Nice article Armen. The VW ID
Nice article Armen. The VW ID.3 will start in Europe only, but next year the ID.4 should be coming to the U.S. and the ID.3 will give us a taste of what to expect. Of course the EV range is based on the wildly overrated European rating, but the ID.4 should approach 300 miles. The i3 seems to be offering relatively short range at 153 miles, which is similar to the base Leaf and the $37K Mini Cooper SE, and more than the Ioniq. For some people with shorter commutes, this range should still work fine, being far more than the 65-80 miles of previous early BEVs. But with the Model 3, Bolt, Kona, and Leaf Plus the bar is raised. In fact the i3 with the range extender seems like a poor value getting 47 more miles (200 total) for nearly $50K, seeing that the same price will get you into a Model 3 Long Range with 310 miles EV range and a 4.4 sec 0-60 time and Autopilot for the price of admission. One point for the Leaf and Kona over the Tesla and Bolt is that they still get the full tax subsidies, which shaves another $6K off of their bottom line for those people who qualify for the tax credits. The new Leaf is a nice, evolutionary step up from the previous model without too much of a price hike for all of the new capabilities, but it still ranks 4th for me behind the Model 3, Kona, and Bolt.