I'm afraid so. You know the way I was saying that maintenance is so cheap with an EV? Well, I got a surprise when I hopped into the car last night. Something was wrong, and it was going to cost.
Yep, that's right, a dipped bulb had blown. Oh well, that's another €10 I can add to my maintenance bill for the year.
You might remember from a few posts ago that I was having trouble with the charge point installed at my house. Well, I just thought I'd give you a quick update.
The old unit is a Chargemaster type, which is a well known brand of charger. It came free of charge (no pun intended) with the car when I bought it. Around about the end of October it started acting up, where it would trip the RCD switch at the fuse board, to the point where I couldn't charge at home. These units come with a 3-year warranty, so I sent the serial number off to the manufacturer, to be told that the warranty ran out in mid-2017. So, it's over 4 years old. Time for a change.
The new unit is a Rolec 32a charger, so it has an output of about 7kW. The unit was supplied by an Irish based provider, and was couriered within 24 hours of purchase. It is a much more modern unit, with better water resistance rating, and it has an RCD built in to the front of the charger, for safety. This design means that the RCD is no longer needed at the fuse board, and so it was swapped out for a higher rated MCB (40a Type C, if anyone is interested). This has been up and running for over a week now, with no issues with switches tripping.
For anyone looking for a recommendation about a supplier and installer, I would be happy to share the details of who I used if you want to send me a PM.
There are generally five arguments made against choosing an electric vehicle over an internal combustion engine vehicle.
They are too expensive
They don't go far enough
The charging infrastructure is poor
There is not enough choice in vehicle type
They have poor performance
I've heard some of these in the time I've been talking to people about my EV experience, and to be honest, most of these perceived issues are either already addressed, or are well on the way. Here is how I usually respond to these claims:
They are too expensive
Well, it depends. If buying brand new, EVs are almost on par with a petrol/diesel equivalent at this stage. I say almost, because they are still a bit more expensive. But if you consider running costs (where an EV can easily save the average driver the best part of €2,000 per year), then over a 5 year period of ownership, you have to add €10k to the sticker price of a petrol/diesel car to get a better like-for-like price comparison. Added to this, battery manufacture technology is becoming more mainstream now, and so battery pack costs are dropping year-on-year. So, the sticker price for EVs is going to drop over time.
Buying second hand is a different matter. Have a look on the car sales websites and compare something like a 151/152 Ford Focus to a 151/152 Nissan LEAF. Go ahead, I'll wait here.....
Well, what did you discover? (For anyone that cheated and didn't go looking, get ready, spoiler alert!). Yep, that's right, they're both about the same price, all things considered. So EVs are not really more expensive at all, if you think it through.
They don't go far enough
How far is "enough"? That will depend on user expectation, and is likely to differ for everyone. But as a starting point, even older EVs with the smaller battery packs should be good for 100km from a charge. So, if your daily commute is up to 100km, you're fine. For the majority of drivers, this is more than enough. For longer trips, you can plan around the location of rapid chargers. Of course, there will always be outliers and drivers that need more range, and that's where the newer EVs that are being released will help. 200km range is now about the "norm", with 300km being the likely norm in a year or two. I suggest keeping a log of your daily distances over the course of a month or so (I did this leading up to buying my EV), just to record how far you do actually drive every day. Psychologically, a 200 or 300km range may be a comfortable number, but in reality you might find you don't need that from a charge.
The charging infrastructure is poor
You might have a point on this one! By "poor" here, I'm referring to two issues: the chargers can be unreliable, and they can be occupied when you need them. Except, (and here's the big news) it actually doesn't matter for most people. Why? Because you can charge at home! The majority of people with an EV do not need to use the public charging network. So much so, in fact, the SEAI provide a grant to have a home charging point installed.
However, let's say you do need to use the public network occasionally. What about reliability/availability then? Since about 2012, the ESB has provided free rapid charge points around the country (about 70 of them at this stage), and therein lies the problem. They are free. What happens when things are free? They get abused.
There are two problems with the free model. Firstly, users will park up and get a free charge even if they don't really need it. Anecdotally, EV drivers will tell you about "Mary" or "Joe" who they know lives just a mile away from the rapid charger, but who will plug in at it instead of at home just to save a few cents. This is called "hogging" and is frowned upon, as it can block a user who actually really needs the energy. Secondly, with the no-cost model, the operator (ESB) has no incentive (or perhaps budget) to maintain charge points that need to be serviced. So, charge points can be unnecessarily blocked or simply not working when you drive up to them.
The simple way around this is to charge users to plug in at the rapid chargers. This will ensure an income for the operators to help maintain the units and install more of them, and it will discourage users from plugging unless they really have to. To this end, the ESB has announced that from mid-2019 onwards, there will be a charge associated with using the rapid charge points on its network. It should be noted that this applies to the rapid chargers only, and the slower ones will remain free to use for now.
