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Last week Monday VW opened up its pre-orders list for the ID.3, its first all-electric car built on its MEB platform. A week later, and 37,000 customers have put €1000 [~1,176 USD] in advance already.
There are a couple of reasons for the apparent enthusiasm. First the range, going from an official 330 km [~200 mi] (45kWh battery) standard range over 420 km [~250 mi] (58kWh) medium to 550 km [~330 mi] (77kWh) for the long range battery. Practical range is estimated at 260, 330 and 430 km. [~156, ~200, and ~260 mi],
Second the price. The standard version comes in at €21,000 [~24,700 USD] in Germany (€30,000 [~35,300 USD] list price, €9,000 [~10,600 USD] subsidy). Medium range has a list price of €36,000 [~42,300 USD], for the maximum range the price is not yet known, but below €50,000 [~58,800 USD].
The car is rear-wheel driven by an 150kW motor, with top speed limited at 160 km/h [~100 mph]. Torque is 310Nm, delivering 0-60 kph [~37 mph] in 3.7 seconds (1st version; the standard version 9 seconds).
No talk about autonomous driving though: only lane assist and adaptive cruise control are provided.
Delivery of the car starts in September. There are no plans to bring the ID.3 to the US. Volkswagen said it is on track to deliver 70,000 ID.3's by year's end, and an additional 30,000 upcoming ID.4 SUVs along with that. Tesla, in contrast, sold more than 90,000 of its cars last quarter alone.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday July 29 2020, @12:58AM
I bought a BEV, a used one with very limited range. I've heard too many horror stories about the slimy used car salesperson selling lemons disguised as cherries, I needed something in a hurry, and I didn't want to spend a lot of time and effort checking out used ICE cars to make sure they didn't have some major problem that was being hidden, or maybe was simply unknown because no one checked. I felt that the much simpler design of a BEV meant a lot less potential trouble. The car would not start burning oil or leaking transmission fluid after 1000 miles because the temporary treatment to conceal the problem wore off. The BEV wasn't going to break down on me 500 miles later and leave me stranded.
Oh, and the car I replaced? A gas burner-- a mid 1990s Chevy Lumina that was notorious for a particular problem. The car was running great, and then one day it just started leaking antifreeze. It wasn't a simple problem of a hose going bad, no. What happened is that the engine had warped enough that the head gasket couldn't hold. The engine was not repairable. Would have had to get another engine, and there was no telling whether a replacement might develop the same problem. I hear that happened a lot. Was a design issue.