Ford CEO finally states the bleedin' obvious

It does seem rather obvious doesn't it. Why are electric cars so much more then the ICE counterparts. You'd think an ICe car would be far more complex to produce or is it just the cost of batteries?

The only electric car that floats my boat slightly is the EV6GT. Used ones are 40K for all that power and space. More realistically a Honda E would make a great tender to something far more interesting with a proper engine. But they are still the same money as a Fiesta ST which again is more appealing.

We went EV shopping at the weekend on the basis that the i-Pace is going back at the beginning of August. The Mercedes salesman told us that they are only selling A Class and CLA at the moment. The huge hike in E Class prices has scared away all their customers and the C Class is dead in the water with engines that no-one wants. They are selling a few SUV's but the EQE and EQS we were in to see are not selling. We could have any colour or spec within a few weeks which must be a scary prospect for the manufacturers and dealers. However quality is also an issue. On opening the door on most of the cars in the showroom there is a piece of silver plastic on the end of the armrest which houses the window and mirror switches. At first glance I thought it was metal, until I got closer. It is like a cheap Binatone radio from the 1970/80's with that criss cross hard silver plastic with a very fake metallic look. Truly awful. Had it been leather or soft touch black it would have elevated the interior massively. The EQE and EQS have massive depreciation of c£25/£30K in the first year. The SL convertible in the showroom was a beautiful thing and felt like a quality item. However at £145,000 I really don't see that moving quickly.

We also visited BMW but the only car that didn't offend the eyes too much was the i4 but we have seen and tried that before and it really doesn't exude quality like the i-Pace does.

Audi were the other make we looked at. I thought the Q4 e-tron coupe might be of interest but again the interior couldn't compare to the Jaguar and the huge slab of plastic for a grill just didn't look right on the darker colours, especially when it appears you can only get sparkly silver unless you go for a black pack which also gives you black wheels. The e-tron GT was in the showroom in RS spec and it is a very attractive car but it is huge on the outside (really wide and long) but surprisingly small on the inside, very much like the Taycan it shares its platform with. They had a couple of lightly used ones significantly depreciated and I asked about business contract hire but the person that deals with that isn't in today sir!

We are going to continue to look and will pay the Genesis and Polestar dealers a visit and I am keeping my fingers crossed that the manufacturers will need to do some discounting to get people in to the cars piling up in their storage facilities. However it is quite possible that the horrendous used prices might make leasing more expensive in which case we will probably look at buying something privately like a used F Type. I did have a thought though that the local Jaguar dealer has several of the older I-Pace in stock which are clearly still new. If one of them has the 360 camera etc in HSE spec we might just go i-Pace again if we can get a reasonable lease deal.

So expensive and bad quality too. As a customer that is just such a desirable combination. 

You can always get another electric car. We may all well have to. But the F-Type is a scatchable itch that won't be there for much longer.   

Mercedes interiors have been looking like cheap Chinese electrical goods for a while now. Mercedes always used to have interiors that seemed to have a depth of quality and solidity few other brands shared. You sit in a Mercedes now and think to yourself; "this cheap fake trim will be rattling like buggery in a couple of years". 

The issue here is the tax relief (tail wagging the dog!). Anything that goes through the business and is electric basically costs me in £'s about half the total cost so getting something more expensive and with all the toys doesn't cost a fortune. I am aiming to retire in 3 to 4 years so won't get many more opportunities to do this. With the new Scottish rates of tax I will probably be getting tax relief at 69.5% on some of it so it's a no brainer. I basically refuse to pay 69.5% in tax which I think is immoral and will find anything legal I can to avoid paying it, even if that means I hand out staff bonuses, pay in to pension or buy/lease a more expensive car. I had another doctor this week going to 4 days a week because she won't work hard and only keep 30% of the money - she would rather go walking and have a better quality of life.

Had a text from my 18yr old last night, he’s going to Berlin for a couple of days with his mum. She’s just bought a new Mini Electric (but can’t afford to contribute to driving lessons…) and it was such long journey from Swindon to Stanstead. Traffic wasn’t great, but they had to stop twice….its 130 miles

OK, to be fair, one of those was at the services by the airport so they had a full battery for when they arrive back and 99% of her driving will be short journeys, but even so, that’s not great..

Well with their 15 minute city bollocks, some elements of society don’t want your journey to require private propelled movement of any kind. They don’t care about country life because to them it’s almost an alien landscape. They don’t want you to do a touring holiday with multiple stays because that’s a bit bourgeois. They don’t want you to move about freely without being tracked on public transport.

However what’s more telling is that in France you can now on-line build the new 5er Touring. The full electric ones.

Or the diesel ones……