EV Discussion thread

JKenH

This should be a big seller.

New 2023 MG4: 323-mile Extended Range arrives

Pricing and specification for the full MG4 lineup has now been revealed thanks to the launch of the range-topping £36,495 Extended Range version, which joins the SE Standard Range, SE Long Range, Trophy Long Range and the sporty XPower.

For the same money as the XPower you can get the Extended Range. As the name suggests it gets more range – up to 329 miles. That’s down to the larger 77kWh battery, while a 242bhp motor delivers a 0-62mph time of 6.5 seconds. Recharging the Extended range from 10-80 per cent takes 39 minutes. 

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mg/mg4/357426/new-2023-mg4-323-mile-extended-range-arrives

Grumpy_chap

JKenH said:

This should be a big seller.

New 2023 MG4: 323-mile Extended Range arrives

the range-topping £36,495 Extended Range version, 

Except, that's not a lot cheaper than TM3SR if you get your timing to purchase right in the quarterly cycle.
When I ordered my TM3LR in June, the SR was at £38k with 6k free supercharger miles.
Obviously, MG may be discounting also...

silverwhistle

Having just done a weekend return trip from near Portsmouth to near Catterick in my MG4 SE, the lower range one, I'm not sure I'd have saved that much time with a longer range car and certainly wouldn't pay for it. Even the prospect of longer (and faster?!) continental trips wouldn't change the cost benefit enough in favour of range as 'nice to have' is quite difficult to cost in and I'd not weight it highly. On longer range trips the human element becomes more important.

If I were younger I suspect I'd appreciate and benefit fromthe range more, and it can only be a good thing that the choice in the market is expanding so much.

CKhalvashi

Grumpy_chap said:

JKenH said:

This should be a big seller.

New 2023 MG4: 323-mile Extended Range arrives

the range-topping £36,495 Extended Range version, 

Except, that's not a lot cheaper than TM3SR if you get your timing to purchase right in the quarterly cycle.
When I ordered my TM3LR in June, the SR was at £38k with 6k free supercharger miles.
Obviously, MG may be discounting also...

MG heavily discount for NHS etc.

Their business discounting looked very competitive a few years ago also for purchase.

JKenH

Grumpy_chap said:

JKenH said:

This should be a big seller.

New 2023 MG4: 323-mile Extended Range arrives

the range-topping £36,495 Extended Range version, 

Except, that's not a lot cheaper than TM3SR if you get your timing to purchase right in the quarterly cycle.
When I ordered my TM3LR in June, the SR was at £38k with 6k free supercharger miles.
Obviously, MG may be discounting also...

Made me wonder how we attribute value for money with EVs? Is it purely about range/£ or do we rank some cars higher than others simply because of the brand image. I wouldn’t want to pay as much for a Ford as I would for a Merc or BMW even if it did the job just as well. That was the problem Ford had with the Mondeo. It was a great car with the wrong badge. MG we perceive as cheap and low quality because it is a Chinese brand and their ICE cars have never had great reviews, (although their EVs have) but where do we place Tesla in terms of desirability? 

Mercedes, BMW and Audi are perceived as premium brands because of the quality of materials, assembly and design, as well as ride/handling. Tesla majors on efficiency and performance/range for the money but not on any of the other criteria that are traditionally linked to premium cars. But does anybody care now? The TM3 has won awards such as best executive car so have we thrown the old metrics out the window? The TM3 is I believe bigger and faster than the MG4 so that makes the MG4 ER seem poor value relatively but am I being unkind if I suggest on quality metrics the TM3 and MG4 are similar. I have no first hand experience of either beyond sitting in a couple of Teslas belonging to friends. 

Given that EV buyers don’t seem to have the same prejudices about brands, can the MG4 ER now be considered a genuine rival to the TM3 (Standard range)? Or is there something particular about the TM3 that still makes it much more desirable?

michaels

I guess price now is often about pounds per month which depends as much on depreciation as it does on list price which is why the Mondeo in your example could cost as much as the supposed premium brand equivalents. I suspect that despite both being made in China, the tm3 can command a higher price from buyers than an equivalent spec mg4 but it is also a visibly larger vehicle. When the tm2 or whatever arrives it will presumably be priced in similar area to the mg4 currently is and I suspect the mg would need to see reductions to maintain dales if the Tesla is available in volume.

silvercar

OH was a previous BMW and Mercedes owner. His first EV orders were Jag and Audi, both ended up being cancelled due to long and extending delivery times. He reluctantly went for a T3, now he’s converted to only wanting a Tesla! He wouldn’t drive a Hyundai or MG, purely due to brand image. 

michaels

I guess part of the Tesla company valuation is that it is analogous to Apple.  People who would probably previously wanted to be seen sporting a £xk Rolex or Tissot or whatever would be happy to wear a much cheaper Apple watch.  Same with Tesla vs Mercedes

Martyn1981

silvercar said:

OH was a previous BMW and Mercedes owner. His first EV orders were Jag and Audi, both ended up being cancelled due to long and extending delivery times. He reluctantly went for a T3, now he’s converted to only wanting a Tesla! He wouldn’t drive a Hyundai or MG, purely due to brand image. 

Hopefully Tesla unlocking more of their superchargers will make more and more makes/models appealing. But their agressive pricing is certainly hard on European legacy auto.

I think Tesla have about 23(ish) UK stations unlocked, up from the original 14 a year or so ago.

Martyn1981

This vid made me laugh. I don't watch all of Electric Van Man's vids, but got into them watching his vids on his ASHP install and results.

I recently heard, during a list of small news items, that an EV had to be written off due to flooding damage. And I thought, what's the news, flooding can damage all types of vehicles, depending on the extent.

Fast forward a few days, and it turns out the media hype about this EV being written off was slightly wrong ....... it wasn't an EV!

Something has certainly gone crazee this year, in the UK, still loads of comments on international news and Youtube sites about the extent of negativity in the UK media at the moment. Strange world.

Electric Cars? Media Haven’t A Clue!