New electric arrivals: Derry Journal Motoring with Jim McCauley

Dacia is wasting no time in establishing its new all-electric Spring model as the UK’s most affordable electric car, priced from only £14,995 on-the-road. For a limited period, it benefits from what Dacia refers to as an ‘Electric Boost’ package, worth up to £500 for finance and cash buyers. This allows ownership for as little as £158 per month on a four-year PCP package with first deliveries due in October.

The Spring is offered in a choice of Expression and Extreme trim levels, as well as two power options offering a usable range of up to 140 miles (WLTP mixed cycle) or 186 miles (WLTP urban cycle), with the compact 26.8 kWh battery able to be charged from 20% to 100% in four hours using a 7kW home charger.

Standard specification includes a 7-inch digital instrument cluster, cruise control, manual air conditioning, rear parking sensors, media control system with USB port, electric front windows and remote central locking.

The ‘Electric Boost’ provides customers with £500 towards their deposit when financing through a PCP or a straight discount when buying cash, reducing the price to £14,495.

Volkswagen has added to its ID.Buzz range with a seven-seater variant and a four-wheel drive 340PS GTX model. Offering more space as well as an increased all-electric range, the larger seven-seater is priced from £59,545 with customer deliveries from early Autumn. For the flagship GTX variant, prices start from £67,435, with customer deliveries arriving later in the year.

The ID.Buzz Life seven-seat 286 PS Pro is available from £409 per month with 4.9% APR representative on a Personal Contract Plan (PCP) based on a 48-month, 10,000 mile per annum contract, which includes a £3,000 deposit contribution from Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

Built on the longer wheelbase model, this larger variant ID.Buzz allows for the installation of an 86kWh battery, providing a WLTP range of up to 291 miles. The larger 86kWh battery in the seven-seat model not only increases range, but is also capable of accepting rapid DC charging at up to 200kW allowing it to be charged from 10-80% in just 26 minutes.

Kia UK has announced pricing and specifications for the new EV6, with orders now opened. Like the company’s EV3 and EV9, the new all-electric EV6 is offered in three specification levels: ‘Air’, ‘GT-Line’ and ‘GT-Line S’.

This latest model features a larger battery pack over its predecessor, now with a capacity of 84.0kWh. In its entry level ‘Air’ trim, the battery pack powers a single motor, producing 225bhp and 350Nm torque via the rear wheels and has a given range of up to 361 miles on a single charge.

The ‘GT-Line’ and ‘GT-Line S’ models can be ordered with the same rear-wheel drive setup as the ‘Air’, or with a dual-motor all-wheel drive (AWD) setup.

With the AWD drivetrain in ‘GT-Line’ and ‘GT-Line S’ form, the total power output increases to 320bhp and torque increases to 605Nm. Respective ranges are given as up to 339 and 324 miles on a single charge.

Fleet customers benefit from the current 2% BIK (benefit-in-kind) rate for all BEVs.