Latest news with #electriccar
Auto Express
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Auto Express
Car Deal of the Day: Super sci-fi Kia EV6 for an exceptional £260 per month
Star Trek styling with spacious cabin 265-mile range plus lightning-fast charging Only £260 per month The Kia EV6 is now more affordable to buy than ever thanks to the recent introduction of a new entry-level model, but if you'd rather lease the super sharp-looking, very spacious electric car, it's available from only £280 per month through the Auto Express Find A Car service. Advertisement - Article continues below That price is being offered by Milease through Auto Express, and is for the new Kia EV6 Air Standard Range. The two-year lease deal requires an initial payment of £3,414, followed by monthly payments of £260. Included in the offer is an annual mileage allowance of 5,000 miles per year, but if you have a longer commute or enjoy a road trip – which the EV6 is very good at – you can increase the limit to 8,000 miles a year for just £17 extra a month. Or you can stretch it to 10,000 miles per annum, and still only pay £288 per month. The EV6 feels very stable cruising on the motorway, and it's quiet inside, too, plus Kia's Lane Follow Assist 2.0 system helps make long journeys easier. But unlike some other electric family cars, this is a fun and enjoyable car to drive on some twisty roads. This may be the bog-standard EV6, yet it still comes generously equipped with dual 12.3-inch curved displays, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, LED lights all-round, 19-inch alloy wheels, a reversing camera, and smart cruise control with stop-and-go functionality. It also uses a 63kWh battery to provide up to 265 miles of range, and features the same type of 800-volt charging system as the £100k+ Porsche Taycan. This allows for a 10 to 80 per cent top-up in just 18 minutes, if you can find a 350kW DC ultra-rapid charger. The Car Deal of the Day selections we make are taken from our own Auto Express Find a Car deals service, which includes the best current offers from car dealers and leasing companies around the UK. Terms and conditions apply, while prices and offers are subject to change and limited availability. If this deal expires, you can find more top Kia EV6 leasing offers from leading providers on our Kia EV6 deals hub page… Check out the Kia EV6 Deal of the Day or take a look at our previous Car Deal of the Day selection here…
CTV News
3 days ago
- Automotive
- CTV News
Own an EV and going on a road trip this summer? Watch out for expensive charging fees
A new survey by J.D. Power found many Canadians are still not interested in purchasing an electric car with only 28 per cent saying the are 'very likely'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
JONATHAN BROCKLEBANK: A labyrinth of misery with QR codes, apps and sign-ins. Why I WON'T be joining the electric car revolution!
One weekend in February I booked a hire car for my May sojourn in Mallorca, paid my euros and thought no more about it for three months. I didn't think about it when I printed off my rental documents hours before my departure from Glasgow Airport two weeks ago. I didn't even think about it on the minibus between Palma Airport and the depot where you pick up your wheels. I thought about it only when the woman behind the desk informed me the car I was about to drive away was charged to 60 per cent and that I must return it with a similar charge or else incur financial pain. 'Charged to 60 per cent?' I repeated. 'Wait a second. Is this an electric car?' 'Sí señor, it say on your document – 'fully electric'.' Gosh, so it did. I admitted I had never driven one of these before, far less charged one. 'You have a phone, señor? Just like charging your phone.' Well, if nothing else, I thought, it would be learning experience. Who knows, five years from now I might own one of these babies. The Scottish Government would certainly think me a good boy if I did. So let this holiday be my electric car induction. It was easy to locate my ride in the car park. It was the one that looked like a spaceship. I got in and looked for the ignition. There wasn't one. I felt for the gearstick. Gone. Let's at least release the handbrake. Vanished. I stared at an alien array of buttons and protrusions around the steering wheel and at the touchscreen monitor behind it, spilling with unfathomable data and taking up almost half the width of the car. They might as well have rented me a helicopter. Right, soldier. First things first. Let's figure out how to make it go, get where we're going safely and worry about the rest later. A 60 per cent charge should be ample for a few days. Bags of time for a smart guy like you to crack electric motoring. And how hard could it be? There's a global push to get us into these things. It's not like the industry would set out to confound us with intractable