Episode 89: Budget Buzz, the Dinky Dacia and the Gilded Genesis

Hello, and welcome to your weekly recharge of all the latest electric car news from the gang at

ElectriFind.com. This week, we're going to be talking about the Barthien bus, Dinky Datchers,

and the Gilded Genesis. That doesn't quite work, does it, Mike? Yeah, it does.

Does it? I feel like you may have written that at the end of a long week and it's only Tuesday,

so that concerns me. Blessed thoughts will also be answering your electric car questions

dipping into the post bag. To find out what you had to say about last week's episode,

welcome to the Kilowatt Half-Hour. I'm Ginny. And I'm Mike.

Just the two of us today, Mike, for putting us on a rapid charge, haven't we? She's exceeded

her WLTP figure and just done too much. She sounded like, oh, what's that? I think the

leaf had was a turtle mode. She sounded like she was in very much in, yeah, tortoise mode,

wasn't it, or something like that? Tortoise mode. It was tortoise mode. I'd forgotten

about that. Yeah, I spoke to her earlier. She sounded she was running at about 60% power,

so we had to find a rapid charger and plug her in. I think you might be running at 60% power as

well with your gilded genesis. I mean, I love the budget buzz and the dinky dacha, but I don't know.

The third one's always a bit tricky. That tricky third one. I think we've also

had to be separated from each other because we're getting a bit of a reputation, aren't we?

And, you know, for being, what are we? What were we called recently? The naughty twins?

The naughty twins. Yeah, yeah, just ganging up on me. So at least it's one, it's one to one here,

isn't it? I don't feel quite as outnumbered as I have in previous weeks.

Is it verified? I didn't actually realise we were ganging up on you,

but we will be coming to that comment later, as always. We love to hear your comments.

Do either let us know in the comments below if you're watching on YouTube,

hello if you are. And if you're listening on your podcast platform, you can email us

podcast at electrifying.com. So shall we have a chat about what we've been driving?

What have you been driving like? Well, I went to drive the facelifted Genesis GV60

last week at Thrux and I came away with two things. I came away with driving impressions of

the car and a stinking cold. The gift that people give you at this time of year when

you're going to Winters, really nice. You shouldn't blame people, but it's George

from Wattcar sat next to me at the presentation for an entire hour and just spent his time

entire sneezing and coughing. So I just knew it was inevitable I was going to be ill

and I am. So there you go. Yeah, it's an interesting thing, the GV60. You kind of

forget about it a bit, don't we? Because it's in that sort of strange kind of area of the market

where it doesn't get an awful lot of attention. But it gets finally getting the big battery,

it's finally getting the 84 kWh battery that the IONIQ 5 and the GV6 got.

I think that must be getting off two years ago now. It felt like 18 months ago at least

for those cars getting that. Yeah, it was a long time ago, yeah. So it's had, it's

lumbered on with a 77 kWh battery up until now. So it's got the bigger battery now.

And it's got a few of the bits and pieces from, you know, things like the IONIQ 5N and everything.

So it's got the virtual gear shift drift mode that you'll be using every day obviously.

It's got a slightly tidier design. It's got, it's lost that strange kind of

mustache thing at the front. So it's got kind of a slightly more,

a bit like Volkswagen did with ID3 then kind of made it a bit more normal.

And so it's got a normal sort of front bumper. They used to have the side sill used to be black

and that used to be as an old designer's trick to try and reduce the height of the car.

And they got rid of that. So it does look a little bit more sort of

putting it around the middle now, but it is, it is a tidier piece of design.

And they will do the review. I mean, it doesn't feel a great deal different to drive,

but it does have a longer range, which I think people would look for. So yeah, interesting car.

Is there an interesting brand, I think, because like you say, they're, they're sort of are,

they're not forgettable. That's unkind, but we do forget about them. So I suppose they are.

But also you go to Korea, because I was in Korea last week driving something that I'll come

on to in a minute, but you go to Korea, they're everywhere. They really are. There's loads of

them. And it was quite remarkable. We actually grouped a few of us out there and we actually

talked about the fact that you do see them all over the place. So they obviously sell in their,

you know, in the country they're made in. And you see slightly more of them in America as well,

but that's just not something that I spot a lot of here in the UK.

No, and you do see them because they're, they're unusual. So you do when you do see one,

it's a surprise, but yeah. But yeah, they were all over the place last week, but I

obviously wasn't there driving a Genesis. I was there driving that new Kia, the van.

Yeah. Yeah. The passenger version. And goodness me, it's an interesting thing. It really is.

I think it's such a clever car. I kept calling it a car and then realized, what do you call it?

It's a vehicle, isn't it? But I don't know, it seems a bit weird calling something a vehicle.

