Every product in today's edition sits somewhere between a drawing and a driveway, and how much anyone can know about it depends on exactly where. A concept offers shape and intent. A prototype offers numbers taken on somebody's best day. Delivery offers the first scratch. Months of ownership offer the bill. The mistake buyers make is weighing all of that evidence the same.
Start at the drawing. Electrifying's first look at the new Citroën 2CV is full of things you can see, from steel wheels to a canvas roof to egg holders in the doors, and missing the things you would pay for. Citroën has given no battery size, range or charging time, the presenter says, and the roughly £13,000 target is not yet a UK price. The presenter even brought an egg to recreate the original's famous suspension test and had no moving car to put it in. One step on, the prototypes come with figures and asterisks. OnlyBimmers' iX5 drive projects about 490 miles from a run at 60 mph in 35°C heat, conditions the host calls ideal. Electrifying's ID. Tiguan drive took place in a covered-up prototype the presenter declines to judge in full, and its UK prices are an estimate.
Delivery is where the small things surface. Out of Spec's Pebble Flow handover turned up, by the hosts' account, a bubble in one tire, side windows missing their shade magnets and a bed Pebble advises folding away before towing to spare a hinge. None of it appears on a spec sheet. Everyday Chris's 1,178-mile R2 trip sits further along again. The car averaged 2.68 miles per kWh, which the host concedes looks inefficient, yet the stops landed where they always do on that route and the whole trip cost $218.80 to charge. A key-detection bug that sent the host to the backup key card one morning had, by the host's account, been fixed by a later update. That is evidence a concept cannot offer and a prototype cannot stage.
What to watch: BMW publishing a usable battery figure, because the iX5 projection only adds up if the car carries around 140 kWh. Citroën putting numbers next to the egg holders. Volkswagen confirming UK prices against the presenter's guess of just under £40,000. And Out of Spec's tow home behind a Cayenne, roughly 3,000 miles to North Carolina by the hosts' plan, which will show whether Pebble's stronger hub motors do what the hosts hope. Each will move one of these products a stage along, and the evidence will change with it.
The iX5's 490-Mile Projection Came From a Slow, Hot Day
OnlyBimmers drove prototype versions of the next BMW X5 in petrol and electric form, and the host's headline number belongs to the iX5. At a steady 60 mph (100 km/h) in 35°C heat, conditions the host calls ideal for an EV, the car used about 18 kWh per 100 km, or 3.45 miles per kWh, and the host projects roughly 490 miles (780 km) of real-world range. The video gives no battery size, and that arithmetic only works with around 140 kWh of usable energy, so treat the figure as a projection until BMW publishes one. The host recommends 21-inch wheels over the wider 22s for range. Laminated side glass, the host says, is standard on the iX5 and the plug-in hybrids but not on pure petrol or diesel versions, though the 400 hp petrol six still felt quiet. That car, quoted at 5.3 seconds to 100 km/h against 4.7 for the iX5, should weigh 400 to 500 kg less by the host's estimate, yet the co-driver preferred the smoother electric car. Hands-free highway assist worked up to about 130 km/h, and the host rates BMW's handover between driver and system the smoothest available.
1,178 Miles in an R2: Thirsty on Paper, Easy on the Road
Everyday Chris drove a Rivian R2 on 21-inch Pirelli road tires north through Los Angeles to Mendocino and back, in Conserve mode at 75 to 80 mph, and logged 1,178 miles at 2.68 miles per kWh using 442 kWh. Total charging spend was $218.80 by the host's figures, about 19 cents a mile, most of it at Tesla Superchargers, where the host notes Tesla owners pay a lower rate. The stops were short: 22 minutes for 31 to 82 percent at Lost Hills, which the video calls the world's largest Supercharger site; 21 minutes for 11 to 61 percent on an older, shared stall; and 22 minutes for 33 to 75 percent. The host's conclusion is that the R2 looked inefficient, but the stops fell where the host always stops on that route, so it hardly mattered. Rivian's hands-free system handled the I-5 and, to the host's surprise, many coastal curves, though it won't take exits or stop at lights. The trip also showed rough edges: a key the car could not detect one morning, which the host says a later update fixed, and no Supercharger restroom code for non-Tesla drivers. For comparison, Travis Ketchum's 3,496-mile R2 trip, covered here on October 1, ran about 150 miles between stops.