challenges which might serve only to rekindle our passion for the petrol pump. Forty miles later, at my lodgings in San Telmo, the charge was down to 48 per cent. But no brooding on that today. You're here safely. You made the electric car go and you didn't crash into anything. Relax now. You're on holiday. I brooded. A fifth of my charge gone and I'd only just arrived. I needed to know I could plug this thing in – you know, like you do with a phone – before any balcony G&Ts could happen. Electric cars are terribly clever in their way. They know where all the public charging points are, and you can ask the satnav to take you to them. My car told me that the village of San Telmo was a charging desert. But here was one in Port Andratx, a 15-minute drive away. I set off and eventually found it. It was for customers of an upmarket sailing club. It bore the brand name Porsche. A Porsche was plugged into it. It was the wrong kind of charger anyway. You may recall decades ago there were two kinds of videotape: VHS and Betamax. It was chaos – a format war between technology competitors which offered the customer nothing but confusion and inconvenience. Lessons, you would think, have been learned. Nobody intent on saving the planet would be crazy enough to introduce rival electric vehicle charging formats which render half of them a non-starter for all users. Yup, you would think. My charge was down to 44 per cent. Chin up, here's another charging point ten minutes away in Camp De Mar. I drove there and never found it. Empty pavement where salvation should have been. I glanced at the dashboard: 42 per cent. On, then, to Peguera where another charger was showing on the satnav. There were, in fact, two – one the wrong format and one the right one. I hauled the charging cable out of the boot and studied the digital display on the charging point, which was blank. I tapped my bank card against what looked like a sensor and the screen sprang into life. 'Access denied,' it said. I scanned the QR code on the sticker attached to the machine. It took me to a website which sold cars. I Googled the company name on the charging point and downloaded its app. I logged in as a new customer. It asked me for my ID number. What ID number? I gave up, put the cable back in the boot and decided to head back to San Telmo for that G&T. The car wouldn't start. A computer screen nearly a yard long and nothing on it telling me why. It relented after half an hour and I returned to base uncharacteristically careworn for day one in Mallorca. Down, now, to 35 per cent. The evening was spent in research mode. Tomorrow was a new day. I'd be fresh, alert, informed and would rise to the challenge. Just wait and see, by lunchtime I'd be fully juiced and seeing the funny side of today. By lunchtime I was parked at yet another uncooperative charging point in yet another Mallorcan town, practically sobbing down the phone to the rental company. 'I'm at 25 per cent! I'm wasting all my charge driving around the island looking for charging points. Soon I won't have enough charge to get me back to Palma. 'Look, I'm begging you now, give me a petrol car…' QR codes, apps, impenetrable sign-ins, vehicle ID codes, personal ID codes, plug compatibility… I was done in. Do you know, there are places called petrol stations where you swing by, fill up, pay at the kiosk and drive off, no questions asked? Would it have taken a genius to make electric car charging a bit like that? Downside If customers must live with the downside of having to leave their car charging for hours – as opposed to the minute it takes to refuel – might there at least be an upside in user friendliness? Clear instructions on every charger for newcomers to the electric revolution, perhaps? A scanner that accepts all major debit and credit cards? Nope. You're on your own, kid. Now save the planet. On returning to Scotland I've sought out several charging points to see whether they offer the new user any more hope of success than the Spanish ones. They don't. 'Scan this QR code'; 'Download this app'. Enter our maddening labyrinth of misery. The car hire firm sorted me out on day three. I sucked up the financial pain that flowed from returning it with a 13 per cent charge. Its petrol replacement was a beauty. Twin exhaust. 'Vrrrooooomm,' said the accelerator. Driving back to San Telmo, I turned the music up. I put my shades on. I passed filling stations I could do business with. On, then, with the holiday.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Telegraph
The first electric sports car looks amazing but is spoilt by an unfinished feel
