12 minute read
News Analysis
Audi Q4 50 e-tron quattro
EVs on stream for 2021 and beyond
Mark Bursa
Finally, the supply of electric cars is opening up, as automakers have used the Coronavirus crisis to ramp up production of electric vehicles while speeding up the demise of diesels.
Here’s a look at what’s available now that could be suitable for private hire or chauffeur work, and s glimpse of what’s coming next.
AUDI
Audi’s first electric SUV, the e-tron, has been with us since 2019. It’s a big vehicle that feels like a slightly smaller Q8 – no bad thing. Rear legroom is comparable to an executive saloon such as an Audi A6, but with more headroom. And electric range of 241 miles is practical.
It’ll be joined this year by more e-tron branded Audis. Q4 e-tron is a smaller take on the same concept, with two bodystyles – SUV and Coupe. A range of 300 miles is claimed, as well as125kW DC rapid charging.
Audi’s bid for an electric chauffeur car comes in the form of the e-tron GT. This lowslung four-door shares the underpinnings of the Porsche Taycan. Prices start at below £80,000 but rise to £133,000. It has a 300-mile range but the ability to recharge fully in less than 20 minutes using 350kW fast-chargers.
[above, from left] Audi RS e-tron GT, and the BMW i4 BMW
BMW has been building its electric presence for almost a decade, since it launched the i3 city car. The i brand is now expanding rapidly, with a whole raft of new models joining the market, starting with iX SUV and i4 mid-range models.
The iX uses a large 100kWh battery giving a claimed range of over 370 miles. Prices start at £69,000, and it’ll be on sale this
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year. The i4 is smaller and pitched directly at the Tesla 3 – it’ll cost around the same price as a loaded-spec 3-series when sales commence in 2022.
Crucially for chauffeurs, an i7 luxury saloon is coming next year. This bears the same relationship to the 7-series as the MercedesBenz EQS does to the S-Class. Similar size, but much more than just an electrified version of the ICE-engined flagship.
Citroen e-C4
CITROEN
Citroen has launched a new C4 range as a kind of crossover hatchback-SUV. Within the range is an e-C4 electric vehicle, which is hard to distinguish visually from the regular petrol or diesel models. It’s good, though, and big enough to be a useable PHV. And a £32,000 price tag is affordable as well.
Ford Mustang Mach-e Hyundai ioniq5
JAGUAR
Jaguar was first to market with something to compete with Tesla, though i-Pace has suffered from some reliability issues. This has perhaps resulted in the rethink of strategy that saw Jaguar last year pull the productionready electric XJ replacement. Jaguar is promising more EVs in the future, but it had the opportunity to take the chauffeur market for itself – an opportunity that is now gone.
Jaguar i-Pace Kia e-Niro
KIA
Kia has one of the real winners in the market with the e-Niro electric SUV. Early supply issues have now been solved, and the car is proving popular. The e-Niro can manage 282 miles on one charge – more when driving around town. That means a private hire driver using an e-Niro would
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Kia EV6
FORD
Purists may not like Ford using the Mustang brand for a car that owes little in concept or looks to the classic coupe. But the £40,000 Mustang Mach-e is a very competent and usable large five-seater, with looks and interior styling that very much takes on Tesla and wins. Range is impressive – up to 379 miles for some models. And it’ll recharge quickly too.
HYUNDAI
Hyundai has been an EV pioneer, with an electric version of the popular Prius-rival, Ioniq, being a big hit with private hire early adopters. Ioniq is finishing this year, though, but the nameplate will continue as an EV sub-brand. The first Ioniqbrand model will be the Ioniq 5, due next year and expected to cost around £38,000 for the entry-level version. It’ll have range of around 300 miles, and some models will be capable of ultrafast 350kW charging. Hyundai still offers its Kona EV, which some operators have turned to as a fast way on to the EV ladder, though it is a little small for true rear-seat comfort. And Hyundai also has a foot in the Hydrogen camp with its excellent Nexo SUV, one of a handful of HEVs on the market. It recharges as easily as an LPG car, but the infrastructure is still very limited, restricting its market to the London area.
