Wallet-stretching li-ion G-Wiz e-car goes on sale

It's with a certain amount of trepidation what we bring you news of the asking prices for the latest e-cars you can actually buy here in the UK. First up, London-based EV Stores is now stocking the 2008 Electric Car of the Year, the MyCar. The price? It starts at an eye-watering £9995 on the road. MyCar MyCar: expensive …

[Alex Cooper]

Does it have a heater?

Never mind.........probably won't need one, only a matter of time before we hear of the first Lithium-Ion flaming G-Wiz going down the road at 40mph!

[Mark Greenwood]

Gawd

My freind Jim is 75 years old and, because he's kept himself fit and active his whole life, thinks very little of cycling 75 miles. So, for 15 grand you get a "car" that can wheeze its way along a journey that a pensioner can do on a bike. Hmmmm. Just let me get my calculator out....

[Anonymous Coward]

How the fu

ck do they justify these prices? I see nothing other than the Li-ion batteries on the second pile of c^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H car that would be expensive.

[Anonymous Coward]

why not just turn the roads into a giant scalextric?

...always wondered that really, sort of like trams but with bigger coverage.

Even if the vehicle had an onboard battery for use in non electrified areas, it might be useful for places like inner london / LA where air pollution is hideous, could also be easily used by buses etc

plus they might create something that doesnt look like a pull back kids toy

G-Wiz is an UGLY vehicle....yuck

[Anonymous Coward]

@why not just turn the roads into a giant scalextric?

I've flipped a lot more scalextric cars than I have RC.

[Anonymous Coward]

To the complainers about the price

Most of the cost is the carbon offset cost for the amount of polution they produce making these eco-friendly cars. Ironic really !!!

[Mad Mike]

Moving Coffin

Given the crashworthiness of a G-Wiz, it's little more than a self-propelled coffin..............

Electric cars are simply non-starters in their current form. They would have to advance battery technologies by factors to get anywhere near a usable vehicle. Battery life is too short, but that wouldn't matter too much if they took less than all night to recharge. If you could pull into a charge station and get all fully recharged in a couple of minutes, then............

In the meantime, diesel it is. Hydrogren might catch on, but only if the infrastructure investment is put in.

Paris? Because I bet she knows a thing or two about battery life................

[Tim]

@ AC 13:42

Have you anything to back up that somewhat remarkably unbelieveable claim?

Tim#3

[Ebony Bandera]

FAIL

"...none of them suitable for publication."

Ted Dziuba needs a little more of the blue pencil then. But not on my account.

[Anonymous Coward]

Err...

'..can thing of lots of words to describe those prices, none of them suitable for publication.'

It'd probably be better to concentrate on the ones you do publish then, wouldn't it? ;)

The prices aren't that bad once you factor-in - no congestion charge, no road tax, lower insurance and fuel costs etc. especially considering the market for these vehicles i.e. That London.

In the long-run though I think Hydrogen/fuel cell tech. will be the way to go.

[Anonymous Coward]

Real...

At least these ones are real. It makes a change from all the fantasy CGI lectro-cars that claim a billion miles on a 5 minute charge at a thousand miles per hour.

You see the difference between a computer drawing and an actual car now then?

[Stephen Bungay]

Batteries are not the way to go...

Honda has it right, and so does NASA, fuel cells are the way to go. The naysayers will say ...well...'nay', but then that is what they do. Hydrogen (and oxygen) is the fuel for the fuel cell and there's plenty of water from which it can be obtained. Now, since water IS so plentiful here on Earth and pretty much anybody can make their own Hydrogen (it is old-tech) watch for campaigns to start telling us that water is precious and that we should be conserving it. I've seen some of these adverts already, <tinfoil hat>step #1 to controlling who uses the water and for what purpose</tinfoil hat>. This should be an easy sell to the sheeple, but not to the 'thinking-person'. A message for those who would proclaim water is scarce; we have OCEANS of the stuff and the electrolysis process to create Hydrogen purifies it!

[MattW]

All the glamour of an orthapedic boot

and it cleverly sidesteps the road vehicle crash tests.

