SMARTcars

Is it time to buy an electric car?

>As a fan of tech, a reformed early-adopter and speed-freak you'd expect me to say YES! YES! YES! Go for it! Indeed I had (several) test drives with a Tesla and a trial run. I loved the pure unlimited power! The phenomenal torque (I was driving a Tesla Model S P90D - Dual-motor - 4wheel drive). It was surprisingly easy to drive and manouevre. Even as soon as the first test drive finished ended, I wanted one. The lifetime (of the car) free recharging sweetened the deal as did the big built-in HEPA filter that allegedly would keep one safe even if a 'dirty bomb' went off nearby. So I could drive in the most polluted traffic and be breathing as if I was in a clean-room.

The salesman certainly picked up on my enthusiasm. The deal was all but clinched. There was only one niggling doubt; I had a house in Spain and wanted it to drive there and back regularly. (I hate flying but love driving). The speed and comfort would make the miles melt away. However, what about charging? We looked at the charger maps in the Tesla sales office; France looked fine with plenty of dots indicating charging stations, but Spain? Er, not so much...

Talk about range anxiety! Spain in a big country - certainly compared to England - and though our Spanish place was only in the hills above Cambrils, getting the ferry from Blighty to Santander would then still entail a journey of some 300 miles to our villa. I didn't see the point of getting the Tesla at such expense (around £100,000 at the time) just to potter around West London.

While one of the incentives was free charging for life as mentioned already, another was no congestion charge in central London. I guessed correctly at the time that this charge would be going up and it now stands at £15. Not having to pay that week in, week out, year in , year out - and no fuel costs would add up to a considerable saving. However that is going to end as London Mayor Sadiq Khan is set to has end(ed) the exemption that electric cars (EVs) have enjoyed up til now (reported 2^nd July 2024) :

'Sadiq Khan is extending London’s congestion charge to all zero-emission vehicles from the end of next year. The move, which will extend the £15-a-day tax on motoring to battery-powered electric vehicles from Christmas Day 2025'

In the years since I was contemplating buying the flagship Tesla , the mood has certainly changed. The difficulties of charging, range anxiety and a myriad of problems with the cars and their software have become apparent. The mood is souring.

There are YouTube channels which tell the other side of the story from the constant government and media propaganda. Amomg them is expat MGUY Australia and engineer who attempts to cut through the blather and propaganda and just 'stick to the facts, ma'am. Another is Electric Car-nage who delivers cars for a living and gives an cabin-eye view as he test-drives them, reporting on 'real world' mileage among other things.

As engineer Simon from MGUY points out that Electric Vehicles (EVs) have only very narrow use cases. One of the problems is that not everyone - especially in cities such as London can charge them at home. Certainly without some jiggery pokery.

Another expat friend bought a Tesla Y last year, giddy with excitement over the price being knocked down from $75,000 to $60,000. Interest rates at the time were low meaning repayment would be easier. He planned to use the tesla Y as an Uber vehicle as he's done previously with a 2019 Subaru Outback (until it was totalled by someone sailing through a red light into him).

The problem with switching to a Tesla is that his landlord then refused him permission to install a Tesla supercharger at home having previously indicated it would be OK. So overnight he only gets 30-40 miles range with the mickey-mouse home-charging cable-out-the-window arrangement he has now. He relies on combination of outside Tesla superchargers and other chargers to charge two or three times a day given his high Uber-driver mileage. He has had this Tesla Y less than a year but it has already lost around 50 miles in range; down from 330 miles to 280. The car has around 80,000 miles on it, heading for 100,000 miles a year.
The problem city dwellers face is how to charge at home? We are increasingly going to see cables across the roads, dangling out of windows and hanging from trees...

The second hand market for EVs is crashing; partly due to new EVs being heavily discounted and partly because potential buyers have no idea what state the battery is in. 'You're not buying a used car - you're buying a used battery.'