levsha
Member
Hi!
We've been slowly looking around for our next car. The current one works well, so we are not in rush. It's rather "want something new, so justify it for yourself as a need to replace the current one eventually".
The current one is 2018th year Peugeot 5008. I guess it not well known in the US, but pretty popular in Europe.
And it matches our needs perfectly: reasonably sized car with 5 fully functional seats and 2 additional "occasional" seats.
It is 4.65m long - it's crucial in Europe.
The second row is proper 3 seats row - we can have two child seats there and still an adult fitting between - surprisingly not many car can do that.
We use 3rd row maybe once a month or every other month for up to 1 hour trips with friends or relatives, all the other time it's folded down, providing pretty big trunk instead - exactly what we need.
So the next car. All our family agreed it going to be a BEV. Even though I do the math regularly and dont believe it will be cheaper for us overall: no tax credit etc for BEV in Switzerland, electricity cost is still noticeable, even with the local gas prices the parity will be reached in 5 or even more years.
Most likely it will be the only car in the family - replace the current one. It doesn't make any sense for us to have more than one: I never commute by car, never use a car for business trips - the public transit is awesome here in Switzerland. So we need something universal.
Surprisingly there are not so many options on the market now...
The new Peugeot E-5008. Somehow they managed to make almost everything slightly worse than our current 5008. 20cm longer that doesn't give noticeably more space inside - is Lucid the only one who understands that electric platform should allow to use the size more efficiently? They've put 40/60 seats in the second row instead of 3 separate seats previously - you can't fit 2 child seats and adult there anymore. And then many small things, not critical but still annoying: very nonlinear breaking, buttons instead of very convenient gear selector before, charging port in the left back - not very practical in Europe, their own entertainment system - nice looking but pretty poor functionally, so we just always use Android Auto.
Kia EV9. Seems to be good option, just a few minuses. More expensive. >5m long - significantly more than our current car. Their own entertainment system - so we'll use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, with questionable integration with BEV - I guess you'd want to have some integration so your long trip navigation will take the SOC and charging network into account. Start/Stop button in a BEV? Oookay.
Volvo EX90. Even more expensive. Also >5m long. Hej Volvo, when you'll finally make it available? How many years will it take to make things like pre-installed lidar to work and to fix all software bugs in your new platform? 5m long, still not enough space for an adult in the 3rd row? Glass roof that doesn't open and doesn't even have blinds? How much does it cost again? Charging port on the back left - please stop blindly copying Tesla! Two door window switches with the front/back button switch? How much did you save on this stupid thing? Ok, you used Android Automotive instead of building your own entertainment system - thank you Volvo!
Volkswagen ID.Buzz. It's boooring minivan. Crappy entertainment system, disappointing range. And this is electric-only platform minivan - how come you need long wheelbase to fit 3 rows? Oh and 3 rows option is still not available in Europe? Thank you no.
Tesla Model Y. We were seriously considering it. Until we tested it - complete disappointment. The overall quality as acceptable for a car that would cost 1/3 of it, something like and old Dacia Logan (the new one is probably better). Seats - how short should you be to feel comfortable? The big tablet on the center with everything there, often with small fonts - I'm not sure I'll get used to it. Buttons on steering wheel for turn signals - I'm sure I'll never be able to use them well, and nobody will, and no way anybody will be able to use them properly when leaving roundabout (we have tons of roundabouts in Europe). Swipe on the screen for gear selector? Just no. Oh, and 7 seat option just not available in Europe - of course who would need 7 seater in Europe?
So there we go, Gravity looks like very interesting option. Yes, it's also 5 meters long - I've almost accepted that a 7 seater is 5 meters long today. But at least here these 5 meters are very efficiently used. Yes, it will be pretty expensive. But I expect it will be comparable or even cheaper than EX90, maybe even comparable to EV9. It's own entertainment system - I don't like this TBH and don't believe it will be as conventient as Android Automotive in EX90.
Other than that it looks pretty good!
The only problem is I've never seen it in real life yet (yes I know almost nobody had seen it in real life yet). Not even talking about driving. So I guess it's still a long journey, especially if I'll not want to go into any binding agreement before test drive.
