A little more than two weeks ago, I became an accidental electric vehicle (EV) owner. I say it happened by accident because, like St Augustine, who pleaded with God “to grant me chastity and continence, but not yet”, the plan was to continue to drive my 10-year-old diesel BMW 1 Series until the wheels fell off and ideally beyond. Then – and only then, probably, maybe, possibly – consider investing in an EV. There were financial, logistical and environmental reasons for this.
The financial calculation was not sophisticated – the loan on my car was paid off a few years ago, so it wasn’t costing much to keep on the road, and I had the usual questions about the resale value of EVs. Logistical: while I hadn’t read a whole lot on the subject, I had read enough to know that Ireland’s EV infrastructure wasn’t yet up to scratch. And environmental: I commute the 320km round trip to work three times a week by Irish Rail and Luas, and mostly use a car on weekends, so my climate conscience is fairly clear. The carbon toll involved in the manufacture of a whole new vehicle would definitely outweigh my weekend trips to Tesco.
Unfortunately the wheels fell off the car earlier than planned (or, for the mechanically minded among you, the timing belt snapped for the second time in 18 months; no, I hadn’t checked the oil; yes, that was indeed an expensive lesson). And with my husband’s equally troublesome car also temporarily off the road, my family of five was marooned with lots of places to be and no means of getting there.
I toyed briefly with the idea of a small, manual diesel or petrol car that the young adult offspring could learn to drive in, but since I couldn’t get a trade-in against my car, which was bound for the scrap yard, I wanted to use a personal contract plan (PCP). These are similar to hire purchase deals which leave you with a big lump sum to pay off at the end, at which point I plan to roll over into a new PCP.
I recently bought an EV. Here are some of the pros and cons so far
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The first pleasant surprise was the affordability. I looked at two second-hand cars: a 241-reg petrol Seat Ibiza with 10,000km on the clock worth €26,000 with no trade in and a cash deposit of €2,500. At 5.9 per cent APR, the monthly repayments were €419. The other option was a 242-reg fully electric Cupra Born 58kwh with 5,000km mileage and a list price of €32,000. Since EVs are automatic, it wasn’t going to be useful for the learners, but a lower APR of 2.9 per cent and deposit of €4,000 meant repayments of €350 per month. Sorry kids – the Cupra Born it was.
The second pleasant surprise was how smooth and zippy it is to drive, and how solid it feels. For a car that’s roughly the same footprint as my previous one, it feels more spacious. The safety features – lane assist, auto-breaking as you approach a roundabout – are impressively futuristic. And then there’s the blissful silence. My husband describes it as like being inside a set of noise cancelling headphones.
The first nasty surprise was the cost of the home charging kit – still not yet installed. We’d been told to expect an upfront cost of €1,200, of which an SEAI grant would cover €300. In reality, it’s going to cost €1,380 plus VAT, before the grant. Plus an extra €220 (plus VAT) to upgrade existing electrics.
This hardly falls into the category of “surprise” but range anxiety is real. Our first long trip involved Maths Paper 1 style calculations involving known distances, estimated range, probable speed and access to chargers. We had a not atypically complex schedule of pickups and drop-offs which involved a few short trips around Waterford city, a return trip to Stradbally (76km; nearest charger 13km) in the west of the county, and then a quick turnaround to Greystones Co Wicklow for a family party (362km round trip; two chargers in the whole town, according to the ESB app.)
That morning, we charged the battery at a fast public charger (€30 for a full charge), and then stopped again at one of several fast chargers in Waterford city before we left. This was our third nasty surprise: fast chargers aren’t always that fast. What should have taken 20 minutes was going to take 55 minutes, which would have made us rudely late for the party. In the end, we charged it to 85 per cent, arrived moderately late, and my husband had to nip out again to charge it again at a nearby charger so we could get home. As we fretfully interrupted conversations to update each other on the charging progress (4.5 hours to fully charged this time), I suspect we cured several partygoers of any notions of EV ownership. And probably of ever inviting us anywhere again.
But that kind of trip is not a weekly occurrence. And with the old diesel as a backup, a charger at my husband’s workplace and another soon to be installed at home, it will be easier to manage. The final unpleasant surprise – again, this won’t come as a shock to anyone who has done their homework – is that the range is an elastic notion. Depending on the outside temperature, your speed and whether you’re using air con or heating, it’s astonishing how quickly the theoretical 410km range falls to 230km.
Two weeks in, so far, the pleasure of driving a brand-new car outweighs the minor shocks of first time EV ownership. This isn’t a novel observation, but it’s worth saying again: until the charging network improves, EV adoption rates won’t either. As my friend Patrick says, we were supposed to have flying cars by now, yet we can’t even seem to manage enough sockets for electric ones.
