How practical is electric as an only car?

We tend to own a vehicle for a long time. I have not done any proper research but I’ve heard that the batteries only have a life of around 8 years. What happens then? - presumably a near worthless second hand car or a massive expenditure on replacement batteries? And, apart from the cost, it doesn’t sound very eco friendly.

I am hoping someone will tell me this is complete rubbish.

6 Likes

Batteries can be replaced. They are more interchangeable that you imagine. It’s quite conceivable that in the near future after market batteries will also be available as will swapping out for longer range versions.

It depends, of course, on the model of car. I can’t possibly know whether a specific model has a removable garage replaceable battery. But many do.

A lot was made of this a few years ago, particularly in the press but I don’t think it has become an issue. Plenty of EVs are oler than that now.

Another Tesla owner living in SE here. Personally I have never had any issues with mine. 90% of charging done at home using cheaper nighttime charging. Remainder courtesy of wider Tesla charging network. I did use public network chargers whilst in the Lake District on holiday. For an ecologically area the service is not so good but we managed thanks to the chargers at Windermere and using them at night when quiet.
I’m still getting in excess of 200 miles range on long journeys in cold weather but I try to drive steady and consistent, no rapid accel/braking. I do keep up to the speed limit so as not to hinder other drivers by driving too slow.
I believe that old batteries can be reused as part of large batteries used by generating industry in conjunction with wind farms to provide some resilience. Not many of these around as yet as manufacturers insist on using batteries in cars with weird shapes, eg BMW Mini where they put battery in space left after ICE bits are removed.
Don’t think I’ll be going back to ICE might look at hydrogen in a few years if it comes about. Already in use with plant/HGVs etc.

2 Likes

We have had a BMW i3 for 4 years (about 150/190 miles range winter/summer) and now a Kia EV6 (about 250-260 range so far in winter, expect more like 280-300 in summer) as well. My ICE cars have gone.

Range does not ‘halve when it is cold’ in our extensive experience. It drops as shown above.

The answer to your question is to look at your usage over the last few months

If the majority is trips from home then I’d say no problem, assuming that you have a home charger and these journeys are fairly local ie no need to charge. Cheap night time EV Tariffs mean very economical charging. Plugging in at night becomes routine.

If you do a lot of varied weekend journeys where you need to charge away our experience of the charging network is a) it is improving fast with far more available and many more fast/faster chargers but b) it is still not totally reliable either in terms of available spaces or faults at charging points.

In essence if you have your trips away on a tight timetable where you absolutely have no margin for the odd longer charge or waiting for a charger then you may have the odd frustration The key is journey planning but occasionally you may have to accept a bit more time on a slower charge than you intended. Last long trip I did I had barely time to drink a coffee before my EV6 had added 200 miles of range on a v fast charger-that is the perfect experience.

I can tell you I enjoy the calm EV experience, I cannot imagine ever having another ICE vehicle but they don’t suit everyone’s usage pattern and preferences.

One suggestion; try hiring one. A weekend with an EV will let you make up your own mind.

Bruce

Incidentally we currently pay 7p/unit between 12.30 and 4.30am, it will go up to 12p at the end of Feb. Very roughly that is 3.5p/mile at the new rate.

3 Likes

Is the reduced winter mileage due to the cold on the batteries or the use of the car heater? I imagine the cabin heater must use a lot of electricity. I would have thought this has much more effect on range than the batteries being cold.

I have a feeling that may turn out to be a moving target - I can’t see how an adequate, standardised infrastructure can be built until the technology has matured and I can’t see how the govt can enforce the ban without the infrastructure in place. It would be like banning bottled water without a water supply.

6 Likes

I want to go full electric but I think that i need to wait about 5 years for technology to evolve and prices to become more realistic.
A key issue for me is that I would want the car battery to have the capability to feed the house consumption and to feed back to the grid to make it worthwhile. A few cars are beginning to have this option but not ones I want. Surely this is a no brainer? Holding off buying a house battery for my solar in anticipation of this.

Both, but many EVs use a heat pump to reduce the use of a resistive heater.

As a guide my car estimated around 12% energy use on cabin climate during trips in the recent very cold snap when temperatures didn’t get much above freezing for 2 weeks. My EV6 has a heat pump

Ambient temperature substantially affects battery capacity when you charge.

Bruce

1 Like

I did notice that Texas instruments have just released a new more accurate battery monitor, which depending on the battery type and capacity can get an extra 80 miles from a battery. Currently they are only accurate to about 3 mv for measuring charge, the new one is accurate to 1 mv.

Same here, but waiting for viable secondhand decent EVs, which is the only type I’d buy, as I’d never waste money on a new car.

I’ve a PHEV (CUPRA Leon) which suits my usage pattern - all of my weekday motoring is 100% electric and I can head off at the weekends without planning or worrying about charging.

3 Likes

Our council have recently “installed” four EV parking spaces in a small thirty space car park. At the entrance to the car park is a consultation notice, the subject being whether to provide charging points for those parking spaces?

I did drive a Polestar 2,dual motor and it was relentlessly fast, but I am a bit of a petrol head and found the experience odd and somewhat uninvolving. Probably need to drive others, I’m sure I’d get used to it though.

I am pretty sure an EV would be fine 95% of the time, maybe I’m worrying unnecessarily about the other 5% when finding a charging point could be more challenging.

Then there’s the buying it question. I was thinking of buying outright, but with advances in technology an EV might lose value quickly, and who knows what might happen to petrol car values as the 2030 date looms.

As for locations have a look at an app like ZapMap which will show you what chargers are out there in the places you go, and also generally up to date information on speed, price, and whether they have been used recently or reported as broken. It is a free app.

As a guide, a home charger of 7kW adds about 25-30 miles in an hour, a lot of commercial chargers are 50kW (about 180 miles in an hour) but there are increasing numbers that will charge at 150, 250 or even 350 kW, although bear in mind not all cars have the technology to charge at these very high speeds.

Bruce

In many cases, batteries can be repaired by replacing failing cells. You can get warranties that will cover batteries beyond 8 years. There are many, many Tesla that have batteries over 8 years old and/or have done half a million miles or more.

Tesla battery replacement is around 14k ouch

1 Like

One of my cars is a Porsche 997.1, which can suffer from cylinder bore scoring with a similar repair cost, so unfortunately large repair costs are not limited to EVs. Fingers crossed for mine, lol :crossed_fingers:

Interesting. Thanks.

Yes but that shouldn’t happen. It’s a repair. Batteries will fail - they are in effect a consumable albeit long term (and perhaps longer term than I had feared).

1 Like