Citroën's New 2CV Has Egg Holders but No Battery Figure Yet
Electrifying's presenter got an early look at Citroën's new 2CV concept, which revives a car the video says was built more than 5 million times between 1949 and 1990 on a simple brief: carry four people and their luggage cheaply and comfortably, famously across a ploughed field without breaking a basket of eggs. The concept keeps the floating bonnet, the smiling headlamp face in LED form, steel wheels on Michelin tires and a fold-back canvas roof, and adds egg holders in the doors. At 3.76 m long by Citroën's figure, it is smaller than the original, the presenter notes. The presenter says it will sit below the ë-C3 as an A-segment car built for Europe's planned rules on small, affordable e-cars, weighing around a ton, with a starting price target the presenter puts at about £13,000 and no confirmed UK price. What Citroën has not given is the battery size, the range or the charging speed. The presenter sets those gaps against the Renault Twingo's 27.5 kWh and claimed 163 miles, and the BYD Dolphin Surf's claimed 137 miles from 30 kWh. For scale on price, the Hyundai Ioniq 3 in yesterday's edition reached £18,495 only after the full UK grant.
Electrifying Puts a UK Price Guess on VW's ID. Tiguan
This is the third look at the ID. Tiguan on this site in two weeks, after Autogefühl's prototype drive and its R-Line walkaround yesterday, and Electrifying's drive adds UK context. In a partly covered prototype, the presenter says the cabin feels plusher and quieter than the ID.4's but holds back a full verdict. German pricing starts just under €42,700 for the Trend model, about £36,600, a trim the presenter says the UK will not get, so the estimate here runs from just under £40,000 to a little over £50,000. The batteries match yesterday's account, 58 kWh LFP and 77 kWh NMC, with Electrifying adding a 105 kW charging peak for the smaller pack. The dual-motor 4Motion tops the range at 299 hp and 6.3 seconds to 62 mph. The new details are a two-stage B mode with one-pedal driving in the stronger setting, towing of 1,800 kg on the entry car and 2,000 kg above it with a 90 kg nose weight, and a retro display mode that redraws the dials and radio in the style of a 1990s Golf. The 534-litre boot carries over from the ID.4, with a small frunk added.
Out of Spec Buys the Electric RV It Tested, and Day One Brings a Punch List
Out of Spec's hosts bought a fully optioned Pebble Flow Founders Edition after testing another unit for a month in July, and say they are owner number 149 of about 150. The trailer carries what they describe as roughly 45 kWh of LFP cells, 1.1 kW of roof solar and Schaeffler hub motors to cut drag on the tow vehicle, motors the hosts say Pebble has since more than doubled in output. It DC fast charges at about 45 kW, roughly an hour from near empty, and can export power through a NEMA 14-50 outlet. They count 13 over-the-air updates in about a year of deliveries. Delivery also produced a short punch list, by their account: a bubble in one tire on a single-axle trailer, missing magnets for the side-window shades, weak airflow to one side of the bed, and a rear bed Pebble recommends folding up while towing to spare its hinge, which one host calls a design flaw while noting Pebble did not use those words. For scale, the Lightship AE1 discussed in this site's glamping opinion piece carries a 69 kWh battery and an 80 kW motor, and Everyday Chris's September night in one ran short on water before power.
Bottom line: Weigh each claim by how far along the product is. The R2 trip is the only evidence here worth spending money on today, and it says the efficiency worry is overblown for anyone who stops where they would stop anyway. The iX5 number is exciting and unproven until BMW names a battery. The 2CV is the most promising car of the five and the one we know least about. The ID. Tiguan needs real UK prices. Pebble's day-one list is fixable, but a single-axle trailer with a tire bubble deserves a spare before 3,000 miles.
Commentary on third-party videos. Figures and claims are as presented in the sources and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.