But imho the king of EVs in Europe by the end of the decade are going to be Volkswagen and Stellantis.
No foreign car company really stands a chance in the European market imho (besides Toyota of course).
Tesla cop's a lot of crap. Most of it about is how they perform relative to Elon's promises. That's an awfully high bar, as no car a consumer can buy can come close to what Elon been promising for Tesla. Despite missing that bar by miles, the reality is they are probably the best EV you can buy right now, but they priced accordingly, at a premium (albeit not a huge one).
My primary concern about Tesla is whether it will exist in it's current form in 5 or 10 years time. You can't trust a word it's CEO says, it's meme stock whose share price must tank to a fraction of it's current value and it's corporate vision seems to be more focused humanoid robots than cars. It's competitors will catch up.
I'm told Tesla's are hard to repair, but their support is stellar where I live. A man who only works on Tesls's fixed the tail light my wife smashed while it was parked at home, and upgraded a few other things, all for free. Their charging network is second to none. While all that continues, I recon they deserve to sell a lot of cars. I hope it continues.
They’re facing the classic innovator’s dilemma. It will be incredibly difficult for them to build great EVs while the bulk of the money they make is through selling ICE vehicles, and more importantly, they’re culturally ICE prioritizing companies.
Volkswagen sells the most EVs in Europe. In fact, Volkswagen's EV market share in Europe is currently the highest it's ever been:
https://eu-evs.com/marketShare/ALL/Groups/Line/All-time-by-Q...
Volkswagen owns many brands (VW, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, Cupra, etc.). Their sales are split across many brands and models.
I was thinking specifically about the VW brand itself.
VW seem to have been consciously moving attention away from the VW brand for a while. In particular, brands like SEAT and Skoda, which a few decades ago were primarily local brands, are now promoted Europe-wide.
Also, VW sold half a million EVs in H1 2025, Tesla sold 730k, so even globally they are closer than you think and VW will likely pass Tesla at current growth rates by halfway 2027.
Also, FYI, Europeans haven't been building ICEs for some time. The last (non sports car) serious ICE developed in Europe was the Mercedes Benz OM654 diesel engine.
The whole "electric cars in Europe" thing is a fascinating example of what the media finds interesting vs reality. If you got caught up in the media coverage, you'd probably think it was Tesla vs BYD. Here is the reality: https://eu-evs.com/marketShare/ALL/Groups/Bar/All-time-by-Ye... (you can definitely see the impact of the Swasticar Problem in 2025).
In the past decade, Tesla has spent maybe a year in the lead. It is currently the smallest player in the top eight. BYD is not even _in_ the top eight. It is not even the best-selling Chinese manufacturer; that'd be Geely (which does just scrape into the top eight).
(Minor caveat on these numbers: IMO Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi is not a _proper_ auto group, and should probably be split out.)
From the media's point of view, the trouble is that "VW is selling a lot of cars" is a _boring_ narrative; that is what one expects to happen. "Two foreign companies are jockeying for position in the market" is a somewhat more interesting one, even if neither actually sells very many cars.
Current VW Models can compete with Tesla on equal footing. By sales VW is the defacto winner of the European EV Market.
>they’re culturally ICE prioritizing companies.
VW has been developing the MEB Platform since a decade. It has not developed a new ICE Platform in that time. How are they culturally "prioritizing" ICE, when they have completely abandoned ICE development on a platform level?
Going back to ICE would be a total disaster for VW, the company is completely all in on electrification.
Some people still need a reason to carry a 1 Ton battery with them all the time. /s
There are few important reasons:
1. VW and Stellantis combine a huge array of relevant (in EU) brands including (by memory) Jeep, Maserati, Audi, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Lancia, Seat, Cupra, Lancia, Skoda, Volkswagen, Opel, Peugeot, Citroen, Lamborghini.
2. VW and Stellantis have already all the network made of service, parts, dealerships.
3. All markets are different, and as you can imagine European brands know how to build cars for that market.
4. Both companies are gigantic and well diversified across the globe with their supply chains and plenty of deals with Chinese ev and battery makers. Even if the Chinese end up dominating the European market, they will still have to build here and do it in a JV.
Renault has actually better products than Stellantis and far fewer of the problems.
If they manage to fix their SW bugs, at a competitive price, maybe.
Why?
I know I can bring my car to the workshop nearby and they will be able to procure parts and service it.
As a customer, I want a reliable mainstream PHEV car that doesn’t _need_ over the air updates, unnecessary complexities, subscriptions etc and gives me the confidence that I can use it for the next 10 years with regular maintenance.
Personally, seems they have workshops all over the country, and as one of the biggest EV brands, it won't be hard to find parts for the mainstream models nor to service it.
AFAIK, the car doesn't require OTA updates, any subscription or similar, or did I miss something went I went through what they actually offer?
No, it will not go 1300km, neither will any other vehicle reach its WLTP range during normal usage.
It is also pointless to ask people about their experience, as the range is extremely dependent on usage habits and location. The experience of other people is worthless unless they closely coincidence with your personal circumstances.
What you should do is compare the 1300km of WLTP range to your current cars WLTP range. That will give you an accurate estimate what 1300km WLTP will mean for you.
Like anyone else, I'm aware that marketing material is difference from reality, which is exactly why I'm asking for other people's experience.
> It is also pointless to ask people about their experience
You know what's more pointless? Answering questions no one asked, that you don't know the answer to, and that aren't aimed at you in the first place. You don't have to answer, you can let others with the knowledge do instead.
I am trying to explain to you that asking for others people experience is not going to help you. Because one person will only ever get 700km of range and another person will easily get 1100km of range. Making a buying decision based on who of these people responds to you is obviously not good.
I am trying to explain to you that there is a way that you can get an extremely accurate figure of how much range you can get from the car. You can do this by comparing the WLTP range of a car you know well to that WLTP range.
Your question is a bad question, because the answers you will get can not help you make an informed decision. If you do not want an informed decision go ahead and seek out "experience", instead of utilizing the WLTP metric to get an understanding of what range you can expect.
Vehicle range is not something you can compare between owners, what people say there experience is not representative of what your experience will be.
So, let me ask you: Do you want know whether the car has enough range for you or do you want to know of the existence of people who get some arbitrary range between 700 and 1100 kilometers of range? Because for every value in between you will find someone who will only get that range. Does that help you at all make a decision?
Car range is not something like towing weight or motor performance.
All I asked for is people's personal experience. You don't have that, that's fine, but don't claim you're trying to help someone when you're actively steering the conversation away from what I'm asking about.
If someone asks some specific question, they might have a reason for asking that specific question, and you assuming they haven't done something else because of that question, feels like you're less interested in helping and more interested in proving something to yourself.
> Do you want know whether the car has enough range for you or do you want to know of the existence of people who get some arbitrary range between 700 and 1100 kilometers of range?
I want to know peoples personal experience about this specific model, which I thought was clear from my first comment, but apparently not. I'm not interested in the mechanics of WLTP, the history of WLTP, what other things I should be looking for when buying a car, how to install a charger for the car, what the value of EVs are currently, what alternatives exists or anything else. Just the personal and biased experience of others who have bought that car, or know someone else who have.
It's not the first car I'm buying, and I'm not looking for a "buyers guide", a terminology reference or anything else, just "I own/know someone who owns the car, here is how I subjectively feel about it".