It's just, pricing is fabulous on it. So it starts at £32,995. If you put that into

context, the VW ID buzz is just under $60,000. So it's, it's an absolute budget buzz. And,

and then what I've said in the video and also in the review, which we've got live on the YouTube

channel and over at Electrifying.com is if the buzz, the buzz obviously feels more

consumery. It feels more desirable and retro and cutesy. This is much more futuristic and

affordable. And it's, I made that comparison between the really expensive designer handbag

that you kind of want, but you know, it doesn't make sense even when you work out the, you know,

the cost per hen many times you'll use it or that really well designed rucksack.

And for me, the PV five is, is that, you know, they both do the same job and they do it just

as well, but they're obviously at very different price points. And it, it looks cool and it

looks futuristic and it drives nicely. And there is enough range. You've not got the power and the

punch and actually the range that you'll get in the ID buzz. I think the smaller battery,

which is 46 kilowatt hours is under the 200 mark. So it's about 193. So that will take a dip

in winter. And then you've got the larger 67 kilowatt battery. And that does, you know,

it does push it over 200, I think from memory, it's about 200, I want to say 256. So it's

short of the buzz, which is just under 300. Although we do know the buzz isn't massively

efficient. And the early signs were obviously it's really difficult because you're,

you're not always driving this and ideal cars and ideal conditions on launches. And you might

not spend too long in them. And in this case, we seem to spend most of our time in traffic

getting into the soul of driving it. But, you know, I was exceeding the WLTP official figures

in it. So it's got an awful lot going for it. And it's a clever car. You know,

it's clever. It's got really great stuff like a low, a low stepping point. So if you're getting

older people in or you're getting kids in and out, they can climb in and out on their own,

I was thinking dog owners great for dog owners, but you can, your pets can climb up themselves.

And it's nice to drive, as I said, and yeah, I was really impressed with it. I really liked

it. I think it's interesting, they should sell loads of them. But then I look at the buzz

and think there's not really a market for the buzz as much as there are. I don't know who

would buy a buzz. Do you know anyone who might buy a buzz, Mike? No, only a fool would buy a buzz,

obviously, as we know. Is that price point, though? Is that because of the price? Does that kind of

vehicle suddenly become much more attractive when it's 30 odd grand? I think so. I think, you

know, I think the buzz was exceeded all our expectations, but when we're thinking how much

it was going to cost and it's crept up by probably 10 grand since it was launched as

well, hasn't it, with various things, you know, dropping trim levels and that kind of thing. So

it's really punchy on price, isn't it? I mean, you kind of, I mean, what struck me about the

PV5 is it's got a lot of things I would like on mine. So vehicle to load would be really handy

because I do, you know, do outdoorsy stuff with it. And that's a pain in the arse,

especially as a Neonic 5 had it. And I kind of got used to that.

And the other thing was when I was looking at the cargo version, the price of that

is so low, isn't it? Compact of you. Well, the time you take the, because there's still a big

chunky government grant on EVV on electric fans on there's still a 5 grand grant on that.

It was like sort of under 20, 23, 24,000. It's a no-brainer. It's an absolute no-brainer.

So yeah, I mean, that's, and it does look good. It's not, it's not a buzz in the way it looks,

but I think they've been clever, because you've got small wheels and that kind of thing,

that all that stuff that really helps with range. Because my buzz is on a sort of comedy

21-inch wheels, which look great, but the ride's terrible and it done it and it really hammers

the range. But I'm shallow. So, you know, I'd take that. I'd take looks. Yeah, obviously the

nice of like vehicle slow comes on the highest specs. There's two specs on the passenger.

But even the entry level, when I started to drill down into what was included,

you know what? It's a really compelling package. And I think if you've got,

you know, big family, loads of stuff and paraphernalia, it's a really good option. And then, of course,

there's a seven-seat version coming next year. And we had quite a lot of questions into the

podcast, didn't we? And I was feeling, we mentioned one of these either in the last episode, or maybe

the one before, about the wheelchair accessible version. Yeah. Didn't we have someone say,

where is it? Because I've been waiting and not heard anything. So where is it? Is it is

absolutely happening? We are going to see it soon, actually, this side of Christmas,

and it will be on sale in 2026. And part of the reason I strongly suspect that the PV5 has got that

low stepping point is because they have worked to develop a WAV version of this right from the

beginning. So they're doing all the conversion versions, conversion versions, like what I did

there, all the variants themselves. So they've built, they've got this factory that they've

built that they were very proud of, that they took us all too. And they're doing everything

themselves. So normally, of course, you get your valent seats are chopped out and things are

thrown away. And it's massively wasteful process. So they're not doing any of that.

So both from a sustainability point, it's a big take, but also from an affordability point,

because wasteage isn't great for big car companies. The WAV version was developed

right from the beginning, they knew. And I think it's going to be the only

WAV vehicle on the market that's got sliding doors. So you'll be able to

enter and exit via the side. And you'll get a forward facing view of the road.

