outlet is fine. 2. If a regular wall outlet is used as the main charging source, then a supercharger may need to be used after long trips to top up. If you have days when you don’t drive much or at all (e.g., if you work from home or have a short commute), then even this can be skipped since you will eventually get full. 3. For road trips, something people seem to think requires long wait times, aim to keep the battery in approximately the 20-60% charge range. This allows for two hour recurring range with a margin for error while maximizing battery charge speed at super chargers. Typical charging time will be the amount of time it takes to go to the bathroom and get something to drink plus maybe a short stretch if those things go very fast. For me personally, bathroom and drink of some sort at a nearby Starbucks (which are frequently near superchargers) is almost perfect timing. 4. The only genuinely sucky thing about EV charging is road trips during peak travel times, especially holidays. The current infrastructure doesn’t handle peak demand well, but I think that will be fixed over time.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

recuter 4y ago

It is <€1500 for the battery and <$1000 for the motor/inverter. People have diy built higher capacity electric ducati-type sports bikes on YouTube for about the cost of this clown car. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGDhgAUeBL8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGDhgAUeBL8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxTZkSj_qV4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxTZkSj_qV4 Range 200 miles, top speed above 100mph, street legal all for $6000-7000 by two dudes in some garage who make it up as they go along..

genezeta 4y ago

> who this is for I've seen a few of these around my city. Also Twizy's and a bunch of 50cc ICE cars that you can drive with a moped licence. From my admittedly anecdotal information, it's mostly -90%- "rich kids". I mean, I don't know if they are rich, obviously, but they are teenagers in at least nice areas. I've even seen some of them around the tiny cars using them as a bit of status item. They don't need to carry much luggage, they don't need to carry more than 1 lucky friend / love interest, and they don't need to go very far or that many places.

whynotmaybe 4y ago

Family member own one, he permanently lost his driver license because of multiple dui but he can still move around the village with this

opportune 4y ago

To me the size is an advantage. Living in SF this would be easy to park and probably more maneuverable. A used car comes with maintenance costs, and in practice for this price range would probably be an ICE. Personally I would be comparing this more to a micro mobility device than a traditional vehicle. In which case it’s a couple times more expensive than a good e-bike but more convenient for errands