For the bargain price of 15 grand.

Can't see any downsides myself....

[Psymon]

@The prices aren't that bad once you factor-in - no congestion charge, no road tax...

And there's the rub.

Even in the much cheaper north, it is STILL cheaper, quicker and vastly more efficient to use a car than public transport. This isn't a problem with the concept of public transport itself, but its current implementation.

The government is constantly trying to punish car owners for their own monumentous mistake, which was to privatize "public" transport, which resulted in the systematic cutting of routes and hiking of prices.

Dr. Beeching was well known for his slashing of rural lines. What is not as commonly known is that he rigged the timetables of said lines so that they didn't meet up with the major city routes, and when the commuter numbers fell off due to not being able to get to work on time, he used to diminished numbers to justify the closures.

Another common fact that gets overlooked was that the railways were originally run by a multitude of private companies. The whole shebang was nationalised because it was a shambles, with constant bickering and buck-passing, and complete lack of coordination between said companies.

Funny, but that sounds familiar...

One of the worst things to happen on the buses was the removal of conducters, shortly after privatisation. This means every stop is a painfully slow process where the driver himself has to sort out the fares, which leaves the vehicle standing, and ironically causing conjestion.

And so here we are, in the ludicrous situation where the only way the government can make these extremely poor choices in transport even remotely viable is to artificially hike the price of owning a car, when instead they should be looking at why the car is cheaper to use in the first place.

These two comedy clown cars are a sad commentary on our society if they are going to even considered viable on any level.

flames, cause fire is the only thing we should be putting in the seats of them

[Mike Tree]

fusion is the way forward.

I've got my Delorean ready and waiting.

[Robert Moore]

You are looking at this all wrong

Of course they are crap compared to any petrol car.

But these are early production electrics, so compare them to early production petrol cars, I will use the Model T Ford.

Model T - Ugly, G-wiz - Ugly

Model T - Slow, G wiz - Slow

Model T - Noisy, G Wiz - Quiet

Model T - Expensive, G-Wiz - Expensive

So look at these things as what they are... A first baby step.

[this]

Ludicrously expensive

But I'd buy one of those Tata Nanos tomorrow if they were for sale here at the Indian price even if they are petrol. (£1300!)

Something tells me that by the time they got here they'd be about £10k though.

[PunkTiger]

Small Cars, BIG Price

As a septic (I know how much you love us 'Merkins), it does my heart good to see such righteous indignation over specialty small car prices. The same shock and horror you feel for paying £15000 for a G-Wizz electric is pretty much the same as the shock and horror Americans feel paying $15000 for a Smart ForTwo. And don't convert the Dollars to Pounds. The Dollar isn't twice as easy to get in the US as the Pound is to Britain, nor do Americans make twice as much as UK citizens. Getting/making 15000 in either denomination is just as difficult no matter which side of the pond you're on. Just my 2¢ (or 1p).

[Evil_Medic]

Hmmmm...

Just minutes ago, I was reading on CNN.com (check it) that Tesla's new electric sedan has been unveiled, and will be selling for $50K (granted, early figures, includes tax credits).

I think however we can assume better than 40mph, for something which passes US impact standards.

[Luis Ogando]

@ Mike JVX - Scalextric..

Mike, how the HELL would we turn corners...!

Now, if you remember TCR from the early 80's.... You could (nearly) steer those babies!!

Paris, 'cos she knows about slot racing!

[Monkey]

@Robert Moore

The G-wiz has been in production since 2001. In technological terms that's an age and there have been plenty more electric based cars since that have taken huge steps forward. Just look at the Tesla for example. G-wiz have been taking baby steps now for eight years.... A lazy application of technology and one that is looking more and more out of date by the month.

And don't get me started on the NCAP performance of this thing. Yes it's a quad so not legally required to go through NCAP testing, but it's sold to people under the misconception they are buying a car and will therefore be safe. They won't. Once of these was subject to a standard NCAP 30MPH side on test and the results showed the occupants would have, at best, being seriously injured with a fatality highly likely.

It's about time people saw these heaps for what they are. Technological frauds and death traps to boot.