So I'm actually quite excited to see it. And I think what we'd really like to do,

obviously, I'm not the best person to be reviewing this really. So I would love to know

if you are either a user of a wheelchair accessible vehicle, or that's something that

family member or a mate or something who uses one, what are your must haves in it?

What should we be looking out for to make sure that it's gone? What should Kia have thought of?

I think it'd be really helpful that if anyone has got any comments or thoughts on that,

we'd really like to know what you think. Because we will be taking a look at it.

And ideally, we'd take one of you with us when we do. And who knows,

maybe we could even make that happen. But I think that's what's exciting for me,

I think about this PV5 is that they thought right from the beginning of all the variants

that we're going to add. So we saw a flatbed, we got some spy video about the flatbed truck.

So it's an unusual approach. And it's a sensible approach as well, isn't it?

Which is not something we see often in the car industry.

No, it's not. And it opens the door to a lot of things, isn't it? All these

kind of purpose built vehicles based on that one platform. We've been promised this for

years and it's a skateboard platform. We can virtually build anything. It's the return of

coach building effectively, isn't it? Electric cars because they open that door up.

It hasn't happened yet. I don't think to the degree that perhaps everyone thought it would,

but this is sort of showing that that sort of thing is starting to work. Purpose built cars for

wheelchair access for professional users for taxis, that kind of thing. So yeah, it's some

and it's reaping the rewards that the price is showing that they can do it for

the price they were going to promise. There is a camper as well, which they're going to do.

We saw a concept of the camper. I think it was in the US last year and it looks great.

And there's part of me that thinks, do you know what, they're going to get it out to market

before VW gets the buzz version of the camper because that seems to just be coming next year.

No, no, it's definitely coming next year. No, no, it's coming next year. And it really

wasn't surprised me if the first electric camper we get is based on this PV5.

Yeah, everyone thinks the buzz is a camper anyway. Everyone gets in and go on to where the sink is

and they think, well, it hasn't got one. I don't want one. I don't need one. I've done that. I've

been out of California. I don't know. As long as they don't want to ask where the toilet is.

But yeah, it was good. And it was great. I'm kind of excited about everybody else on

the team driving that. Sometimes you do get a car and you're just like, oh, a vehicle.

And you have to say, I want everyone else to drive it and see what they think. Because I,

yeah, I think it's got a lot of charm. And I think it's a really good,

a really good package. It'd be interesting to see what the sales are like.

Are you thinking about buying one? Let us know in the comments below what he wants.

So what else has been going on? What else?

Well, from one extreme to the other, almost as if you've planned it.

Dacia have released a concept car called the Hipster. And if you can look beyond the awful name.

Go shoreditch, isn't it? It's a very shoreditch. Yeah. It's an interesting thing.

It looks, if you look at the picture, you think, oh, that's a nice big old,

you know, it's a bit like a PV5 in terms of side. But when you actually look at the driver

driving it, they've either got an enormous head or it's a really small car and it's

the latter. Because it's designed a little bit like a sort of, like a K car, K E I,

another Japanese K car, in so much as it is very small. It is, but massively roomy inside.

It's three meters long, one and a half meters wide and 1.5 meters tall, 800 kilos.

And the whole thing, the whole reason why this exists is because

Dacia and other manufacturers are lobbying the EU to create a separate class of car because

their argument is that cars are too heavy, too expensive, they're too complicated.

For a lot of users, not all users wouldn't have any need for the safety systems that are in

modern production cars. So is there room for an in and in between category between quadricycles

like the AMI and the Twizy and the MicroLeno and a normal car? This would allow them to bring

EVs to the market far quicker, cheaper, less environmental impact because they use less

the fewer materials. So yeah, it's an interesting pack. I think it looks great. It's as close to

where I get as I come to get excited about anything these days in terms of cars. I thought it

looked great. I love the concept of it. But you know, the cars I love, they end up being

financial disasters for the manufacturers. So this is somebody at Dacia has probably listened

to this and putting the plug on it right now because I like it. But it's an interesting package,

isn't it? It's a really clever package. I just love the thought of like, oh my god,

no, Mike likes it. Mike from Electron likes it. Oh no, quick. Back to the drawing board.

