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Mustang E

Just been in an online chat with Polestar, they don’t do part ex, they don’t do PCP and the nearest car to drive is in London. I am assuming they don’t want to sell many.
 
I think the Polestar 2 is my favourite, for now, but I'm put off by the apparent inefficiency. Figures seem to suggest it achieves around 2.5 miles/kWh, where most are managing >3. Not sure whether that's just poor energy management software, and thus might get fixed by a mid-life update, or whether it's more fundamental to the engineering choices made.
I get about 4 or so on the i3s, but it's lighter.
 
Yes, small cars like the i3 or Zoe will do better because they are lighter, but the bigger cars, this side of a Taycan, are usually >3.
 
I think the Polestar 2 is my favourite, for now, but I'm put off by the apparent inefficiency. Figures seem to suggest it achieves around 2.5 miles/kWh, where most are managing >3. Not sure whether that's just poor energy management software, and thus might get fixed by a mid-life update, or whether it's more fundamental to the engineering choices made.

I’ll check mine but that sounds about right. Bear in mind that nearly all of the Polestars on the road just now are the dual motor 400 horsepower ones and it is very ‘difficult’ to drive those without testing the acceleration! A recent update in the software looks to have improved management by a few percent, more so in the 2022 cars that have a heater for the batteries.
 
Just been in an online chat with Polestar, they don’t do part ex, they don’t do PCP and the nearest car to drive is in London. I am assuming they don’t want to sell many.

I assume they Polestar have more demand than cars atm. They can pick their customers, even if it's not a good way to treat customers. Being part of Volvo, I'm surprised by them acting like that. It does nothing to build a great future customer relationship for the next car and the one after that, especially when the car market returns to normal.

What's the problem in keeping the i3 and buying a pram to fit in the boot? Or is it the lack of range?
 
The boot in the i3s is big enough to transport a labradoodle and a golden doodle, so should be okay for a compact pram. We get our boys in the back easily enough - one is now 6' tall - but the problem is that, as a family of 4 plus two dogs, there's no space for anything else. I assume it's a similar concern for the OP. Range has never really been an issue for us; if we're going further afield we take the camper.
 
I think the Polestar 2 is my favourite, for now, but I'm put off by the apparent inefficiency. Figures seem to suggest it achieves around 2.5 miles/kWh, where most are managing >3. Not sure whether that's just poor energy management software, and thus might get fixed by a mid-life update, or whether it's more fundamental to the engineering choices made.

Or perhaps just more honest?
 
Being part of Volvo, I'm surprised by them acting like that

at our last car purchase just over 3 years ago. I booked an appointment at the Volvo dealer to test drive an XC60. The dealership were rude, disinterested and didn't do anything I asked of them. Worse dealership experience ever. Glad I went back to Porsche
 
I’ll check mine but that sounds about right. Bear in mind that nearly all of the Polestars on the road just now are the dual motor 400 horsepower ones and it is very ‘difficult’ to drive those without testing the acceleration! A recent update in the software looks to have improved management by a few percent, more so in the 2022 cars that have a heater for the batteries.

Just checked, 1500 miles (probably 30% countryside/urban, rest motorway/dual carriageway) at 2.9 miles per kWh.

We are delighted with the car, but I wouldn’t want it (or any fully electric car) if I was still working and doing frequent longer journeys. I have a relative who does just that and after 8 months he now hires a petrol car for any journey where there is any doubt about being able to charge quickly and with options in case a charger isn’t working (all too frequent).
 
at our last car purchase just over 3 years ago. I booked an appointment at the Volvo dealer to test drive an XC60. The dealership were rude, disinterested and didn't do anything I asked of them. Worse dealership experience ever. Glad I went back to Porsche

Perhaps it's that dealer, or you. My Father has bought 2 Volvo's from 2 different Volvo dealers and both were excellent to deal with. He had an out of warranty issue (leaking front windscreen) with his first Volvo and his local dealer got the windscreen replaced free of charge. I was pleasantly surprised by that - obviously a known manufacture issue, but good on Volvo to sort it without quibble.
 
Our i3 is coming up to 5 years old an just a little small to be the daily driver. It hasn’t put a foot wrong. We are not getting much more than 120 miles per charge and my wife is not a fast driver. The Mustang seems to have a real world 260-270 with the headline figure of 335. I am torn between the RWD 379 but slower version or the 335 AWD fairly quick model. Much to my surprise my wife is leaning toward the ‘Orange’ paint. It’s really her car so her choice :(
 
Our i3 is coming up to 5 years old an just a little small to be the daily driver. It hasn’t put a foot wrong. We are not getting much more than 120 miles per charge and my wife is not a fast driver. The Mustang seems to have a real world 260-270 with the headline figure of 335. I am torn between the RWD 379 but slower version or the 335 AWD fairly quick model. Much to my surprise my wife is leaning toward the ‘Orange’ paint. It’s really her car so her choice :(
Would it be an only car? I know everyone's circumstances are different, but apart from the space thing, I can't see any reason to switch from the i3 if it's a second car. Living right on the coast, the fact it's the only remotely affordable EV without metal bodywork (being mainly variations on plastic and carbon fibre) means I also don't have to worry about the dreaded rust, which kicks in quite early on even modern vehicles around here.