BMW iX
MERCEDES EQT
Mercedes EQV Mercedes EQS Mercedes EQC
only need to charge up every couple of days. And 100kW charging means it takes 54 minutes to charge the battery pack to 80%. All for less than £35,000.
Kia has more EVs up its sleeve, too. Coming soon is the EV6, a larger crossover saloon that will certainly hit the sweet spot for operators looking for something a bit bigger. It’ll have a 300-mile driving range and 350kW charging capacity for a recharging time of less than 20 minutes – all for £50,000 or so.
MAZDA
Mazda had previously committed to developing ICE-engined vehicles, but legislation has forced it down the EV route. Its first entry is the MX-30, another SUV-shaped car that competes with the likes of Kia e-Niro and MG ZS. It features quirky half-doors like the old RX-8 coupe, and it’s one of the cheapest four-seater EVs with prices starting around £28,000. But range is limited at just 130 miles, so it’s strictly an urban vehicle.
Mazda-MX-30 MERCEDES-BENZ
Mercedes has been building up its Q electric brand over the years, initially as a trim level on hybrids, but now as a full designator of EVs. Already with us are EQC, an SUV based on the GLC model, and EQV- basically an all-electric V-Class. The latter has sold well to chauffeurs looking to avoid C-Charge and ULEZ. And even though it’s not cheap (prices start a shade over £70,000) it offers 213 miles of range and true 7-seat capability.
Coming soon is the EQS. This will be Mercedes’ chauffeur flagship, and it’s being fast-tracked to the UK market even ahead of the new S-Class PHEV. EQS is not an adapted ICE platform – it’s the first fruits of Merc’s all-new purpose-built EV platform that will also see a smaller E-Class-sized EQE model. Expect EQS by the end of the year, with prices starting around £90,000.
Perhaps the most interesting new model is EQT, an MPV model below the EQV that is specially aimed at the taxi market. We’ve not seen it yet, but it’s being developed with Renault and Nissan, so expect to see multiple versions. A potential game-changer? Keep watching!
MG
MG is the surprising hit of the electric world. As well as the MG5 estate, tested elsewhere in this magazine, there’s an electric SUV called ZS that competes well on specification with Kia e-Niro and co, while costing a good deal less to buy, with prices below £25,000.
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MG ZS EV
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Nissan Leaf
NISSAN
Nissan has been offering a practical EV for a decade now in the form of the Leaf. The second0gen Leaf has been improved significantly and now has a range of around 250 miles – more than three times that of the original. Coming soon is another EV, this time, inevitably, an SUV, called Ariya. Already on sale in Japan, it has chunky looks and a 300-mile-plus range.
PEUGEOT
Peugeot offers electric versions of the van-based MPVs it shares with Vauxhall and Citroen. The larger Traveller and smaller Rifter both have e-suffixed models, as well as a hydrogen-powered version of the Traveller, available initially on LHD markets as a panel van..
Polestar 2
POLESTAR
Polestar is new – it’s Volvo’s up-market electric sub-brand, pitched as a Tesla rival. Its first all-electric model, the Polestar 2, is a crossover saloon with a 230-mile range and a price tag below £40,000, making it one of the few genuine rivals to the Tesla 3 that you can buy now.
PORSCHE
The low-slung Taycan might be a little too racy for chauffeuring, but a shooting-brake bodystyle has a little more rear headroom. Taycan Cross Turismo costs from just under £80,000, and the first deliveries are due soon. It’s one of few models to offer really fast 350kW charging.
Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo
Uber takes a DIY approach with Arrival
Uber is working with electric commercial vehicle maker Arrival to develop an electric car specially for ride-hailing drivers. Arrival says the car will enter production before the end of 2023.
