). It came with 18 inch Conti tyres.We do daily school runs and some other short city journeys, frequent day trips to the countryside in the 100-200 mile range at the weekend, and the odd other journey to see family etc. My wife has taken it for a 260 mile return trip to see family once. Currently we both work from home so there is no commuting. In general it has worked really well for us.
Driving: it does all of the above very well, in particular:
- The near silence at low speed has surprised everyone we have driven in it and even on the motorway it's much quieter than we are used to. I can hear my 4yo talking in the back at normal volume, unlike either of our previous cars.
- Manouvring and parking is very easy.
- ACC is very good overall and at the moment I use all the assistance features a lot. Detection of the wrong speed limit is a frustratingly common occurrence though, and eco assist often slows me down too much for roundabouts and bends so I'll probably eventually turn this feature off. The green regen bar alone is enough information to slow down without using the friction brakes in D mode.
- Driving in Sport mode on B roads (with assistance all turned off) is pretty good considering the all-round nature of the car. I'm no expert racer and never push close to the limit but I like to have some fun on country roads. It was pretty good on a run over the Snake Pass. I do feel it overdoes the automatic regen in Sport (D mode) a bit though. I like the idea, but I have found myself mis-judging my speed because of the extra slowing down as I switch to the accelerator pedal through the corner, then over compensating (feeding in the accelerator doesn't feel as intuitive as in my last couple of ICEs either). I think I'll get used to this eventually. Grip with the Contis on our car has seemed very good.
- It's quicker than my Octavia (diesel VRS) and wheelspins much less, but the sense of speed is also less (this is why I want to keep the 'speed limit preview' switched on in ACC...)
- I have seen some people say the ride in their car is slightly harsh but ours on the 18 inch tyres is very comfy. Much more so than my Octavia (I guess I might have low expectations compared to some...)
Other stuff:
- Battery heating on short runs seems to have been fixed as an issue (unless not heating it in the 0-8C range is damaging battery longevity, which I hope not). I live by the coast so it hasn't seen any freezing temps yet but spent most of its life in the 2-8C range. I have seen over 4.5m/kWh a few times on 20mph school runs, and always over ~ 3.5 with cabin heating off.
- On the two longest runs we've done recently, we were pleased to get 3.5m/kWh, although most medium-long runs have been around 3.0, and I only got 2.4 on a run at 65mph in Storm Eunice...
- I get on fine with the infotainment system and the only bit where lagginess annoys me is when trying to scroll the map in Navigation or Wecharge - it's not really up to the task there yet. Other than that, the Nav performs very well, as does Android Auto via Bluetooth. This is a revelation coming from a 2014 car. I also like the haptic and slider controls (but yes, the sliders need backlighting!)
- My 4 year old loves the Pano roof, and the car does feel very light and spacious. The roof was a no-brainer for us after testing cars with and without, but I do really like my sunlight. It does show up dirt badly from the inside though! (In general, the car does seem to get quite dirty)
- The rear windows are also good if you have small kids; they seem to sit fairly high in relation to the bottom of the window so can see out more than before.
- The interior doesn't feel 'budget' to me but I can see why some people aren't keen, each to their own. I think the bare nature actually enhances the sense of space. I also like the interior lights at night, they make it feel a bit more special (I set it to a custom Gulf Racing style blue/orange to begin with, but my wife was having none of that so we are back with the standard turquoise option that matches the car colour...)
- After some initial problems with the installation of our charger and some false starts with the Ohme app, home charging has since been very straightforward. We have used MFG, Osprey, Instavolt rapids and Podpoint type 2 chargers away from home, all very easily once we found them. The car has been very reliable in this respect and there seem to be lots of new chargers popping up all the time. The max charging rate I have seen is 65kW so it would be good if they could implement battery pre-heating via a software update (before next winter...)
- The only Family spec 'option' I don't like is the variable boot floor - I can't afford the space lost by putting it in the higher position, and in the lower position its only function is to get in the way (losing about 2cm off the floor). Boot height is critical for me and there is only just enough. It's a minor complaint though. All the other upgrades are worth having IMO.
I have seen several software glitches (alarm sounding inadvertently a couple of times, keyless entry failing once, mirrors not opening out once, electronic parking brake error once), but none has yet caused us a real problem, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this front.
Overall we are very happy with the car and I think at least one family member has already decided their next car should also be an EV after being driven in it
I would encourage everyone waiting for their cars to stick around!Sorry for the essay
Si