I quite fancy a change for all that, but there's nothing ticking all the boxes right now except the Model Y, and I want to see a few first to reassure myself that Tesla have upped their panel-fit and paint game...
 
I assume they Polestar have more demand than cars atm. They can pick their customers, even if it's not a good way to treat customers. Being part of Volvo, I'm surprised by them acting like that. It does nothing to build a great future customer relationship for the next car and the one after that, especially when the car market returns to normal.

What's the problem in keeping the i3 and buying a pram to fit in the boot? Or is it the lack of range?

Volvo used to own Polestar, but since late 2017, they were reduced to a minority owner. Technically speaking, they are peer companies under Geely, but seem to remain close.

The Polestar 2 uses the same platform as the Volvo XC40/C40. Also, for the US market, the Polestar 3 (based on the XC90) will be built at Volvo's South Carolina plant.

I've been dealing with a couple of Volvo dealerships since about 2002, and never had a bad experience. In 2007 or so, I brought my S80 in to get an undercarriage noise looked at. They told me it was a known issue with the belly pan and fixed it. Two weeks later the rattle was back, so I returned to the dealership. They were very apologetic, fixed it again (and for good this time), and also installed a hands-free cell phone package at no cost to say thanks for my patience. Wasn't expecting that. Looking back, this did help nurture my feeling of brand loyalty.
 
My Volvo dealer has been a joy from the moment I stepped in 'thinking' of buying a second hand car. Bought a new one and it has been great. Service people are lovely and if you go over to have, say, the brakes sorted I have watched from the sofa as 4 mechanics did the job as I waited, one on each wheel. And gave me discount as I had a service plan.

Polestar does not have a 'dealers' network - they work on-line. Both Volvo and Polestar seem to be pushing a 'subscription' model of car driving - basically you rent it, just like many of us rent our music service these days.

I can see more and more that coming down the track. For one thing when a large proportion of cars (eventually) on the road are electric, the work for mechanics will drop off dramatically. An 'E' car does not need a oil change!. The number of bearings or moving parts is minimal. So service will about software updates, brake bits, power steering and aircon systems.
 
And tyres. Don't forget tyres. Just had to replace my i3S's oddball 20" rears at only 17.5k (which is apparently quite good for an S) - pretty expensive due to only one tyre manufacturer offering a tyre in that size (195/50R20)
 
For one thing when a large proportion of cars (eventually) on the road are electric, the work for mechanics will drop off dramatically. An 'E' car does not need a oil change!. The number of bearings or moving parts is minimal. So service will about software updates, brake bits, power steering and aircon systems.

On some cars, software updates can now be done wirelessly over the air, presumably because the car is fitted with some form of mobile data communication system. The forthcoming new Range Rover is one. This will eventually trickle down so that all models have it.

I've been wondering about the service requirements of electric cars and if they will need as much work as Internal Combustion Engine models. I expect there will always be a need for some mechanical service and repairs, but we might well see this drop on some elements of electric cars. Eventually, when self-driving cars are fully developed and licensed, I see cars mainly becoming like a taxi rental service. There will be depots of car fleets of various sizes and levels of luxury and people will book and hail them as they are needed on a hire basis. They will self drive to you and self drive you to your destination. With all that, we will also get road balancing with traffic routes fed into a main computer system to balance out the traffic - once a route is at capacity, traffic will be routed via alternative routes. We might even get a highways form of Beeching cuts where unneeded roads are done away with or reduced in terms of capacity size. It's going to take 20-30 years but it's coming....
 
We have a petrol E class for really long journeys and an old Volvo V70 for shifting crap. The i3 is on a business lease to my wife which I can buy at the end but they will likely want a high price given the current secondhand market.
 
We have a petrol E class for really long journeys and an old Volvo V70 for shifting crap. The i3 is on a business lease to my wife which I can buy at the end but they will likely want a high price given the current secondhand market.

Do you need anything else if you already have an E Class and V70?

How many miles do you expect this new vehicle by doing annually?
 
Just been in an online chat with Polestar, they don’t do part ex, they don’t do PCP and the nearest car to drive is in London. I am assuming they don’t want to sell many.

wow , not very encouraging . i saw one recently and the driver does a great deal of mileage and very happy with it.
 
That sounds terrible. As an EV owner (2019 i3s, range around 190 in summer) I can confirm that it does indeed drop in winter, but nowhere near that amount. I think the worst we've seen in two winters with it was about 120 miles range from a full charge, which has been fine for us as it's a second car.

120 winter miles still sounds a bit of a con, it really is putting me off thinking of getting one atm, will come back to this in a few years time me thinks.

(I didn’t know, but I learnt you can buy a battery heater, to give a boost to range in winter, probably a good option to choose when buying, but should be free :)).
 


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