Following on from various discussions with Exonian in other threads I thought I'd consolidate my thoughts in their own thread, instead of derailing others'.
I've long been pondering EVs and trying to judge whether to jump in now or wait for the rumoured (mostly battery) advancements which never seem to arrive. And recent events with chip shortages and resultant used car stock shortages means I've been offered silly money for my 2018 7.5 manual GTI as a trade in. Which has somewhat bought the issue to a head.
Here in Aus. lack of Federal Govt. support has meant a paucity of EV choices. If you rule out Tesla (I cannot put into words how much I detest the idea of everything operating though a tablet screen) and various truck-like SUV things, we're left with:
* Nissan Leaf (mid $50s OTR)
* Hyundai Ioniq ($52-$56k, depending on spec); or
* Mini Electric (low to high $60s, again depending on spec)
I've now test driven all three, and my brief thought are below:
Nissan Leaf: Old school interior appeals in terms of buttons and dials. However, they're not terribly well designed and presented, so not as user friendly as I'd hoped. Small, difficult to locate, read and use. Very high seating position - I noticed I was eyeball-to-eyeball with adjacent SUVs - so deceptively tall. Very soft throttle response with large movements required lead to a slightly sluggish feeling. Lack of steering wheel reach adjustment didn't bother me. Regenerative braking was well implemented and easy to use, after a brief period of acclimatisation. But the big knock on it was the ride, which bordered on old-school floaty. Hugely absorptive and comfy, but left both my wife and I a tad nauseous with it's slightly unchecked body movements. Which was a deal breaker. Scrap the Leaf.
Hyundai Ioniq: Note this is the older hatch, not the new Ioniq 5 (which is way too large for my preferences). By far the best balanced of the three in terms of ride comfort, driving enjoyment, utility and value. 290nm meant not quite the same push-you-back-in-the-seat shove as the Leaf or especially the Mini, but more than enough for me. Despite the very chubby (I think 60-series?) tyres, the steering and handling was very good. And the ride certainly streets ahead of the Leaf, IMO, with no float but a similarly immense level of impact absorption. The overall drive experience was very pleasant - sort of ultra smooth, wafty, comfortable but still quite sporty and enjoyable to drive. The interior is a bit generic Hyundai-dull, but the central screen is huge, the buttons similarly so, and usability streets ahead of VW's mk8 Golf offerings. I could definitely happily live with one of these.
Mini Electric: I loved it. Oh man, I loved it. Really fun to drive. Direct steering with decent feel. Immense and instant shove in the back, flat handling make it a hoot to drive. I also loved the quirky and very individual interior. A lovely place to sit. Seats were the best of the three, too - supportive and comfy. But the ride was a bit unrefined in general, and compared to the Leaf and Ioniq, terrible. Probably similar to my GTI in the DCC's Sport mode. I could probably happily live with it, though, for the immense fun in return. But the price.....sigh. For that money I'd want perfection. And I'm not sure I can bring myself to shell out ~$30k change over on a second car.
So some thinking to do. Whether to wait for the 2nd gen EVs to arrive, hoping the price of entry will be lower, and thereby offsetting the lower trade-in on my GTI once this chip and stock shortage is over?
The takeway, and major surprise for me, is that I actually prefer the EV driving experience to my manual GTI. There is something wonderfully addictive about the smoothness and torquiness (is that a word?). Stupidly high purchase prices aside here in Aus, I'd have one in a heartbeat.
