Electric Cars:what's available?

[NewcastleFalcon]

Citroen itself does a very lightweight city mobility solution on the roads of France now.
I presume because the Citroen Ami is classed as a light quadricycle it doesn't do the full, if any Euro NCAP tests. Presume the same is the case if it eventually copies the Twizy in the UK, and offers a heavy quadricycle version.

Europes cheapest EV, must have put the Dacia Spring through the Tests, due to be on the streets of Paris and Madrid with the sharing service Zity right now, but whether that has happened yet I don't know.

Please chip in anyone with a bit of finding out

I see from a few videos that the plastic Citroen E-mehari went through the tests!


Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

If the EV is travelling at 30MPH, and the Range Rover hits it head on at 40MPH you then have a combined speed of 70MPH.

Simon having already answered that I will simply point out that if you get anything doing 40mph in London rush hour you are a better man than me James!!

A more sensible test would be what happens when you hit a pedestrian at 15mph? Just need a pedestrian volunteer!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Citroen itself does a very lightweight city mobility solution on the roads of France now.
I presume because the Citroen Ami is classed as a light quadricycle it doesn't do the full, if any Euro NCAP tests. Presume the same is the case if it eventually copies the Twizy in the UK, and offers a heavy quadricycle version.

Europes cheapest EV, must have put the Dacia Spring through the Tests, due to be on the streets of Paris and Madrid with the sharing service Zity right now, but whether that has happened yet I don't know.

Please chip in anyone with a bit of finding out

I see from a few videos that the plastic Citroen E-mehari went through the tests!
Regards Neil

The Renault Twizy Heavy Quadricycle had an NCAP Test in 2014. Cant find any NCAP ratings for light quadricyles
so perhaps the Citroen Ami and other light quadricyles are exempt.

https://www.euroncap.com/en/ratings-rew ... e-ratings/

[NewcastleFalcon]

Full details on the NCAP ratings for Heavy Quadricycles here. The Citroen Ami in its current form falls within the weight and speed restrictions of a light quadricycle.

Euro NCAP developed special protocols for testing heavy quadricycles. These vehicles are not subject to the same legislation as passenger cars, and do not have to be crash tested before they can be sold for road use. Safety equipment such as a driver or passenger airbag is also sparsely fitted to these vehicles and it is expected that they would all perform very poorly when tested using Euro NCAP’s regular procedures for passenger cars. Nevertheless, heavy quadricycles are allowed on public roads where they are at risk of collision with other vehicles or obstacles. Therefore, tests are used which challenge the vehicle structure and occupant restraint systems but which offer some resolution in results to allow for meaningful comparison between vehicles in this category.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

The small ev's tend to get 3 Star NCAP ratings. Skoda Citigo, VW Up!, Seat Mii unsurprisingly get the same rating seeing as they are the same thing really. Bit of effort over in Latvia and this could maybe achieve 3 stars too.

As well as the "crash testing" which we are all familiar with, the category in the NCAP ratings for "Safety Assistance" is where the enhanced services in the better specification vehicles score higher. If you look at the VW Up! in 2011 it achieved a 5 star rating, in 2019 a 3 star rating, much down to the Safety Assistance score which went down from 86% to 55%.


????mini EV 9735 1
David290, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

[bobins]

Euro NCAP tests aren't mandatory, they're voluntary.

"The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) is a European voluntary car safety performance assessment programme (i.e. a New Car Assessment Program) based in Leuven (Belgium) formed in 1996, with the first results released in February 1997."

"Euro NCAP is a voluntary vehicle safety rating system created by the Swedish Road Administration, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and International Consumer Research & Testing, backed by 14 members, and motoring & consumer organisations in several EU country. They provide European consumers with information regarding the safety of passenger vehicles. In 1998, operations moved from London to Brussels."

"Euro NCAP's ratings consist of percentage scores for Adult Occupant, Child Occupant, Vulnerable Road Users and Safety Assist and are delivered in the overall rating of stars, 5 being the best and 0 being the worst.
5 star safety: Overall excellent performance in crash protection and well equipped with comprehensive and robust crash avoidance technology
4 star safety: Overall good performance in crash protection and all round; additional crash avoidance technology may be present
3 star safety: At least average occupant protection but not always equipped with the latest crash avoidance features
2 star safety: Nominal crash protection but lacking crash avoidance technology
1 star safety: Marginal crash protection and little in the way of crash avoidance technology
0 star safety: Meeting type-approval standards so can legally be sold but lacking critical modern safety technology"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_NCAP

[Mandrake]

More on the Hyundai / LG Chem battery fire issue:

https://insideevs.com/news/492167/repor ... ry-recall/

LG Chem to foot 70% of the cost of the recall. Quite a high proportion for a company who claimed that Hyundai was to blame for the problem.