There is not enough choice in vehicle type
This might have been true in the past. Up until a few years ago, the choice in Ireland was basically Nissan LEAF, Renault Zoe or Fluence, and Mitsubishi iMiEV. I'm not including hybrids here, because they are not EVs. However, more recently this choice has expanded, to include models from Kia (Soul), Hyundai (Ioniq and Kona), VW (Golf), BMW (i3), Tesla, and more from Nissan (the eNV200 van), plus other models too. So there is an EV option in a number of classes now. This is further expanded if you include Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, but I'm focusing on pure electric vehicles here. And there are even more EV models coming to market in the next year or so. I don't see lack of choice as a barrier at this point.
They have poor performance
Really? Have you ever driven one? My own driving experience with an EV is limited to the Nissan LEAF, so I won't refer to the 0-100kph acceleration stats for a Tesla Model S (it's 2.5 seconds, just to save you having to look it up), or the fact that VW blew away all competition and set a new world record for the infamous Pikes Peak race using an EV (in some ways helped by the fact that at altitude EVs perform better than internal combustion engine cars because thin air does not affect them).
No, let's keep it more realistic. Even with a humble Nissan LEAF, the "off the line" acceleration is very impressive. Sure, it tapers off as you get above 60/70kph, and so the unofficial 0-100kph is a fairly ordinary 10 seconds or so, but the initial burst is more than enough to get you away from the lights ahead of most cars (I'm not suggesting you go street racing in it, or do anything that would get you in trouble with the law, but take one for a spin and you might be surprised). The top speed on my Nissan LEAF is just over 150kph, so again, it's not a slow car considering the maximum speed limit in Ireland is 120kph.
Still not willing to take my word for it?
In that case, take 18 minutes to have a look at the video below. It's UK-centric, but the mains points are still valid in Ireland. I recommend the "Fully Charged" channel on YouTube, if you are interested in watching more videos about EVs.
This month I'm very pleased to present John Casey as the Guest Blogger. John is an Electronic Engineer and self-professed early adopter. Living in the Banner County, he has driven dirty diesel [his phrase!] until his EV adoption. John has produced a video review of his car, which you can view below his post.
In May 2017 following a change in work that necessitated more driving I began to look at changing my car. This coincided with the opening of the Tesla showroom in Sandyford so I figured I’d satisfy my curiosity and check out what was on offer. A few months later I pulled the trigger on the purchase of a new model S 75 which I took possession of on January 2nd. To say it has been a life change is an understatement.
The car has exceeded any expectations I had. Comfortable and so easy to drive, it means that our second car is relegated to the one that is only driven if absolutely necessary. So in fact we have displaced one and a half diesel cars off the road with the Tesla.
The car has, in little over eleven months, clocked up 59,000 kilometers. I benefit from free workplace charging at the various work locations I frequent but I’m now arranging meetings offsite at places with chargers and challenging hotels that have none.
Frosty mornings now present no suffering due to the preheat function available from the phone app. The long journeys are further enhanced by the Autosteer feature on the car. This has eliminated fatigue and made this driving inherently safer.
Yes, driving an EV has its drawbacks. I plan my itinerary around chargers on the road. I check and check again charger statuses. I’m fortunate enough that my 300 kilometer range allows me to drive by some busy ones to the next one. I’ve had little waiting for a charge. But would I change back to a fossil fuel car? Not a chance. I’ve seen the future and will drive into it smoothly.
Well, November has been a mixed bag in terms of costs. As you can see from the image above, the car is averaging 15.6kWh/100km (to put that in context, that is a cost of €1.96 per 100km), which is reasonably good for this time of year. I was achieving better economy in the summer, and I expect the economy to drop further as the weather gets colder still.
So, why is this a "mixed bag"?
Well, the charging unit installed at my house has started playing up. The unit is older than the car, and came 2nd-hand with the car when I bought it in November 2017. This meant that for the entire month of November, I was only able to do about one full charge at home. That equates to about €2.40, which sounds great: I did all my driving (1,090km) for just €2.40! How did I do this? A combination of public (mostly) and a small amount of workplace charging.
So far so good! A whole month's driving for the price of a decent coffee.
What's the downside? Well there are two downsides, really. Firstly, relying on the pubic charging network is risky to say the least. On one occasion, the rapid charge point (near Carnmore Cross) was out of action for a few days, and on another occasion I had to wait there for about 30 minutes while another EV was being charged. Not the end of the world in either case, but had the charge point been out of action for longer, I may have been in trouble.
The second downside is that I now need to replace the charge point at my house. All of the cabling and switches can be re-used as they are, so the installation process will be relative easy, but the cost of a new unit will punch a hole in the Christmas fund. More on this as it develops over the next week or so.
*A note on the stated CO2 Savings shown above:
This figure is calculated by Nissan, not by me. Please refer to the note on this page for more information about this.
