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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: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday July 29 2020, @01:32AM
Until charging times and stations improve, charging stations are pretty much a non-starter. What I've learned from owning a BEV is that what you really, really want is to be able to make a round trip without charging. Do all your charging at home, where's there's no bullcrap to deal with, like all available charging stations being occupied-- for hours because that's the kind of time it takes.
I've found charging stations that are turned off for the night (and it was of course night when I needed it), ones that have been permanently closed, and plenty of issues. You can't just plug in and get a charge, even at the so-called free stations. You can't simply swipe a credit card to pay for a charge, like you can at a gas pump. No, you have to set up accounts with half a dozen different networks. You need a special card, which takes a week to come in the mail. Or you need to install their app on your smart phone, and if you don't have or use a smart phone, or their card, you simply cannot get a charge, even if it is supposedly free. Even when you do have the account and the app, the charging station may be malfunctioning, and will blame the problem on your car.
One other thing is that charging stations along the route are nigh useless, only good if you've messed up and don't have enough juice left to reach your destination, in which case you will be stuck for only an hour or 2, instead of, say, a whole day. Only those very near or at the endpoints, or at long stops of at least an hour, are at all useful. There just plain aren't enough. Even in a major metropolis, there are many places that are over 2 miles from the nearest charging station. Forget about parking at the closest charging station and walking the last mile or two. Simply takes too damned long to walk that kind of distance, and American cities are quite hostile to walking.
You can double your effective range if there is a charging station at the other end and you're willing to take you chances with it. But if there's any problem, you will be stranded. Even if the other end is a friend or relative's home and they are willing to let you recharge, you need to watch for certain things, can't count on that going smoothly. Last time I tried that, I forgot to check that there was nothing else drawing power from the circuit my friend let me use. And so what happened, is that 15 minutes after I had plugged in, some appliance like a fridge turned on, and drew enough additional power to trip the circuit breaker. Was 3 hours before anyone noticed. So I had impose on my friend for an extra 3 hours to get enough charge to get back home.
Still another problem is incompatible charging stations. Tesla does their own thing. You can't charge a non-Tesla BEV at a Tesla charging station. Tesla thoughtfully provides their customers with adapters so that their Teslas can use any charging station. But they don't provide adapters for the opposite situation, to allow the owner of a Tesla charging station to charge non-Tesla BEVs. So much for getting a quick charge while I visited my relative who owns a Tesla.