[Wookey]

I have a mate who lives in Islington North London and works in Hammersmith. Given that he does not like the issues you face with public transport in London late at night, he commutes by road. Without doubt the fastest way of doing that in London is on his push bike as he does not trust motorcycles. However that is only really doable during fair weather as not only the cold but the slippery roads make it hazardous in the wet.

Obviously commuting by bike in London is very sensible and is getting more civilised every year as better infrastructure is built, but it's really not true that pushbikes don't work in the rain. They work just fine, and if your mate has some decent waterproofs he'll be fine too. He's clearly a lightweight and is making excuses about 'slippery roads' to avoid getting damp Obviously it is nicer when it's sunny and dry and you can go faster but thousands manage to commute in all weathers. If you have half an hour slack in arrival time then it's remarkable just how rarely you get significantly rained-on. I get proper seriously-rained-on about 3 times/yr here in Cambridge., given the ability to leave it for half an hour if it looks horrid. Rainstorms don't usually last too long.

On the tiddly little Chinese cars they are obviously better than everyone driving around in X5s and the like, and clearly have a place, but anyone who only has themselves to shift for a reasonable short urban journey should be doing active or public travel. Small cars are still cars and a fantastic waste of space, time, resources and money if all that needs moving is one human and a small bag of stuff for less than 5 miles. They also spoil the environment generally with noise, road danger, congestion and isolation (as we all all saw in Lockdown one) and make the users fat and poorly. Unfortunately the place is full of lightweights like mick's mate who think they'll dissolve in the rain so want to take a big box with them everywhere they go even when it's totally unnecessary. It needs to stop.

[mickthemaverick]

The issue on wet days in London is not the rain itself, he tells me. Its the horrendous number of inconsiderate drivers who when they get 15 yards of space on the road leap forward and spray the cyclists with dirty contaminated water that hasn't drained as it should. The condition of many road surfaces is such that the surface blisters cause puddles which seem to attract car and bus wheels!! That is why he doesn't like riding in the rain, not the wetness but the filth that he gets sprayed with!! As for being a lightweight he's well over six feet tall with a robust number 8's physique!!

[Gibbo2286]

I think you 'get on your bike' advocates forget that not everyone can, I'm not sure my 86 year old legs are up to it.

[Wookey]

I think you 'get on your bike' advocates forget that not everyone can, I'm not sure my 86 year old legs are up to it.

E-bikes for you Gibbo (or an e-trike)

Yes, obviously not everyone can cycle (or walk) for every journey. There are lots of variables, but the UK average is 2% of trips are cycled. It should be more like 40% (and is in countries/areas that take active travel seriously). The low numbers are because we've made it utterly miserable, if not actually dangerous, to cycle in (most of) this country, whilst making it very easy and convenient to drive. It's not a huge surprise what happens.

86-year old Dutch legs are not intrinsically better than British legs (but they will have been cycling for 80 years already and are probably a lot healthier for it). More than half the bikes sold in the Netherlands are now e-bikes and they are of course incredibly popular with the over-60s. It's the very old and the very young that benefit most from segregation and nice wide tracks: they can't go fast, even if they wanted to, and they need room to wobble, or use a trike. People who cycle into their 80s tend to be implausibly healthy: https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/marlpit-co ... ng-1395244 https://road.cc/content/news/238435-cyc ... 0-year-old (not sure I can cycle 100km in 6.5 hours, having never actually cycled more than 80! I think we can put the people in that study down as keenies rather than normal transport cyclists who just go to the shops/pub/work/church/school/whatever

But yeah, if you really are too knackered, then a tiny Chinese EV makes sense, and your life will be much improved if the road isn't completely full of people who aren't even 70 but are still going less than 2 miles by car

[NewcastleFalcon]

moved forward

[Skull]

C1 Evie

[mickthemaverick]

Where have I seen this before?

Spoiler: show

BFTW

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2015-Nissan- ... Swigpf44bd

[NewcastleFalcon]

Where have I seen this before?

Spoiler: show

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2015-Nissan- ... Swigpf44bd

Quite similar to my very own BB Leaf Mick, Shiny ears, Alizarin Crimson, and a mileage remarkably similar to when I got mine in November 2019. Its the next spec up to my acenta, Leather Seats fancy wheels etc.

Regards Neil