The Arrival Car will join Arrival’s previously announced commercial products, the Bus and Van, to provide zero-emission urban transport for fleet users. The van was developed in partnership with UPS, and Arrival hopes to repeat the trick for passengers by working with Uber.
Tom Elvidge, senior vice-president of Arrival Mobility UK, said: “We are confident that electrifying ride-hailing vehicles will have an outsized impact on cities, and we are keen to support drivers as they manage this transition. Arrival Car will be designed around drivers’ needs to create a vehicle that is affordable, durable and desirable.”
A typical ride-hailing vehicle drives around 30,000 miles a year, compared to 7,500 miles for a private vehicle, so Arrival Car will prioritise driver comfort, safety and convenience. The final design will be revealed before the end of the year.
—Mark Bursa
SEAT (CUPRA)
Cupra, Seat’s performance brand, will be the choice for the Spanish marque’s first EV, the Cupra Born. Based on the VW ID.3, it’ll have a range of 310 miles.
Skoda Enyaq iV SKODA
Skoda’s first EV is the Enyaq iV, a coupe-SUV that is roughly the same size as the Kodiaq SUV. Prices start from just over £33,000 on the road, with a range of 211-310 miles depending on the battery size. Like the Cupra Born, it uses a common VW platform.
TESLA
Currently Tesla is working on a secondgeneration Model S, and supplies of the old model have all but dried up. A shortage of computer chips hasn’t helped either. The big Model X is hard to get too, so Tesla is putting all its resources behind the affordable Model 3, the bestselling EV on the market, despite a £40,000 price ticket. It’s still the benchmark car that others such as BMW are aiming at.
The next Tesla will be the Model Y, an SUV that is similar is size to the Model 3, but taller. The longest-range model will offer around 314 miles of range and a price below £50,000.
VW T7 MULTIVAN
VW ID4 VW ID Buzz
Toyota BZ4X Vauxhall Vivaro-e
TOYOTA
Toyota created the practical “green” car blueprint with the Prius. But in the 20-odd years since the first Prius Hybrid was launched, the world has moved on. Toyota prefers hydrogen fuel cells to batteries as its zero-emissions source, and indeed, it has just launched a second-generation Mirai FCEV, a bigger and more attractive car than the first Mirai. But with FCEV take-up proving slow and expensive, Toyota is grudgingly adding battery-electric cars to its range. It recently showed a concept called BZ4X, an electric SUV, and a range of EVs will arrive in the future – alongside hybrids and FCEVs.
VAUXHALL
Now part of the Stellantis merger, Vauxhall’s electric play is van-based, with electric versions of Vivaro and Combo both available, and in luxurious seated guise too. Interestingly, a Hydrogen-powered version of the Vivaro-e is coming too, around 2023; meanwhile the battery version offers a slightly cheaper alternative to the Mercedes EQV for chauffeurs seeking an electric MPV, with prices starting at £28,361.
VOLKSWAGEN
All VW electric cars carry the ID nameplate. The first, the ID.3, was a Golf-sized hatchback launched last year. A bigger SUV-shaped ID.4 has followed, an a coupe-crossover called ID.5 is on the way; all use VW’s modular EV platform, allowing different sizes and bodystyles of cars, with different battery packs to offer ranges between 210 and 320 miles. Perhaps most interesting for taxi operations will be the longawaited ID.Buzz model, a retro-futurist electric successor to the original Type 2 microbus. This practical and versatile model will have six seats in three rows, and an electric range of between 270 and 370 miles.
VW has also announced a new T7 Multivan to replace both the existing Caravelle and Sharan ranges; it comes as a PHEV, but not a pure electric model, for now at least.
VOLVO
Volvo’s first pure EV is a version of the XC40 compact SUV, and this will be joined by a coupeSUV called the C40 Recharge. It’s expected to arrive early in 2022, priced around £50,000. Range is expected to be about 260 miles, with 150kW charging capability.
