E-Go

Last night, my regional public TV network (HR) did a four-minute piece introducing you to the e-GO Life car.  This is a small-car design....battery-only....which was an innovation situation up in Aachen, Germany.

Presently, you can order the e-GO but real production and delivery won't start until spring of 2018.

The basic deal?  You have two battery sizes (standard and XL).  The standard car goes for around 16,000 Euro, which is pretty cheap for the battery-technology.  The XL car goes for around 18,000 Euro.

Difference in battery life?  This is the negative....with one single charge, the standard car gives you 130 km max (roughly 80 miles).  The XL model gives you 170 km max (roughly 105 miles).

Then they laid out the charging time, which you had to laugh about.  The standard car requires almost six hours of charging time, while the XL model requires near 7.5 hours of charging time (basically all night).

The cost of a charge related to mileage?  70 Euro-cents (roughly 90-cents American) for each 100 km. On this, it might be an inviting situation.  If you bought the larger XL battery deal....you'd have the 170 km range for about 1.30 Euro....but then you'd have to pause for 7.5 hours while recharging.

I pondered over this introduction.  For a retiree who lives in the shadow of some city and never goes more than 200 km per week....the car would make sense.  Top speed, I admit.....at 105 kph....isn't anything to brag about but it is sufficient.  One might take a guess that in the first three years....they might be able to sell out 15,000 cars a year.  It's priced low enough that some folks will buy it as the second vehicle of the house and use it strictly for localized travel. Long-term?  It's hard to say where this goes.  If they had innovative battery technology and got the range up to 250 to 300 km?  It would help on sales.

The 'extra' of the e-GO data-system tied into the GPS?  I might suspect that the 1,100 Euro item (yeah, it's an extra) might be necessary because it would give you the latest info on charger stations....but since you'd be sitting around for six hours minimum.....well....I doubt if you will travel further 60 km away from your house ever.