I think it's charming. I got quite excited when I saw this so much so that I've already

messaged them and asked if we can go and look at it. I thought it was great. I think it gives me

Citroen olive irons a little bit in its kind of shape, also in the interior. Where you've got

that very simple pair back interior. But you've got just the phone connector and that's it again,

which is also what we get in the Ami of course as well. It's really interesting,

isn't it? Because that's what happened with the, I want to say the Twizy, the Zoe, the

Renault Zoe, really because it didn't have all the safety kits that more expensive cars need,

well that cars need generally for Euro NCAP, that's why it ended up crashing out of Euro

NCAP quite literally, didn't it? It had its score slashed. And it's a really interesting case that

they're making. I mean, I'd be interested to know what people think. Are they prepared to

say, well, I don't really fuss about five-star NCAP rating. I haven't got kids or anything precious

in the car or any myself. And if you ride a scooter or a motorbike or something, you're

used to risk anyway. So are we happy to, if it's with full transparency that you're

getting into a car that doesn't have all the kind of safety kits. I imagine they're

probably engineered these things with airbags and the basic kind of insurance, but not

blooming. This was always, I think, Renault's point, wasn't it, that actually in terms of,

you know, pedestrian impact and side impact, all of those important zones, it actually

was fine in all of those. And I think as long as you know that in terms of crash testing, it's

not going to crumple on you, there are degrees of what you're happy with and what you're not

happy with. But if actually you think, well, I don't need parking sensors and I don't need,

you know, warning lights for, you know, time to take a rest. I don't need all of that stuff.

If you're happy with a more paired-back safety experience, and that doesn't mean that the

vehicle is unsafe, it just means that you're not going to get all the electronic driver aids,

then would that make sense to you? I mean, I don't know, would it bother me? I don't know,

actually. I mean, it's not really something I've thought a great deal of when I've driven

around in an AMI, I've got to say. No. And, you know, I've ridden both bikes and I'd,

you know, like, think I'm safe. But I don't feel like I'm over, I feel like I wouldn't feel under

protected in a car like that, because they would be mostly, I'm not going to take it on the motorway,

I'm going to potter around town in it. And there's lots of people like that. But, you know,

we've been here before with sort of cars like that. I mean, I'm very excited when the first

Smart came out so much so that I, you know, I bought one, I ended up paying off for about

eight years because I was fascinated by it. And this was Mercedes thing about everything's too

heavy, too expensive, too complicated. So we're going to build this car with a Mercedes quality,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And of course, you know, it's one of the greatest financial

disasters in motoring history. Smart, isn't it? Because they never made a dime on it because

everyone said it was a great idea, but no one wanted it. So it'd be interesting to

see whether these cars do have a market. Yeah. I think also, I think that would be so dependent,

on range, on how much, you know, is the range usable? Because if it's the kind of, you know,

Ami, and speed as well, speed, because if, you know, the Ami, I mean, God, would you,

I mean, I remember driving it on just a sort of a, you know, a, not even a B road, but,

you know, a reasonably busy B road. And the one you're talking about when you were

tracking on it. Yeah. Yes. Really not actually liking it very much because I felt quite,

just the speed wasn't enough. You just couldn't get up to enough speed. And it's very disconcerting

having a queue of traffic behind you. And I think that's going to be key for any of the cars in

this class is they've got to have a decent speed. I mean, did you tell me it was 60 or was

that we were just, were we talking about it? And we decided that 60 was about right?

I think we decided it. And the same with range, it's kind of like needs to do, you know, 70,

80 miles for me, I reckon. Yeah. You know, so that it's enough of it, you know, so if you're

living in a city, it would work for you or in a town as well. So that if you haven't got home

charging, and you don't have to charge, you know, this is a kind of thing that could be great

for that. Yeah. I guess the irony of this is that thatcher proposed this, but thatcher

have managed to, you know, they've already built their argument against it in so much as they kind

of argue they can't build a cheap light electric car, but they offer the spring for 14 grand. So

that kind of always already, you're already making one guys, unless you want to sort of

bring in less than that, which is, which we're happy with, we'll take that. That's quite a

challenge, you know, to build anything. Maybe they're looking to try and abuse themselves.

And I think this is going to something we're going to try and make in Europe. So obviously

your production costs are going to be so much higher than coming from, from China.

But yeah, and looking at it again, and it's definitely giving me olive eyes. What do you

think of it gang? Let us know in the comments below. And also let us know on the safety

point of view as well. It's a five-star Euro NCAT rating, something that really

sways your decision. And I'm guessing that may depend a lot on whether you're carrying

kids or other people regularly in the car. It'd be really interesting to hear what you think.

So Mike, have we got any bargains? Have you got bargains for us?

Barnard's bargains. Yeah, he's contacted me. He's sent the bargain over. The email has arrived.

Yeah, he's found two things. If you don't like these, these are Tom that chose them.

Tesla Model 3 performance he's found. Yeah, 82 kilowatt hour. Great car. I mean, we've all

agreed it's a fantastically quick car. Everything you'd want on it. 24,500 quid.