Our car: MG Cyberster GT List price when new: £59,995 Price as tested: £60,690 (Dynamic Red paint, £690) Official range: 276 miles (WLTP) Test range (best/worst): 170-200 miles Test efficiency: 2.6m/kWh The MG Cyberster is a pretty remarkable car. For a start, it's the first electric sports roadster (barring the original Tesla Roadster, which was an expensive niche product that sold in extremely small numbers) and, well, just look at it! It is outrageously lovely. Classic sports car proportions, sleek lines and dramatic upward-opening doors for proper attention-seeking impact. In the first few days, even with grotty British winter weather providing a less than glamorous backdrop, two people asked what it is, both being surprised to discover that it's Chinese-owned MG. Let's face it, MG is doing brilliantly with its electric cars, which remain some of the most popular in the UK and Europe. But that's typically because they're sensible, good value and have a long range; the Cyberster is a different proposition altogether. It's a car that you buy because you want it, not because it's a cheap company car. From the outside, especially in the Dynamic Red paint of our test car, it certainly looks the part. You can get the Cyberster with very sports car-like rear-wheel drive, while the top-specification GT has a bit more power and four-wheel drive. The car featured here is the latter, complete with 503bhp and a 0-62mph time of 3.2 seconds. But, straight line pace is one thing. And it's not even unusual these days, even quite humdrum electric cars providing sprightly acceleration – albeit the Cyberster GT's sprint time is impressive even by the slightly comical standards of the fastest accelerating EVs. The big question Since the hallowed GT badge is shorthand for grand touring, our main focus is on whether the Cyberster makes the grade in this role? What's it like when it comes to long drives in winter? Are the fancy doors really as much of a pain to live with as they look? Is it a car you can drive every day and still love it? Before any of that could be addressed, I wasn't even off the driveway before I had that sneaking feeling that the infotainment system was going to be my biggest woe. With a touchscreen along the centre of the dash for climate control and other interior functions, another above that for the navigation readout, a digital readout behind the wheel and then another touchscreen to the right of that for… showing you the weather? To find your nearest MG dealership? To… just annoy you? Odd. But the infotainment system does get better with familiarity – if only a bit. That screen to the right of the steering wheel really does seem entirely redundant, while the nav readout is hidden by your hand on the steering wheel, which is just plain bad design. But you get used to the settings layout in the central screen and Apple CarPlay is present (even if it is wired, rather than wireless, and not the most reliable in terms of the connection despite that). It's ultimately a case of getting used to a bad system in order to make it OK to live with. But you get used to it. Still, it's a poor effort – and MG knows it. Perhaps most importantly, it has proven that it can respond quickly to feedback – as it has done with the infotainment in the MG4 and other models. In other markets, the nav map appears on the larger, central screen lower down the console, which would make a lot of sense – maybe that improvement can be introduced here. Compelling looks Anyway, there's a lot to process about the MG. Infotainment aside, it's hugely compelling, so much so that I can't help but glance back at it when I walk away, while it's also a car that makes you feel delightfully smug to be seen in. Despite wintry weather during my test, I had the roof down a number of times and the wind protection is among the best I've experienced in any roadster. Even at motorway speeds, your hair is barely buffeted. Impressive. And refinement with the roof up is just fine, too, although the sound system could be a bit better. Other than the infotainment stuff, the daily grind in the Cyberster is not a grind at all, every journey feeling like an event. And that, surely, is the whole point. The doors Blimey, the doors are pretty cool, aren't they? I've had a couple of 'is it a Lamborghini?' queries, as I self-consciously slid into the MG with its electrically-controlled scissor doors. It doesn't get more attention-seeking than using your key to make them slide upwards to a full salute as you walk towards the car. I have also been pleasantly surprised by how little space they take up. I've managed to exit the MG in a couple of really tight spaces without damaging the doors (or injuring myself). In fact, I suspect they take up less room than a conventional front-hinged door, leaving plenty of room to drop and slide into the driver's seat, even when there's a car parked tightly alongside. But (and it's quite a big but…) the door action is sloooow... Slow to open. Slow to close. They also drip rainwater into your lap or onto the seat while they operate. And there's an issue with the sensor that's intended to prevent it from opening into something and causing damage – it will sense you