We've been slowly looking around for our next car. The current one works well, so we are not in rush. It's rather "want something new, so justify it for yourself as a need to replace the current one eventually".
The current one is 2018th year Peugeot 5008. I guess it not well known in the US, but pretty popular in Europe.
And it matches our needs perfectly: reasonably sized car with 5 fully functional seats and 2 additional "occasional" seats.
It is 4.65m long - it's crucial in Europe.
The second row is proper 3 seats row - we can have two child seats there and still an adult fitting between - surprisingly not many car can do that.
We use 3rd row maybe once a month or every other month for up to 1 hour trips with friends or relatives, all the other time it's folded down, providing pretty big trunk instead - exactly what we need.
So the next car. All our family agreed it going to be a BEV. Even though I do the math regularly and dont believe it will be cheaper for us overall: no tax credit etc for BEV in Switzerland, electricity cost is still noticeable, even with the local gas prices the parity will be reached in 5 or even more years.
Most likely it will be the only car in the family - replace the current one. It doesn't make any sense for us to have more than one: I never commute by car, never use a car for business trips - the public transit is awesome here in Switzerland. So we need something universal.
Surprisingly there are not so many options on the market now...
The new Peugeot E-5008. Somehow they managed to make almost everything slightly worse than our current 5008. 20cm longer that doesn't give noticeably more space inside - is Lucid the only one who understands that electric platform should allow to use the size more efficiently? They've put 40/60 seats in the second row instead of 3 separate seats previously - you can't fit 2 child seats and adult there anymore. And then many small things, not critical but still annoying: very nonlinear breaking, buttons instead of very convenient gear selector before, charging port in the left back - not very practical in Europe, their own entertainment system - nice looking but pretty poor functionally, so we just always use Android Auto.
Kia EV9. Seems to be good option, just a few minuses. More expensive. >5m long - significantly more than our current car. Their own entertainment system - so we'll use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, with questionable integration with BEV - I guess you'd want to have some integration so your long trip navigation will take the SOC and charging network into account. Start/Stop button in a BEV? Oookay.
Volvo EX90. Even more expensive. Also >5m long. Hej Volvo, when you'll finally make it available? How many years will it take to make things like pre-installed lidar to work and to fix all software bugs in your new platform? 5m long, still not enough space for an adult in the 3rd row? Glass roof that doesn't open and doesn't even have blinds? How much does it cost again? Charging port on the back left - please stop blindly copying Tesla! Two door window switches with the front/back button switch? How much did you save on this stupid thing? Ok, you used Android Automotive instead of building your own entertainment system - thank you Volvo!
Volkswagen ID.Buzz. It's boooring minivan. Crappy entertainment system, disappointing range. And this is electric-only platform minivan - how come you need long wheelbase to fit 3 rows? Oh and 3 rows option is still not available in Europe? Thank you no.
Tesla Model Y. We were seriously considering it. Until we tested it - complete disappointment. The overall quality as acceptable for a car that would cost 1/3 of it, something like and old Dacia Logan (the new one is probably better). Seats - how short should you be to feel comfortable? The big tablet on the center with everything there, often with small fonts - I'm not sure I'll get used to it. Buttons on steering wheel for turn signals - I'm sure I'll never be able to use them well, and nobody will, and no way anybody will be able to use them properly when leaving roundabout (we have tons of roundabouts in Europe). Swipe on the screen for gear selector? Just no. Oh, and 7 seat option just not available in Europe - of course who would need 7 seater in Europe?
So there we go, Gravity looks like very interesting option. Yes, it's also 5 meters long - I've almost accepted that a 7 seater is 5 meters long today. But at least here these 5 meters are very efficiently used. Yes, it will be pretty expensive. But I expect it will be comparable or even cheaper than EX90, maybe even comparable to EV9. It's own entertainment system - I don't like this TBH and don't believe it will be as conventient as Android Automotive in EX90.
Other than that it looks pretty good!
The only problem is I've never seen it in real life yet (yes I know almost nobody had seen it in real life yet). Not even talking about driving. So I guess it's still a long journey, especially if I'll not want to go into any binding agreement before test drive.
