What do Irish EV owners really think of life behind the electric wheel? We’ve gathered together some experienced EV drivers, who’ve had their cars on the road for at least a few years, or who are already on their second or third EV, to find out how they feel about the progression of electric motoring life.
Joe Langan is an executive officer with the National Transport Authority. He bought a second-hand Tesla Model 3, a 2020 car, in 2023, and he told us: “Life is arguably easier now because there are more places to charge. But I rarely need to charge away from home, so it only matters in places I go to regularly.
“We travel from Ashbourne to Killarney every few months and usually charge in Birdhill during our bathroom/food break, but I’ve used Barack Obama Plaza the odd time too. It’s definitely easier in Killarney since they opened an ESB High Power unit beside SuperValu – the other ESB units are often occupied, so we were charging using the “granny cable” at the actual kids’ granny’s house. Worked fine, but not ideal.”
One good thing that Langan has noted is that the cost of running has come down.
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“It’s become cheaper, definitely. We were at the height of an electricity price spike when we bought the car and quickly realised charging during the day was more expensive per kilometre than running our old hybrid. We now have a special EV tariff with Bord Gáis that gives us 7.2c/kWh from 2-5am, which allows us to charge up for €1-2 on average.
“I have an app that shows exactly what we’ve paid for every drive, and so far this year, we’ve driven almost 14,500km, and it’s cost us 4c per kilometre; bear in mind that includes charging maybe a third of the time away from home, which often costs 10 times as much as at home. There are some months where we drive little and only charge at home; in May, we spent €10 driving 630km for the whole month, around 1.5c/km.”
The experience has turned Langan off ever buying a combustion car. “No, I think I’m done with anything with an exhaust, to be honest,” he said. “We did rent an EV in Italy recently, an Alfa Junior. It was fine, but designed to take petrol engines as well, so no space benefit. And it was pricier than EV public charging in Ireland, too, although at least charging was plentiful.
“Last week I rented a petrol Peugeot 2008 in the UK because the rental EVs were very expensive. It was fine, but I only drove it for 230km and it cost me €25 in petrol; that’s almost 11c a kilometre … Even my old Kia Niro only costs 7-8c/km. Had I rented an EV, I could’ve plugged it in while I had breakfast near the airport, which I was doing anyway. Instead, I had five minutes in a random BP garage paying £21 for little more than three hours of driving in total.”
That said, he has decided that his first Tesla will be his last. “I like my Tesla but I don’t think we’ll get another one,” said Langan. “Not only is there the Musk factor – I don’t know of another car on sale today associated with a specific person as much as mine, and when it’s someone like Elon Musk, it makes you second-guess your decision – but Tesla is not really a great company to deal with.
“They also carried out a bunch of price drops in 2023 that seriously devalued the cars.”
He says that “while the cars are good, the software is extremely reliable, and the efficiency is excellent – 15-16kW/100km is very achievable – I just don’t feel I could buy a new one. But, as used cars, they’re unbelievable bargains.
“I might look at BYD – their Sealion looks great – and even Xpeng. Going back to Kia, we previously had a Niro, which is also an option, although I’d wait for the EV4. I could even end up considering the Toyota C-HR+ if it’s spacious enough. I like that there are now so many more options.”
Thomas J Fleming, who’s a director of engineering services at Stryker, a medical devices company in Limerick, has a Kia EV6, but he still keeps a petrol-powered car in reserve.
“I wouldn’t say as a backup car, but I have my Mazda MX-5 for pottering around in. It couldn’t replace the EV6 for hauling people, pets, bikes and stuff around, but if I have a business trip, it’s handy to get to one of the airports” said Fleming.
“The Kia’s range isn’t as much of an issue as it used to be. A theoretical 500km seems to be just about enough for all eventualities, considering about one third evaporates in winter. Secondly, night rate and smart tariff electricity certainly keep the costs down.
“Thirdly, dealerships, especially Kia in this case, are less nervous about the cars from a repair and service point of view. When we had our previous eNiro they didn’t know what to charge for a service, and their service had things like oil filters and emissions checks on them by default.”
There have been some frustrations, though: “Access to chargers at peak times is a frustration, and car parks are just not set up for civilised queuing. Although there are a lot more chargers on primary routes, often at a stand of six, there will be one or two that are either offline, or won’t start a charge.
“Also size is an issue. As I mentioned, the family car is an EV6; it’s too big for Irish roads and parking spaces. Up until recently, it wasn’t possible to get a 450-500km hatchback car without it being a bit rotund. That size and capacity leads to weight: it wears out relatively large, expensive tyres quite quickly. A freak occurrence last year when our home charger died right on the cusp of having to do a long trip. That was unfortunate. Working with the installer and the manufacturer, we had a replacement in about two working days.”
However, none of this has put Fleming off electric motoring, and he plans to replace one battery car with another. “My wife is already eyeing up the Kia EV4 or EV5, and we’ll probably change as we come towards the end of the warranty, and hopefully into something a bit smaller with equivalent range.
“Though I’d love a heavily depreciated Porsche Taycan, there’s no way I’d have a third car. I’m paying the insurance company enough as it is. I live in the middle of the sticks, and a lot of neighbours are incredulous of the range, and very curious about the car, but not willing enough to change. I did convince my dad to get a hybrid last time, and next time he would consider an EV.”
Paul Healy lives in Kildare, and he’s keeping the pioneering spirit going by continuing to run a first-generation Nissan Leaf, which he describes as: “a 2015 Leaf with 136,000+ kms on the clock and nine of the 11 battery health indicator lights, or about 110km range, remaining.”
Isn’t it hard to run a car with such a truncated range, and older technology? Not really, says Healy: “I almost exclusively charge the car up in work as I don’t have a charger at home beyond an outdoor three-pin socket for top-ups, so the roll-out of more and quicker charging points has not affected me. In three years, I have loaded up €50 to my ESB eCars account and have about €20 on it at the moment. Similar story with Easy Go. I do get the same emails from ESB about price increases as everyone else, so it has got more expensive, but the price jumps are signalled in advance and are the same.”
The limited range can be, well, a limitation, but Healy is prepared to work around it, saying: “I knew going into the purchase that the Leaf’s primary role was getting me in and out of work – a round trip of around 60 kms, but the remaining 50 kms isn’t really enough to do much with. Sure, I can drop the kids off at rugby training, about a 20km trip, but I cannot really venture much beyond that without having to top up at home, and I’m too cheap for that.
“And Lord forbid you have to use the heater or climate control as either can wipe about 15 per cent off the projected range.”
The reward for all this hair-shirt motoring? Money savings, simple as that.
“The money saved is the biggest benefit. For context, I had a Mk1 Audi TT midlife crisis car before the Leaf that I calculated one day as costing me between €2,500 and €3,000 a year to run,” said Healy. “It was a nearly 20-year-old car, so maintenance costs were increasing each year. It blew out tyre sidewalls anytime you looked at a pothole, and a 1.8 turbocharged four-wheel drive has a tendency to drink fuel.
“I changed to the Leaf just before Russia invaded Ukraine, so I didn’t have to deal with the spike in fuel costs, but I was already spending €50 a week for my 60km commute. In the three years I have had the Leaf, I have spent about €1,000 on things like tyres, bushings and brakes.”
