New Company Car E List

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Gargamel

Original Poster:

15,166 posts

266 months

Monday 4th December 2023
quotequote all

Hi all,

Company Car Policy has changed, we are moved to Electric only vehicles. Anything from Audi, VW, Seat or Cupra. No Hybrids.

Live in Central Amsterdam and drive two / three times a month to Belgium, so range a factor, so is loading a muddy dog.

Other than that - pretty open. Current car is a Ford Puma

Any definite in, and definite outs appreciated

Anyone tried a Seat Bora yet or an ID7 ?

IanJ9375

1,505 posts

221 months

Monday 4th December 2023
quotequote all
Gargamel said:
Hi all,

Company Car Policy has changed, we are moved to Electric only vehicles. Anything from Audi, VW, Seat or Cupra. No Hybrids.

Live in Central Amsterdam and drive two / three times a month to Belgium, so range a factor, so is loading a muddy dog.

Other than that - pretty open. Current car is a Ford Puma

Any definite in, and definite outs appreciated

Anyone tried a Seat Bora yet or an ID7 ?
Q4 etron probably the looker, range won't be a problem I expect you've probably got a better setup for charging en route for those trips to Belgium, you can check on Zap Map or other EV range planning apps

Otispunkmeyer

12,873 posts

160 months

Monday 4th December 2023
quotequote all
I think the Cupra Born? is worth a look. Looks a lot more interesting than the ID3 and if you get a decent size battery in it, the range is good too.

Not sure what the boot is like mind you, but if you can get your doggo into a Puma, then you'll probably have no problems. The Skoda Enyaq is also decent, and seems to be a bigger, more practical option, even though its based on the same bits as the ID3 and Cupra. It just looks a bit ungainly is all.

Gargamel

Original Poster:

15,166 posts

266 months

Monday 4th December 2023
quotequote all
Dog is in a harness in the back seat presently.

IanJ9375

1,505 posts

221 months

Tuesday 5th December 2023
quotequote all
Gargamel said:
Dog is in a harness in the back seat presently.
Same here with the XC40 we've just had - works well although I have spent a bit on dog proofing so we don't take a hit when handing back!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005MYY9YC?ref=ppx_yo2...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YF3CMVD?psc=1&r...

And this pulls over the armrest perfectly - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YF3CMVD?psc=1&r...

Gargamel

Original Poster:

15,166 posts

266 months

Tuesday 5th December 2023
quotequote all

Yes more or less that. We have a full rear seat cover and then dog safety belt that clips to his harness. Dog is the easy part.

Range, power and useability more important, Can’t have a Polestar or Tesla as not on the List.

That Audi looks pretty good though.

Muzzer79

10,779 posts

192 months

Tuesday 5th December 2023
quotequote all
Whereabouts in Belgium?

Amsterdam > Antwerp opens up a lot more options than Amsterdam > Bastogne, for example.

However, even the latter should probably only need one charging stop in a reasonable-range EV, so is not the end of the world.

The ID7 is a good shout and looks to have good range. I've not even seen one in the metal however as they're very new.

Audi Q4 or Q8 if you have budget is also worth looking at.

QBee

21,309 posts

149 months

Tuesday 5th December 2023
quotequote all
We have a Cupra Born on fleet, chosen by our only lady sales person.

She likes it, says it is easy to park because it's not too big, and well over 500 km range on a charge.
She covers the whole of the north of England from her base north of Manchester, so is giving it a fair test.
I never get bills for on the road charging from her, she does all her charging overnight at home.

QBee

21,309 posts

149 months

Tuesday 5th December 2023
quotequote all
I also have a friend who bought personally a Skoda Enyak new. He raves about it, but he would, he's that kind of guy.
However, he develops software systems for a living and seems happy with the car's software systems.

Gargamel

Original Poster:

15,166 posts

266 months

Tuesday 5th December 2023
quotequote all
Muzzer79 said:
Whereabouts in Belgium?

Amsterdam > Antwerp opens up a lot more options than Amsterdam > Bastogne, for example.
Yes only just over the border, Lommel. So I am looking for something that should be capable of there and back on one charge.

In the future it won't be a probably as they plan to install charging at the site, but that will be more than a year away.

Muzzer79

10,779 posts

192 months

Tuesday 5th December 2023
quotequote all
Gargamel said:
Muzzer79 said:
Whereabouts in Belgium?

Amsterdam > Antwerp opens up a lot more options than Amsterdam > Bastogne, for example.
Yes only just over the border, Lommel. So I am looking for something that should be capable of there and back on one charge.

In the future it won't be a probably as they plan to install charging at the site, but that will be more than a year away.
That's a 200 mile round trip, so you need probably a real-world range of something like 250 miles.

Take your pick of anything relatively recent. I had an Audi e-tron GT that would have managed that no problem, if you have the budget.

ZesPak

24,794 posts

201 months

Tuesday 5th December 2023
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Gargamel said:
Yes only just over the border, Lommel. So I am looking for something that should be capable of there and back on one charge.

In the future it won't be a probably as they plan to install charging at the site, but that will be more than a year away.
From the VAG stable, for me it would be the Enyaq as a family car. If it doesn't need to be BIG, the Cupra Born is a big enough car on it's own.
It's a pretty good EV platform, meaning it offers plenty of interior space whilst not being huge on the outside. The infotainment isn't the best, but that's a well known issue at this point I think.

As for Amsterdam-Lommel, most EV's will do that in all but harsh winter. Worth checking out if there's street charging in the neighbourhood.
I actually did a similar trajectory for a client with an early Model S 75D that had about 300km real world range in winter, I found a street charging in the neighbourhood and walking 3 minutes saved me a 15 minute stop at a fast charger every time I went.

If it was once a month I wouldn't even bother as a 15 min stop at the end of the workday isn't the end of the world. But 3 times a month you might just want to get home.

For the Benelux, I mostly check Plugshare, but worth checking out the app from your card provider.
In NL, I think there's a general mandate that all chargers are basically on the same network (so any card can charge anywhere), in Belgium it's not quite like that but a lot better than the UK which seems like the wild west in comparison.

Anyway, good luck with it, I found switching to an EV actually great and I haven't looked back.

annodomini2

6,899 posts

256 months

Wednesday 6th December 2023
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Would be looking for the A6 Etron when it becomes available.