I'm still on the fence regarding EVs. Basically they are getting there, but not right for everyone.
And happened to have had a long conversation today with a friend who is on his 2nd Tesla. But even as a petrol-head, he said that going EV is a one way trip. Would never go back.
Car fires: Far more ICE cars catch fire, it's just that they are not newsworthy. Remeber third party, fire and theft insurance?
Battery life: Early EVs such as the Nissan Leaf used passive air cooling on the battery pack, which is not very kind to them. Pretty much every other EV since has active liquid cooling, so battery age really isn't an issue any more.
Public charging: If you have a Tesla, then it's a pretty slick, quick, fully integrated and reliable network. The car tells you where the best/nearest charger is, who is waiting at it, the state of charge of THEIR cars and can calculate how long you will be waiting and charging for. All Tesla's are rapid charge and so are all their chargers.
Anything else is pretty poor. Flakey phone applications, poor reliability, dodgy payment systems, etc. Charge time can be painful if you choose a car that does not have rapid charge. Or you get to a charge station that being hogged by someone who only can only slow charge.
Tyres: Heard an interesting podcast interview with a fleet manager who is transitioning to EVs. She said that early on they were getting lots of cars scrubbing out rear tyres. As the drivers were gunning the cars because of the high pull off torque. Once they got the boy racer bit out of their system, they were seeing tyres regularly lasting 40k. Which easilly compensated for the higher costs of them (EVs tend to have harder compound due to heavier weight.)
So if you can off-road charge at home and mostly use it for trips with your battery range, an EV makes lots of sense.
If you have reliable destination charging (at work or whatever) it will cost a little more to run, but will increase the useable range of the vehicle. (Or have a Teslar)
No home charging (or again, not a Tesla), or you do regular very long distances, I think the balance is stil in favour of ICE.
I currently have an old petrol car with loads of life left in. My work commute is 3hours for 110miles and no reliable destination charging. So I would either need to buy an EV with a moderatly big range, and they are still at a price where depreciation is going to cost me more than I would save in running costs. Or a cheaper car and have to spend even more time on the commute charging. Neither are attractive.
So I'll stick with my existing car till it dies, or EVs have filtered down into the end of the used market where I can afford.
www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com
