Forum Replies Created
- Replies
sorry for the delay – lots of personal stuff going on at the moment.
Will give my full thoughts on the car soon – in short, it’s incredible.
They definitely are – they told me what ship our car is on, and the due in port date correlates with what the dealer has been told.
As our current car has done less than 20k miles, we have today arranged to extend our lease for a further two years. I didn’t plan to, as I was really looking forward to getting an EV – but the stress of all this has come at a bad time for us.
Now, at least, we will be free to take dealerships up on their offers on stock vehicles, and we can avoid the awful 3+ month wait for the car to be built.
I realised that, as much as I dislike our current car, it is actually orders of magnitude better than what we would be driving (without turning to finance) if we weren’t lucky enough to have a MB car. I have become numb to the realisation that we have a very capable and desirable motor already, and a break from obsessing over new cars will do us well.
I’m certain I will carry on checking daily at the vehicles added and removed from the scheme – but for the moment, I will concentrate on what really matters.
I just had a look on the MB website for the cheapest PHEV that can tow our caravan – Skoda Kodiaq for £3500.
I’d rather put the £1300 AP saving, plus the £100s we will save in fuel, towards paying for static caravans whenever we want to go further afield.
I don’t want a “full” or “mild” hybrid, as it will still be 100% powered by petrol, which is a very expensive energy source.
I think we will be ok with the towing range – most of the places we visit are within 120 miles (which should be achievable with 100% charge), and if we go up to 200 miles, it will entail one charge stop each way. We will almost certainly need to unhitch.
Further, we only tow 4-5 times per year, for the vast majority of our driving we will receive all the benefits that EVs bring (including home charging). I feel that is worth the extra pain when towing.
The only other consideration is the CX-60 – but that will be much more expensive to run, will require double the AP and has reports of a clunky, unsettled hybrid system.
with regards to getting a deal – I now need to work up the courage to walk out of (potentially) multiple dealerships of they don’t offer an AP contribution 🙈
thanks all for your replies
Thanks for letting us know the outcome of your Bumblebee install.
Did you get a choice of who will do the installation?
Where in the country are you located? In case Bumblebee are contracted to serve a certain area.
Did you get to choose the charger?
The ICCU is the E-GMP platform’s Achilles’ heel, unfortunately. I hope the replacement proves to be reliable for you.
I thought I’d check if there’s any energy supplier deals on purchasing a Hyundai – there is, with Octopus – but alas, MB is excluded 😕
Sounds like ICCU failure. Still occurring even after the facelift, sadly.
I hope it is resolved quickly – at least on MB we get a decent hire car while it’s in the garage.
I was looking at the IONIQ 6, as the AP has reduced considerably. Turned off it because it’s less practical than the 5 and has the older interior and battery, even though it is sleeker and not a crossover.
I highly doubt this facelift will be available before we order our new car next month, but I’m sure some people are pleased to see this announcement.
Not sure what you mean kdwolf – are you implying I am associated with Renault?
Far from it – they just happen to have their prices out already.
We’re looking at an IONIQ 5 or perhaps a CX-60 when we order our next MB car in May.
I’m a software engineer for a vehicle leasing company.
(Looks like the post was deleted 🙄)
I have put all the Renault and Dacia prices in a spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19cxYGFaVO-j61ElQgE7XWG0ZO3ckLflhKZWePTz1oRM/edit?usp=sharing
if I don’t have an Ohme charger, 7p becomes 24p.
So our (estimated) £600 charging costs over 3 years become £2000.
This is all very disappointing to hear, and completely avoidable if MB were more thorough.
I thought I was dead-set to get an Ohme charger, which has excellent smart tariff compatibility.
I’m now worried I’ll end up with some off-brand charger – it would be cheaper in that case to have an Ohme charger fitted out of my own pocket!
MB never fail to amaze.
If you want some real figures to go by – Dacia and Renault have their prices out. I have posted links to both in the “Q2 Prices” thread.
It looks like these are the chargers that BumbleBee installs for Motability:
- waEV-charge
- Hypervolt Home Pro 3
- MyEnergi Zappi V2
Hopefully, if you are assigned BumbleBee you will get the choice, as only the Hypervolt is compatible with OVO Charge Anytime.
The Bumblebee website lists the Ohme Home Pro, so perhaps they are just handling their installation.
Indeed, their website home page states that they are installers:
” Bumblebee is one of the UK’s largest network of electric vehicle charge point installers.”Also, their Bumblebee Point charger is a rebranded Nexblue Edge, so they are not manufactures like Ohme are.
I doubt that Motability start installing a different charger, when the Ohme options are tried and tested.
Is there a reason why you are keeping the site a secret?
I had no idea it existed, but a quick Google search for “motability dealers website” lead me to here:
https://cars.motabilitydealer.co.uk/news/scheme-news/placeholder-for-dlm-emergency-drivers
So Motability is hardly hiding it from the public.
It was in the running for us, until MB removed the AWD options, which halved the towing capacity down to 750kg.
If the AWD comes back before mid-May, we will consider it – but I can’t imagine it will win out against the IONIQ 5.
Is a self charging hybrid really much lighter than a PHEV? unless I’m mistaken, the only difference is the (lack of) charge port and maybe an electric module or two.
self charging hybrids are lighter probably because they have much smaller batteries, which means worse economy.
A PHEV can be treated like a hybrid – just don’t ever plug it in. It will still charge the battery while you are driving.
If you can find a way to plug it in though, even with a granny cable, it will cut your fuel bill.
I was considering moving from OVO to Octopus, but with this change, I am considering staying where I am.
With OVO, I will be able to charge at 7p/kWh at any time, day or night – but only the EV charging can benefit from this rate.
Are there any advantages now to switching to OVO? I know I can run other loads such as the washing machine during the 7p period – but it only uses 1kWh on a cycle, so I would save £17p per wash – hardly worth the inconvenience of only being able to charge the car overnight at the cheaper rate.