standing next to the car waiting for the door to open, resulting in the door not opening. Which is more than a little annoying. To add insult to injury, on frosty mornings, the doors froze and refused to open. You can pre-set the car's climate control via the car's dedicated app, which does a fine job of defrosting the windows and warming the interior, but even then, the doors sometimes didn't defrost and remained stuck for a while. Don't get me wrong: the striking doors give the MG supercar-like levels of attention-grabbing kudos. But in practice, they are also often a total pain to live with. Winter touring Between being annoyed with the infotainment and the doors, the MG proves a great, feel-good tourer. The ride is good and the handling – while nothing that's going to worry Porsche – is confident and assured enough to satisfy an enthusiast driver. I've done a lot of motorway miles in the Cyberster, and it's a decent cruiser. I wish the driving seat dropped lower (you'll find it really hard to get along with the MG if you're over 6ft tall). Other than that, it's just dead easy. Good refinement, masses of power. What's not to like? In terms of the way it goes down the road, the MG is a fine car to spend time in. While it's an unlikely high mileage choice, the winter range at motorway speeds is around 170 miles, which is no surprise for a heavy, high-powered car. Take it easy and you'll see the range creep up towards 190 or even 200 miles in colder weather, warmer temperatures will see it nudging 230 miles. But that's still not ideal for a sports tourer; the potential range is one aspect of the MG that might make you ponder a used Porsche Taycan instead. Charging With 150kW charging potential, you can get a decent rapid charge, although the average in practice was 70-80kW. Most of my motorway journeys are about 150-200 miles and I can charge it fully at home before the journey, yet that still means I require a 10- or 15-minute charging stop during the longer journeys I typically do. I don't mind this, as often I want a quick break and a cup of tea. However, a trip to Yorkshire from the south coast – a 430-miles round trip – without the promise of charging at my destination suddenly made the MG feel like hard work. The journey eventually involved three lengthy charging stops plus a final, shorter one nearer home on the return journey. I'll say it again – the MG is unlikely to be the choice of high-mileage car drivers. Be prepared for regular stops if you're planning a touring holiday in Europe. Talking of which, the MG's boot impressed me. Its 249-litre volume doesn't sound much, but you can cram in a huge amount of stuff – and, unlike many convertibles, its volume isn't affected by the roof being up or down. Sliding into your scissor-door sports car in the supermarket car park, having just done The Big Shop, feels pretty darn good. The Telegraph verdict Because the Cyberster is essentially very good, it pains me to say that its infotainment system runs almost entirely on frustration, while for every compliment about the fancy doors, there will be an occasion when you curse them. It's so brave of MG to have dabbled in an aspirational class such as this, yet it has succeeded in producing an electric car that costs £60,000 yet has a kerbside presence that Maserati would be proud of. It really is a gorgeous, classy design, and it's a car that I like despite its faults. Yet it's a very hard car to recommend. There are just too many compromises for most people, myself included. But here's the thing; the Cyberster isn't finished. MG (and most brands controlled by Chinese manufacturers) are great at reacting quickly to critical feedback; the bones of the Cyberster are good. All MG needs to do is get its European and UK engineers to work on the driving position and the infotainment system. That alone would transform the appeal of the Cyberster which is, otherwise, pretty remarkable value for a car that stands out as much as something three or even four times the price. I really like the MG Cyberster. I'm very glad that it exists, but this is a car that feels like they simply forgot some key parts of its development. Finish it, MG. Then the ownership experience might just live up to the stunning looks.
Auto Car
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Auto Car
How Western car makers can hit 'China speed'
Renault believes it has already cracked China Speed – the new Twingo will take just 21 months to develop Close A senior member in the development team of a Chinese car maker told Autocar the story - on condition of anonymity - of when a storied German engineering consultancy visited earlier this year to offer their services. 'They told me we can cut vehicle development times from five years to three years and I said 'we can't work to those speeds''. He paused for effect. ''That electric car we picked you up in, we developed that in 18 months'.'