It is 17,900 miles on the clock. It's below 25 grand, so it's 700 and a bit underneath

the book price for it. It was 60 grand new. So yeah, if you're interested,

I've checked it. It's still there. www.electrifying.com for such used cars if you search for Tesla Model

3. It's still there. So it's a bargain. That is a bargain. That might tempt me. It was funny

because we had a Model 3 performance coming in and none of us were that enthusiastic about driving

it, which maybe shows that we need some younger members of the team. I don't know. We were

just all a bit like, okay. I think so. I think we're all would have gone for that,

wouldn't we? A few years ago, I would have been fighting over that.

I needed to check because I'd realized I'd managed to crop that little bit off. It's a 71 plate.

So it's not the earliest one, but it's not the latest one. So I thought it was a really good

package for that amount of money. But if you're in the leasing, if you fancy a bit of leasing,

Tom's found a pre-registrated born, Cooper born, 59 kilowatt hour V1. So it's the base

entry-level one. But that was pretty well equipped, aren't they, Cooper? We've got V2 at the moment,

and it's all the buttons that you wouldn't worry about for anything else. 265 pounds a month

for a four-year deal, 2,382 pounds down as a deposit. That's not bad though, is it? Under

300 quid for a born? Yeah, that is good. And it's a car that we like a lot. I mean, I know

you're running one at the moment, aren't you? But the V1, we've got a long-term review of

that on the website as well, and also on the YouTube channel. We've spent a lot of time in them,

and you do see them around a lot. But again, it's a car that I just think people don't preach

actually how good that is. I think for a long time, it was one of the best cars out of the whole

VW group, really was. It's a great, it's a cracking car. I just was going to talk actually

what I've forgotten to mention was this video that we've done that's out on the YouTube

channel. I thought you jumped on the script, but I'm happy to jump in whenever you need it to.

If you haven't seen it already, please go and watch it, because it is brilliant, and Nicola

is brilliant in it. So we came up with this idea that we love electric cars, and I'm betting

that if you're listening to this, you probably quite like them too. But there are lots of people

out there that don't, and I think it's very easy to sit there and be critical or come out with

all the, oh no, they're absolutely fine, everybody should be driving one. So we decided to try and

find a few people, four people, genuine members of the public who really don't like electric cars,

and put them in them for the first time, and see if we could convert the EV haters.

And it's possibly one of the funniest days I've ever had. And I think it was

such a laugh, wasn't it, Mike? It was great. I don't want to do a spoiler because you need to

watch the video to see if we did convert anyone at the end, but you also do need to just watch

and just see their reactions at the beginning to just why they don't like electric cars because

they are, but there will be the things that if you drive in an EV, there'll be the things

that your mate, Dan, the pub who doesn't like them has said, and you know your next door

neighbour who thinks you're mad has said. So it was really sort of common criticism, often unfounded.

And it was such a fantastic experience, but by far the best line from it was when

one of them, a lovely lady called Sarita, likened the experience of driving her electric

car for the first, an electric car for the first time, was like driving her mobile phone.

Yeah. Which I just thought was fantastic.

I didn't know what to do with that. I mean, yeah, it was brilliant.

Though, I mean, they were great. I mean, fair play to everybody who came along to that because,

and you know, they stuck to their guns, but they equally, you know, as you say, we don't want

to spoil that, but they were open to trying stuff. And that's sometimes that's part

of the battle, isn't it? And then so much as you don't lose face by saying, you know,

actually, I was wrong. Yeah. And I would say the results are mixed. But it does make fascinating

viewing, you know, finally to get somebody where you can actually, because you can say to somebody,

you know, I meet people at Running Club and say, Oh, it doesn't do this. It doesn't do that.

Like, they're no good for me. And you say something to them, but you can tell that

the shutters are down already. But if you actually put people in cars, show them what

it's like. Yeah, I mean, generally speaking, most people are surprised, aren't they? In a nice way.

They are. And like you say, hats off to them. They were absolutely brilliant sports. Also,

because they were really happy to talk about the things they were, you know, concerned about,

which again, is quite a hard thing to do. And it's on there on a video and YouTube with,

you know, all these people watching it, they were great. So if you haven't already gone,

check that out. It is over on the YouTube channel. And it is well worth a watch. It will definitely

make you chuck up Nicola. Nicola handles it all brilliantly. Let's just say. She does.

And we've got any, we don't, we don't have a welcome to electric this week. Don't we?

We don't. We've got two potential ones. Join the electric car club over the last few weeks.

Let us know. Do drop us an email or in the comments below and we'll do a welcome to

electric to you. But we do have buying questions. Don't we? What's our first buying question, Mike?

This is from Stu. We had, we had, we had three, we had two buying questions this week. We had one

from Stu, STU. And then we had one from Psy. He was S. He signed himself as Si Psy. So I figured

if it had gone on any longer, we'd just have somebody just called S, you know, because

it was just like very short on letters this morning, this week for, for the, for the questions.

