Guest Blogger #3 (BMW i3)

The range, and more precisley the limitation of the range, is often cited as a reason not to buy into the EV dream. More often than not, you will hear about how EVs are only suitable for short trips but this month's guest blogger has a longer trip story or two to tell. Guillaume Séguin is the editor for www.irishevowners.ie ; of French origin he has been living in Ireland for over a decade and has been advocating EV adoption through the Irish EV owners Association. Contact: editor@irishevowners.ie - Instagram & Twitter : Lutecia44

For many, EVs are just good for the city, or maybe further if your range is enough to cover your daily commute plus some errands. But not made for long distance trips. They are right and wrong at the same time.

I'm based in Cork and bought my first EV exactly 5 years ago. A first generation used Leaf found in the UK. That's what my budget allowed.  So my first real EV experience (bar some short test drives) was also a long distance trip. I had never driven a Leaf before and here I am in Nissan Oxford picking up my new car when the salesman tells me, realizing I'm going to drive to Ireland the next day : "You're brave". I'm sure that in 2019 dealers believe more in their own EVs ! :)

So the next day I drive from Milton Keynes (where I was staying for a few days) all the way to Fishguard, 400km west. That first trip went actually quite smoothly, all chargers were available and operational (Ecotricity did a great job with their Electric Highway network back then), with a charge every 80km or so (winter range of the Leaf 1 isn't too impressive)... The key to that smooth trip was serious planning, with plan Bs, and plenty of extra time (12 hours total!), just in case something went wrong (and a flexible ferry ticket!). In hindsight, I can say that I've actually had more stressful trips later, just because I didn't plan correctly!

The Irish leg (from Rosslare to Cork) was actually quite interesting, as the existing network was not completed back then, and there were no fast chargers in Waterford. The range was too limited to drive from Rosslare to Dungarvan, so I actually had to drive to Kilkenny before driving down to Cahir and Cork. A 6 hour mini-adventure for a 200km distance. After a few months, the range anxiety faded, and I felt more comfortable with the capabilities of my car (and got myself the Leafspy app, a great investment for any Leaf driver going for long distances, allowing to have a more precise battery gauge).

I'm telling you that story to show that driving a mainstream EV could be quite a challenge, just a few years ago. Thankfully things changed since.

In 2015 I did my first trip to France. I usually drive to Nantes to see my family for Christmas but the fast charging network was just not there that year so for the first time I had to wait for the summer crossing to Roscoff which was much easier to manage (and without need for heating!) thanks to a better charging network on that route.

The following year (2016) I upgraded my Leaf to a 30kWh model. What a great feeling to see the range expanding! It meant, thanks to an ever improving network, that I could drive to France in winter and enjoy my first electric Christmas trip, all the way to Paris, even if the route to home was not straight forward and added a few hours to my trip.

In 2017 I decided to go to Scotland (great charging network!) and the north of England : it was so easy! And of course another French Christmas, this time, I could drive the 350km home just like in an ICE, bar the 3 quick charges (but without detour) and more moderate speeds. Very acceptable.

In Autumn 2018 I decided to go for a 33kWh BMW i3. The range is a bit better. Far from what Tesla or newer models can do now but a fair progress over the Leaf. Next week I will drive from Cork to Wexford. But won't go through Kilkenny, and it won't take me 6 hours. I'll actually do the 180km trip without recharging on the way. At the same pace as the other cars, with the added comfort, toll discount, and cheap "fuel".

My next EV will have an even longer range. Maybe it'll be a Tesla Model 3, a Kia e-Niro, or another of these newer EVs that have battery packs of over 60 kWh. I'll go from Cork to Dublin in one go, with some electricity to spare. The range anxiety will be gone, but then I will probably suffer from bladder anxiety.

Electric vehicle batteries just don't last, do they?

There is quite a famous (infamous?) episode of Top Gear (Series 17, Episode 6) where Mssrs. Clarkson and May take a test drive in a Nissan LEAF and a Peugeot iON. Apart from sensationalising range limitations (which I believe was a stunt involving deliberately running down the battery levels prior to starting to film), the episode makes certain claims about how long batteries will last and how much they cost to replace.

One claim is that you can ruin the battery pack in 3 years if you fast charge all the time, and a related claim is that if you slow-charge then the battery pack will last "maximum 10 years, possibly 5" with a replacement cost of £7,000.

At first glance this seems terrible. Why would you buy a car where you had to spend £7,000 every 5/6 years? It would be the equivalent of buying an ICE car in the knowledge that you had to replace the engine every 5/6 years (or 3 years if you go hard on it). You simply wouldn't do that.

However, the reality has been shown to be very different to the claims made in that episode.

It is generally accepted that Nissan LEAF batteries degrade at about 3 to 4% per year, with degradation more linked to age than mileage. There are variables that can affect this, but that's the accepted degradation rate. So, I decided to put my own car to the test.

My car turns 4 years old this month (January 2019), so I'd expect somewhere between 12 to 16% battery degradation in that time. To test this, I connect an OBD2 dongle into the computer in my car, and using an app (called LeafSpy Pro) on my phone, I am able to view a lot of data about the car that is normally hidden.

The image below shows the battery cell report:

The blanked out part is the VIN, and the value highlighted in red is the State Of Health (SOH) of the battery pack. The "odo" reading is the mileage of the car, and the QC refers to number of Quick Charges, while L1/L2 refers to the number of slow charges.

As you can see, after 4 years and 72,242 kilometers, the battery pack still has 87.74% of its original capacity. This is at the lower end of what would be considered normal degradation, so no complaints there. I can easily get 100km at worst from that capacity, so all things being equal in another 4 years the car will have about 75% battery capacity and a range of about 90km at worst. 

The reality is that I will not have to replace the battery any time soon, if ever. This is a long way from the claims made by Clarkson (remember: as little as 3 years if you fast charge, 5 if you slow charge before requiring a replacement costing £7,000). It just goes to prove that some anti- EV claims made in mainstream media really need to be taken with a sack of salt.

For anyone in the Galway are who has a Nissan LEAF, I'd be happy to meet up with you and test the battery health in your car for you using the OBD2 dongle that I have. Just comment below, or drop me a line.

Live Lab #2 (December 2018)

As you can see from the image above, the car averaged 15.9kWh/100km in December (up slightly from the 15.6 in November). This is pretty good for the time of year, and is reasonably consistent over the two-months of this Project so far. The cost of driving is still around €2 per 100km.

The total cost of €21.09 shown above is inaccurate, in that it is the cost calculated if all charging was done at home at the domestic rate. However, as mentioned in a previous post, the charge point at my house was replaced during December. For about 2 weeks of this month I was using public chargers, so I estimate that the actual out-of-pocket cost for driving just over 1,000km was about €10. 

*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.

Not more maintenance?

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.

Out with the old, in with the new

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.

Barriers to EV adoption

There are generally five arguments made against choosing an electric vehicle over an internal combustion engine vehicle.

1. They are too expensive
2. They don't go far enough
3. The charging infrastructure is poor
4. There is not enough choice in vehicle type
5. 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.

Guest Blogger #2 (Tesla Model S)

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.