Super fishy I’d say
Maybe, although I never thought the original 5 looked anything like the Passat really.
To me, that looks absolutely nothing like the 5, no fluid curves anywhere down the sides like the 5 has.
The MG5 is a Buick Exell with a facelift SAIC use this chassis for a few different models. SAIC have been a manufacturing partner with VW since 1986 so lots off similarities
Yes, The Buick is also the old model Astra as it was sold here in Europe and UK.
They are manufacturing partners so develop and share rather than copy- the partnership was developed to save VW group development costs in the mid 1980’s when they were in trouble.
Yeah, the LEAF dates back to 2010 ish though and chassis development hasn't happened at all, its exactly the same underneath the current cars external only panel changes as the first car. (It is only the outer panels too, all internal fittings, door cards etc. are interchangable!) In fact I'm running a Mk2 40kWh battery in our current 30kWh Mk1 car now, it was a very simple swap, almost plug and play, except for intercepting the can bus pair, under the dash, with a translation bridge.They are manufacturing partners so develop and share rather than copy- the partnership was developed to save VW group development costs in the mid 1980’s when they were in trouble.
Many parts are similar but not interchangeable although there are many unseen parts that are used in both brands products.
I’m surprised that Nissan still get away with using the Pulsar chassis that’s over 20 years old now for the Leaf! They even stopped using it for the Pulsar in 2018 stating that it’s too old now for further development
The leaf has a good custom DIY following- I helped install a 64kwh pack in an early 24kwh Leaf, and have pulled apart several Leaf battery packs to use the cells in projects- (a 58v 14 cell pack in my enduro e-bike and the same as a back pack on my sailboat that I converted to electric drive). Now though it’s actually cheaper to buy new cells than up cycling ev packs.Yeah, the LEAF dates back to 2010 ish though and chassis development hasn't happened at all, its exactly the same underneath the current cars external only panel changes as the first car. (It is only the outer panels too, all internal fittings, door cards etc. are interchangable!) In fact I'm running a Mk2 40kWh battery in our current 30kWh Mk1 car now, it was a very simple swap, almost plug and play, except for intercepting the can bus pair, under the dash, with a translation bridge.
).
It's probably cheaper to buy new than use LEAF packs, for sure. For some reason they remain stubbornly expensive to buy used.The leaf has a good custom DIY following- I helped install a 64kwh pack in an early 24kwh Leaf, and have pulled apart several Leaf battery packs to use the cells in projects- (a 58v 14 cell pack in my enduro e-bike and the same as a back pack on my sailboat that I converted to electric drive). Now though it’s actually cheaper to buy new cells than up cycling ev packs.
I did help get a Leaf motor to 220kw in a VW camper conversion too
I think that the rear interior lights on the FL are VW parts. It certainly looked that way when I changed the bulbs to LEDs.