Anyway, for this is from Stu via podcast. Electrifying.com. He says, I currently have a Citroen

C5X FEV Nicola. Yes, the indicator sound is good. I know Nicola, I do that, but I'm looking to replace

it with a two to three year old EV. I've had Citroen cars, most of my likes. I like the comfort

you are. Not alone, Stu, because I think that's, that's certainly Citroen, Citroen's USPs, isn't

it? Anyway, I've looked at the ENYAK 80 as a possible replacement, but this has to be

near on self financing. They're hard to find at the right price. Quite a bit of money.

And in reality, in reality, it may be a good idea to drop down a segment and get a slightly smaller

car. So now to the question, what choices do I have for a floaty comfortable car similar to the

C4? The C4 is possibly on my shortlist, but like other Stellantis cars, it doesn't always

live up to the WL2P specified range. And it was interesting because this led to a conversation

between the two of us saying that, you know, comfort in cars is not something that's prioritized by all

car makers. It's not. They want them sporty and dynamic. Yes, it is. And the one that I thought

of was the Renault 4, which is very similar in price to the Citroen. I think you'd agree, Mike,

very nice car to drive that. It's got a very nice ride and actually is just a really good all-round

car with loads of space, very practical. Yes. But we were kind of struggling a little bit with

this one, weren't we? We were because, yeah, because everything we picked out would price-wise

a little bit. I think kind of Volkswagen Groupie tends to be anything kind of German,

is almost by default has a fairly firm ride. I think it's a lot of it is down to the fact that

roads in Germany are a lot better than ours. So generally speaking, when cars are sort of

benchmarked in Europe and then they come to the UK, you really notice the difference.

Yeah. But yeah, I mean, at C4, it'd certainly be cheap because C4 prices are very accessible,

I think, is the word they like to use, isn't it? Yes. Renault 4, yes, and we don't say a budget,

but two to three-year-old, I'm thinking it's going to be around the kind of, yeah, you probably

could get a new entry-level 4, which would probably be a bonus because the bigger, the

posture Renault 4s all come with bigger wheels than as we discussed. You could almost buy any car,

but as long as it's on small wheels, because it absolutely does make a huge difference,

doesn't it? My buzz is on 21-inch comedy wheels and the ride is atrocious,

but I've driven one of them on 19s and they're great. It feels a completely different car,

so maybe that, you think L-Rock as well, don't you, might be an option? I thought L-Rock

would be a good one because it does have that nice kind of Škoda, kind of slightly wafty ride

that the Enyak has got, albeit in a smaller package, and then we started to look at use cars as well,

didn't we? We did. Because once you go into the use market, I think you are actually getting

some more interesting options for around the same money, but I don't know if that would be a

possibility for you because once you get into there, then it opens up a whole host of

more expensive premium cars that are now hitting more affordable prices that have definitely got that

more wafty comfort built into them, but again, the caveat being you need to really think about

the wheels that they've been spent with and nothing too big. Am I right? Did you find an I-4

or am I making that up? No, I did find an I-4, which totally undoes my argument about not

buying a German car, obviously, because an I-4 is very German. It does actually, yeah.

But what you want is an I-4 that somebody's paid for themselves, so they haven't bothered

ponying up for the big wheels, because a standard BMW is coming on quite small wheels, but generally

speaking, because they're all bought by companies and people just tick all the box, yes, I need the

M Sport 21-inch wheels, they end up being on huge, but you can find them. And if you do find one

that's on small wheels, I think that would be, and the suspension generally on premium cars is

a little bit better, a little bit of kind of higher quality of damping, that kind of thing.

So you might find that something like that, something like an I-4 or even a Q-4 that you,

you had a Q-4 for a while, didn't you? I had a Q-4 and that had a very, you know, and again,

just don't go with silly with the big wheels, but the ride on that was pretty nice. I also thought

about the Toyota Barrie, as we fondly call it, but its official name is the BZ-4, which I think

they've shortened now, haven't they? But we didn't like that, so we rechristened it just the Barrie

Electrifying, which we think it suits. Tom had one of those for a while,

it's a massively practical car. I had it, and I wasn't enamoured with it as much as Tom was,

but he, I remember him being particularly fond of the ride on that car, that was one of the things

that he really liked, and he likes a big ol' comfy car, doesn't he? Yeah, he's got a bad

back, so he's the person to ask about ride quality because he soon complains. I mean,

it's like, you know, that we never heard the end of it when he had that Mini Cooper works.

Oh, he hated it. That was a waltz week of his life. Literally, I think he'd have

rather walked than got in that car. He would. It just took Umbridge, didn't he?

