In Colombia still not have Chevrolet Bolt.

O

Oscar Quiñones Acosta

New Member
In Colombia the Chevrolet Bolt, is not here, becouse the Chevrolet company need a parmit of goberment.
But if have other kind of electric cars in Colombia, for example: Mitsubishi i-Miev, Nissan LEAF old generation, BYD e6 EV, Renault Twizy. for this moment that are all the kind of electric cars in Colombia...
 
Hola, Oscar!

I didn't realize the BYD e6 was being sold outside China. BYD test marketed the car here in the United States, but did not follow up with general sales to the public.

How well is the e6 selling in Columbia? Have you ever driven the car or taken a ride in it? If so, how did you like it?
 
Oscar Quiñones Acosta said:
In Colombia the Chevrolet Bolt, is not here, becouse the Chevrolet company need a parmit of goberment.
But if have other kind of electric cars in Colombia, for example: Mitsubishi i-Miev, Nissan LEAF old generation, BYD e6 EV, Renault Twizy. for this moment that are all the kind of electric cars in Colombia...
Click to expand...

I've never seen a BYD e6 or a Renault Twizy in person. The Twizy is a crazy looking little EV! :)

Are you able to import EVs from other countries? If not, then the Nissan Leaf is a good EV although it has its flaws. I don't know what the weather is like in Columbia... but in hot and humid areas of the US the leaf batteries tend to wear out faster than most other EVs.

I sat in an I-Miev once. I don't like it's styling at all but it wasn't as cramped as I expected. A little smaller than my Spark EV was. It's surprising how roomy a small car with a high roofline can feel.
 
Chevrolet has the largest market share in Colombia at 24%, and they produce a lot of cars there that are sold there and other nearby markets. I wonder if they are considering producing the Bolt there, or just keeping production at one plant in the US for now. (see this page for tons of Colombia automotive data)

By contrast, Nissan manufactures the LEAF in the U.S, Japan, and England.

Regarding BYD in Colombia, apparently they sold them for taxis for three years, before, in 2015, deciding to sell them to the public. Not sure if I'm reading or converting currency properly, but it seems like they started offering them for 165 million pesos, which is about US$55,070. Ouch!

Oddly, I can't find the E6 on the BYD Colombia website. I have a friend in Ibagué, I should ask if they've seen the E6 in the dealership there.
 
The reason I was asking Oscar's opinion of the BYD e6 is because the closest I've ever seen to a review was a first-hand report by (I presume) an American who took a test drive, and it wasn't exactly a favorable review:

I’ve driven the BYD electric sports utility vehicle (the e6) on a test track in the USA. It is roomy, the dashboard layout was extremely confusing, it had problems going 40mph, the sensor read-out was flickering with the numbers and on the far side of the car from me all the way over by the mirror, the drive mode control was non-intuitive (the park button was completely occluded by the directional lever and not marked), the stitching on the leather seats was loose enough to have wrinkles and quirks, and the exterior had an unexplained structural pipe about 8? long in the front left wheel well that nobody understood. The charge port was an unpolished cut-out in the plastic body panel, held on by a loop of flexible plastic and a friction clip. I am quite sure that it was not weather sealed.

My BYD experience will forever set the bar for quality and design. The low bar.​

--Vexar, post to InsideEVs news site, April 3, 2016 at 11:30 am

I was hoping to get a second opinion. Based only on Vexar's comment, it's hardly a surprise the BYD e6 was never sold in the USA.
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Pushmi-Pullyu said:
The reason I was asking Oscar's opinion of the BYD e6 is because the closest I've ever seen to a review was a first-hand report by (I presume) an American who took a test drive, and it wasn't exactly a favorable review:

I’ve driven the BYD electric sports utility vehicle (the e6) on a test track in the USA. It is roomy, the dashboard layout was extremely confusing, it had problems going 40mph, the sensor read-out was flickering with the numbers and on the far side of the car from me all the way over by the mirror, the drive mode control was non-intuitive (the park button was completely occluded by the directional lever and not marked), the stitching on the leather seats was loose enough to have wrinkles and quirks, and the exterior had an unexplained structural pipe about 8? long in the front left wheel well that nobody understood. The charge port was an unpolished cut-out in the plastic body panel, held on by a loop of flexible plastic and a friction clip. I am quite sure that it was not weather sealed.

My BYD experience will forever set the bar for quality and design. The low bar.​

--Vexar, post to InsideEVs news site, April 3, 2016 at 11:30 am

I was hoping to get a second opinion. Based only on Vexar's comment, it's hardly a surprise the BYD e6 was never sold in the USA.
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Click to expand...

That's harsh! (but deserved)

I remember talking to a guy with an EV dealership one time who tried to tell me he could sell the e6. It was, of course, not the case. I don't think he was trying to lead me on, though. Sounded like he was relaying info someone at BYD had told him.

I spoke to my friend in Ibagué. She hadn't seen the e6 there. She did track it down on this website, though. $146,000,000 Colombian pesos converts to $48,620. Still a tad high, unless Colombia has some EV incentives.
 
To be fair, Domenick, I've been told that BYD's build quality has increased substantially in the past few years. The review I quoted is likely for units shipped circa 2011-2013, when BYD test marketed the e6 in the U.S. (Rather vague details... likely more than anybody really wanted to know... here.)

If the build quality was still that low, then it would be absurd for BYD to try to charge USD $48k for the car. Who would pay that for such a shoddy product? If they're asking that much, then hopefully this is a much improved version... which is another reason I'd like to see a second opinion.
 
In Bogota Colombia and in Mexico City, to fight pollution they have restrictions on when you can drive your car.
Usually like 1 day a week you cannot use your car. I think they use the last digit of the license plate to control it.
Something like license plates ending in 1 and 2 cannot be used on Mondays, 3 and 4 on Tuesdays, and so on.
So, if you can afford it, you would have an extra car to drive the day of the restriction. Most likely the old car that wasn't traded in for the new one.
I checked that in Mexico City if you drive an electric you can request an exception to drive your electric car everyday.
But I don't know if Colombia has a similar rule.
It would be nice if Oscar can tell us if they have a similar rule in Bogota Colombia.
 
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