PSA’s strategy for electric cars seems a bit confusing, to say the least – considering they even have one. While the Peugeot iOn price in Portugal now starts at 22.590 €, its sister, the Citroen C-Zero still has a starting price of 31.348 €, making it even more overpriced.
It’s a shame to see this electric car disappear, specially when it never got a chance to be successful. Unfortunately this seems what’s going to happen.
Peugeot already promised a Peugeot 208 EV with a 50 kWh battery for 2018/2019, but while we don’t get there, PSA should not only make Peugeot iOn’s price more realistic – around 12.000 € before any government incentive – but also increase the battery capacity. To be more rigorous, the Peugeot iOn should only be discontinued when and if we get a Peugeot 108 EV, since they would be similar cars.
The battery upgrade is already possible since the GS Yuasa LEV75 battery cells are used in PSA electric vans made by Mitsubishi. Peugeot Partner and Citroen Berlingo electric versions have them.
Unfortunately all three versions (Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Peugeot iOn and Citroen C-Zero) of the little electric car still use the LEV50N cells, the upgrade to LEV75 would mean a 50 % increase in battery capacity. Another possibility would be to ditch GS Yuasa completely and use LG Chem battery cells instead.
What do you think? Will this electric car ever get a chance before it gets discontinued?
More info:
http://configurador.peugeot.pt/configurador/ion/5-portas/
Erik
16 Oct 2016It is time for a new small EV from PSA not based on a KEI car. Fortunately we will get the Smart Forfour Electric Drive next year with the latest and greatest battery cells from LG Chem.
Benjamin Nead
21 Oct 2016News today that Nissan just sealed the deal on that 34% controlling interest alliance with Mitsubishi that was announced this past summer. At some point, it may mean the end of the i-MiEV and PSA variants we now know. In the nearer future, it may mean a few more interesting twits in the i-MiEV’s lineage before it’s gone forever.
Also . . . although it’s a purely cosmetic things, the nice-looking alloy wheels shown in the picture look new (certainly from here in the far-off US.)