Depreciation on i8

Reckon they really need to cover the batteries under the Insured warranty to make it a viable longer term prospect

 

Or a contribution.
They will be incredibly expensive.
A replacement on the Panamera is £20k we were told (my biz partner had a new one within a few months)

 

I'm of the same mind for large capacity diesels at the moment.

 

Yeah, I am same with any diesel for my company's fleet, which other than the two Panameras they all are.
We have moved away from leasing, for various reasons, and just think how much will the residual be on a diesel now the government have made them something to be avoided.
I am considering hybrids an option now.

 

PCP's and Personal leases are plentiful and easy nowadays so have you considered providing a car allowance for your employees ?

Depending on your companies circumstance's it may also be mutually beneficial to look at a salary sacrifice scheme that includes car leasing, particularly if Hybrids would be attractive to your staff.

 

The problem with an allowance, whilst its not a bad idea, is that some might buy a shed, or some might buy a 2 seater that's not any use for an engineer with substantial kit sometimes, or something that does 10mpg and expect us to fund that for business.
And finally, even given a choice they end up not happy.
For example, 1 guy ( a senior guy) wanted a 318gt to get his tax down, previously had a 520m sport (F?), I questioned it many times, he was happy, a couple of months in he hated it, to under powered blah blah, hes now in an X4 (half threatening to leave !!! ), another engineer got given his 318GT still under contract, the same guy is now complaining of tax in his X4, a year to go under the lease. On the 318GT we ended up buying it from Alphabet Leasing, as it had a hard life and was cheaper probably.

Will have a bit of a look into that though.

 

Never realised they made one of those, just googled it... jeez that thing's a minger

 

£20K for a new battery pack will buy several years fuel for a diesel, however unpopular they may be. There's a lot of hidden costs with EV's and until they do something about the mileage range, I'll be sticking with my 330d for the time being.

I know that the hybrids such as the i8 supposedly offer the solution, but I remember seeing it road tested by Clarkson on Top Gear. Although the i8's official fuel consumption is shown as 134 Mpg, during the road test, the overall average they achieved was around 30 Mpg. So not really that frugal. No doubt they were driving it near the maximum a lot of the time.

 

I agree with you entirely, and still love to see a 640d.
I would hope, as a manufacturer, they recognise that the battery cost is a real issue and have some thing in place or in mind to tackle that sooner rather than later.

The battery on a Panamera hybrid is a Bosch, (actually one of my guys has been in the factory for a different reason as a supplier of some part of their factory system - very impressive), but I would imagine the batteries will drop in price, as most if not all technology does. Perhaps the Porsche one will still be higher price than some.

The Porsche Panamera hybrid has been around since 2008 in its first form, my first was its second form , albeit not a "generation" change, my new one is 3rd form, and is so much better than the previous two.
I have not heard of any battery being changed on a Porsche forum, albeit I haven't gone looking. The battery was changed as (according to Porsche), the tolerances are set very low by Porsche AG, and one of the cells was outputting 3.6v instead of 3.5v (from memory), they said in reality its fine, just they are so keen on ensure the technology is perfect and has no issues ( presuming they my fires) they swapped the battery out.

I roughly did a calculation, that for £6.00 of electric (roughly a price of a gallon) I cover 80-100 miles.

 

My new A4 diesel is due in a few weeks, obviously there is no issue with long term ownership as we only have them for 3 years max but I think it's a shame the government has created all this fuss as I really like diesels and the way they drive. If the car is cheap enough after the 3 years then I may consider buying it from the company.

Also my other half desperately wants to trade in the M140i for an X3/5 next year and there isn't really much choice in those other than diesel really. I think I'm just not going to worry about it and get what she wants anyway (like I have a choice ).

 

i8 s are lovely looking things but even at £50 k it s a very limited market for them . I would imagine most are bought as second cars as a toy rather than for it s practicality .

 

@Spuffington I recall your enthusiastic posts about your uncle's i8. Any reason that he only kept it a year? Did he replace it with anything exciting?

 

When the time comes to change my 330d. I might opt for a 640d Msport, if there are any good examples. It's the most stylish body on any BMW IMHO. Gorgeous!