He took his 20-year-old panda everywhere, not the bear, but the car everywhere, because

he couldn't stand the Mini's ride quality. And the other thing, just to point out as well,

that I know in the email you did mention, Stu, that you had looked at an ENYAC,

of course, once you start to look in the use market for around that same money,

you will get an absolute cracker of an ENYAC, because they are, you know,

what are you raising your eyebrows for? Because I've mentioned the ENYAC.

No, no, that's the swear jar of the ENYAC. He was doing to put it in the email.

He literally put that in as a car that he's considered, but actually,

it was hard to get the one that he wanted. So, yeah, I reckon go and have a look at

the Electrifying.com used cars, used car listings and see if you could find

something in there instead. Maybe you don't go new. Yeah.

Shall I do Psy's? You go for Psy. Yeah. I'll go for Psy's. This is an interesting one.

Psy sent us an email, podcast.electrifying.com, if you want to do the same.

Psy said, I'm currently driving a Subaru out back and contemplate what I'm

contemplating even, what on earth to replace it with if I can.

Range is very important. Performance is very important. Gosh,

those two don't really go hand in hand, do they? Driving experience is important.

Speed, ease of charging is important. So far, my list to look at includes the ID7 GTX Tourer,

probably the obvious replacement really, the Model 3 dual motor long range.

Shame they don't make a wagon. The MG-IM5 performance could be a left-field option,

the BMW i4 M60. The ID7 seems to take virtually all the boxes of the outback,

except that rather silly restricted 112 miles per hour top speed. And you think anything I might

have overlooked? I think quite possibly, Psy, you might have overlooked the speed limits in the

year. Maybe? I don't know. I mean, it doesn't say. I don't think he's from Germany. I don't

think he's in the Autobahn every morning. But yeah. I'm sure Psy just means that

I don't know anyway, Psy, driving at that speed because we're not going to be looking for a car

for you for much longer if you are. Vicky would say if she was here, she would say ID7, do it,

do it, do it, do it, do it. I am airing actually on that list towards the BMW i4 M60.

I think that's an absolutely brilliant car. And actually one of those cars that again,

because it's been out for a few years now, we kind of forget that a little bit, but oh,

it's a, I think I still think that's one of BMW's nicest driving cars, drives really well.

And in terms of the things that you want, which is range, it's got, which is performance,

it's got, it is very, very nice to drive. And also the charging is good and it's

efficient. I mean, it's, it's, it's got a really good rating in our electrifying efficiency

rating. So personally, for me, I would take, I would steer you in the direction if you haven't

already of taking an i4 out and just spending a bit of time in that. I wouldn't bother with the M3

dual motor long range. I just don't think the ride's nice enough on it. The MGI M5 is an

interesting one. So drove that a few weeks ago and you drove it. We talked about this last

week, didn't we, Mike, all the way before. Yeah. It's quite, it's quite a nice car to drive on.

But the performance is utterly mad, which might actually stew,

suit and sigh down to the ground. 700 horsepower. Yeah. It's got absolutely

ridiculous amounts of power. It does. What did you think of it when you drove it?

Yeah. I mean, I drove a test track. So I mean, we all beat on a very short bit. Yeah. I mean,

it's, I'd like to have driven a bit, a little bit further and get sort of under the skin of it.

I think when you drive cars for occasionally like that, just quick bursts. It's hard to get a picture

of what it's like. But I mean, it certainly felt really good quality, you know, inside and out.

Yeah. It just felt, it was felt really slick. So yeah, I mean, it's, you can see why they wanted

to call it MGIM rather than just to kind of give it just another MG number because it isn't,

it is feel a notch different to the MG products that we've driven. So, yeah,

it was interesting. I mean, going back to what Si was saying, I like the ID7 wagon,

but I'm surprised no manufacturer yet has come up with a kind of high riding estate, you know,

because we share the, I don't know if it's you as well, but I know Barnard and I really like the

old Volvo XC70, you know, and those, and Audi all roads. Remember those, those kind of like,

and that strikes me as a great compromise because you still got the slightly at the

right high riding position where people like from, you know, an SUV, but you've got a more aero kind

of friendliness of an estate. So why hasn't anyone done that yet? Volkswagen build one, please, because,

you know, you've got the heritage, you've got the heritage to do it. I really liked that

Octavia think concept that I saw in Munich. What's that called the concept? Oh,

yeah, vision, vision. Oh, the vision. Oh, it was the concept. Three was the,

was the different one. That was the Hyundai one, wasn't it? I thought, I think if they,

that could, I think that could be lovely. You know, give that a bit of punch and

performance and stick a VRS badge on that when it comes out. And I think that will be an awful

lot of fun to drive. But yeah, I think you've got some good solid choices there. But I,

the two that I think the, the Electrifying team would advise you to try would be I4

and the, and the ID7. Yeah, I reckon. You'd be happy with either of those.

