Leaving the fold
Discussion
The i3 is going back to BMW after 15 months and 25,000km.
We're moving house and the new place doesn't really allow for an EV. We're moving to an apartment in a mountain village and the garage doesn't have charging provision. Putting it in would require too much work / expense and the landlord isn't enthusiastic. The nearest public fast charger is 85km away and getting back means going over a pass with 2200m climb (1500m net). In the winter the temperature in the village regularly gets down to -25. Given the snow I want AWD.
There is a Tesla supercharger in the village and a bunch of the hotels have destination chargers for customers. We did think of going to a model S but the nearest Tesla service station is 3 hours away and I'm not convinced about Tesla reliability (plus it's bigger / more expensive than I'd want)
The local BMW dealer has given us a reasonable deal on a new petrol 3 series with xdrive.
Given the rapid progress of both range and infrastructure my guess is that this will be the last ICE car we own, certainly for a daily driver.
So there are instances where EVs don't yet make sense. Living 1760m above sea level in a remote valley without charging infrastructure might be one of them.
We're moving house and the new place doesn't really allow for an EV. We're moving to an apartment in a mountain village and the garage doesn't have charging provision. Putting it in would require too much work / expense and the landlord isn't enthusiastic. The nearest public fast charger is 85km away and getting back means going over a pass with 2200m climb (1500m net). In the winter the temperature in the village regularly gets down to -25. Given the snow I want AWD.
There is a Tesla supercharger in the village and a bunch of the hotels have destination chargers for customers. We did think of going to a model S but the nearest Tesla service station is 3 hours away and I'm not convinced about Tesla reliability (plus it's bigger / more expensive than I'd want)
The local BMW dealer has given us a reasonable deal on a new petrol 3 series with xdrive.
Given the rapid progress of both range and infrastructure my guess is that this will be the last ICE car we own, certainly for a daily driver.
So there are instances where EVs don't yet make sense. Living 1760m above sea level in a remote valley without charging infrastructure might be one of them.
nice area; have spent a lot of time in Pontresina over the years and try to go for a Julier/Maloja/Bernina/Livignio/Fluela drive once a year when visiting.
could you not come to an arrangement with one of the hotels? Stayed in the Sport Hotel in Pontresina last autumn and the chargers were never in use. They have a Tesla charger; I believe it's for the owner's Tesla roadster.
could you not come to an arrangement with one of the hotels? Stayed in the Sport Hotel in Pontresina last autumn and the chargers were never in use. They have a Tesla charger; I believe it's for the owner's Tesla roadster.
Hi. I did think of that. I think 3 or 4 of the hotels in the village have Tesla destination chargers. There is a supercharger in the covered car park between St. Moritz 'dorf' and the railway station.
As we stand the EV answer is realistically Tesla-only and for a variety of reasons (bigger than I want, more expensive, reliability / distance from a service station) I'm not keen on that option at the moment.
I have my name down for an iPace and I think that in 2 years time the infrastructure will be here and there will be several options of cars which could drive from here to Zurich (for example).
Tesla pretty much own the Swiss EV market. The Model S is the biggest selling EV followed by the Model X. Together they account for >50% of EV sales.
As we stand the EV answer is realistically Tesla-only and for a variety of reasons (bigger than I want, more expensive, reliability / distance from a service station) I'm not keen on that option at the moment.
I have my name down for an iPace and I think that in 2 years time the infrastructure will be here and there will be several options of cars which could drive from here to Zurich (for example).
Tesla pretty much own the Swiss EV market. The Model S is the biggest selling EV followed by the Model X. Together they account for >50% of EV sales.
The issue with a hybrid is the same as the EV - I won't have any reasonable way of charging it. Without such it just becomes a heavier, more complex petrol car.
I did go and talk to the nice people at Porsche about a Sport Turismo e-hybrid which of course also fails the 'not too big' and 'not too expensive' tests. I also could be waiting a year for one and I need it now. We also considered a Volvo V90 T8.
However when we thought about it public transport is so good in the area that I think that I'll use the car infrequently but for long trips. Probably the most common trip will be the one to / from Zurich airport which is about 260km each way, including a mountain pass. Hence a hybrid would operate mostly on the petrol engine.
Switzerland has no real tax advantages / incentives for EVs or PHEVs. Without this people don't buy PHEVs and the ones the dealers have are being sold on big mark-down. This year to date the Swiss sales figures for the Model S are exactly twice that of all PHEVs combined. Ferrari are comfortably selling more GTC4 Lussos here than Mistibushi sell PHEV Outlanders.
I did go and talk to the nice people at Porsche about a Sport Turismo e-hybrid which of course also fails the 'not too big' and 'not too expensive' tests. I also could be waiting a year for one and I need it now. We also considered a Volvo V90 T8.
However when we thought about it public transport is so good in the area that I think that I'll use the car infrequently but for long trips. Probably the most common trip will be the one to / from Zurich airport which is about 260km each way, including a mountain pass. Hence a hybrid would operate mostly on the petrol engine.
Switzerland has no real tax advantages / incentives for EVs or PHEVs. Without this people don't buy PHEVs and the ones the dealers have are being sold on big mark-down. This year to date the Swiss sales figures for the Model S are exactly twice that of all PHEVs combined. Ferrari are comfortably selling more GTC4 Lussos here than Mistibushi sell PHEV Outlanders.
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