Let me introduce you to the Volvo EX30. I think you might get on. Swift, desirable, beautifully finished and it costs less than £34k. Initially I just couldn’t work out how Volvo had done it for the money. Later, I’d work it out.
But here’s where we’re going to start: value. Electric cars have received a kicking for not being affordable enough, but now we’re starting to see prices coming down. Not quite to MG4 levels, but far enough to make you sit up and pay attention. As you can see they all start from around £35,000. Put a six-grand deposit down and you can have a Smart One for £280 a month over three years. That’s not bad at all. In fact it’s not a bad car all round, as I’ll come on to.
This is the core of the electric market, this is where future growth will likely come from. Because crossover. Not necessarily these four cars alone, as they’re splashing around in a deep pool of talent that extends from lifted hatches such as the Renault Megane E-Tech to new incomers from China – think BYD Atto. Interested in how those all fit together? So were we, so in parallel to this test we actually shot a 10 car film. Dig it out on YouTube or at topgear.com.
Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av BBC Top Gear UK.
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Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av BBC Top Gear UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
ELECTROMECHANIC
Meet the electric restomod that you can create at home it's so easy you can do the conversion in a day, apparently
ALL THE SMALL THINGS
Word is there's no such thing as a decent, small, simple, reasonably priced car these days. Allow TopGear to investigate
VOLKSWAGEN ID.BUZZ 7-SEAT
Volkswagen’s new seven seater ID.Buzz is now the family mover it always should have been
BMW M5
TO THE POINT: THE NEW BMW M5 IS AN excellent car. It's very fast, confident, endlessly configurable and now offers a not inconsequential 40ish miles of electric-only running for happy tax returns.
VAUXHALL GRANDLAND vs FORD EXPLORER
These two brands have been the 'pile it high, sell it cheap' kings of the UK market for decades, but their new core models take a very different tack...
CAR OF THE YEAR - 5 STAR
Yep, Renault's retro-chic new supermini with an optional wicker baguette holder Scoops the grand prix...
MEANWHILE... IN THE FUTURE
Catching rockets with chopsticks isn't the only autonomous tech going on in Elon Musk's world...
KING OF THE HILLS
You wait for one 800+bhp super GT, then two rock up at once. It's the Aston/Ferrari showdown we've all been waiting for...
PACKAGE
What better way to test the Hyundai Santa Fe's SUV-ness than hand delivering TopGear magazine to each and every subscriber in... New Zealand?
MYTH BUSTER
\"THE GOLF GTI WAS THE OG HOT HATCH\"