But maybe just go out in the MGIM, just to give it a try because they're not to 60

times our nuts and it does sound like that might appeal to you, if I'm honest.

Cocker breaks as well, which is always important with performance like that.

Right, should we go on to some comments? Should we see what you've all been,

you all have to say. And there's been one, one, one subject has been absolutely inundating

the comment section, hasn't it? The EV4 has caused such a stir. Around 80% of all the

comments we've received have been about it. So it's a very divisive car, I think it's

fair to say. And let's go through a few of them. So JJ's YouTube, who left a comment on YouTube.

I like the EV4 hatch, not keen on the saloon model. The hatch will be a good seller for the

brand. This seems to be a theme if you stay with us. RJB 1970, if you want some validation

for your dislike of the EV4, I went to one of the EV4, EV5 launch events last week.

The guy presenting asked, who's here for the EV4? Nobody put their hand up.

Rita Mason, 8033. I can't believe you say the EV4 looks bad and you praise the EV3 and the

nine that are boxes on wheels with lots of awful black plastic, just for a bit of balance.

Stuart Hargraves, I don't see the issue with the EV4 hatch, the fastback though is horrendous.

Stuart, I think you'll find this is what we agree with you on. And we've said,

actually quite like the hatchback. It's just that fastback. It really is

a very unusual looking thing from the rear. Ken H63. I saw the EV4 hatchback at the EV5 launch.

Lots of you did that apparently. I preferred it to the EV5, which surprised me as I was

expecting to like the EV5 more than I did. I like chunky cars as I have an old galaxy,

but this didn't feel right. And I would absolutely agree with you. So one of the other vehicles

that I drove out in Korea was the EV5 and we've got a video of that coming to the

YouTube channel. And there's something about the design that I just don't like as much as the EV3

and the EV6 and the EV9. It's just not as compelling as those cars. And I would agree,

I think the EV4 hatch is great. Anyway, so there we go. We had quite a lot of people.

Do you want to take a few more? Because there's more, aren't there?

We are urban strength and says I must disagree with you once. For me, the EV4 hatchback

is the new Golf of the EV world. And I actually like the way it looks. Hope to see a proper GT version

to give the Golf R some competition. Yeah, I think, yeah, as you clarified, I think we do

like the hatch. I wouldn't say it's paired. There's some odd things about the back of it,

but there's a pair of them. That is the better looking one. And at Gorin Stuart 4.726,

there's anything next to the EV4 hatchback would look good. So you know, you can't win.

You can't win, but listen, keep them coming. And again, we do just to be fair,

we do like the hatchback. It was more that fastback, which is a car. What's the old phrase?

Only a mother could love. Just going back to Ken H63, who messaged in about the EV4,

he also went on today because I want to move back to the micro now. I really don't see

your problem with the micro. Let's talk about that again. Let's put me back on the naughty

step. As ordinary people, only care if it looks okay inside and out, which it does.

90% of buyers will not sit in an R5 and compare. The other 10% won't mind if it looks the same.

It comes down to brand preference and cost. Yes, Ken. My EV is a five-year-old Ignira,

which is great. While I can afford it, I'd like a used bus to replace the Galaxy and perhaps

an Insta as a second car. A man with taste. A man with taste. A man with taste. You speak sense.

Talk to my first before you buy the bus. I've taken the one from that.

And with the Insta, we give you a thumbs up for that because that's a car we're very

fond of. Okay, how many more episodes am I going to get told off? But Onita and I are going to get

told off. Al Robinson. Al Robinson 3. We've got one more comment, which you've missed, which is

Al Robinson 6369 says, these last two podcasts were possibly your best ever. Slightly exasperated

Mike and the Naughty Twins on top four never change electrifying. That's very nice.

We won't change. We'll get the other Naughty Twin back for the next episode when she's had her battery

fully recharged. But until we are back next time, thank you so much for joining us. As always,

do send your questions in. You can email us podcast.electrifying.com. You can, you know,

send us abuse in the comments section, which is of course what YouTube comments for. We read

them all. We cry sometimes, we laugh mostly. But thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time.

Bye bye. Bye.

Episode 89: Budget Buzz, the Dinky Dacia and the Gilded Genesis

About this episode

Dodge Charger

Genesis GV60

Hyundai Ioniq 5

Volkswagen Id3

Hyundai Genesis

Volkswagen Id Buzz

Citroen AMI

Renault ZOE

Tesla Model

Tesla Model 3

Renault 4

Volkswagen Id7

Subaru Outback

Bmw I4

BMW M3

BMW M5

Volvo XC70

Audi All Roads

Skoda Octavia

Kia EV4

Kia EV5

Kia EV3

Ford Galaxy

Kia EV9

Kia EV6

Volkswagen Golf

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