They save fuel and the planet - so why don't we love electric cars?
Imagine there was a car which ran on free fuel.
It costs €2,000 a year less to run, cuts insurance bills by 20% and maintenance costs by 30%.
Road tax is just €120 a year.
This car will set you back no more than an average car of similar size and it performs just as well.
It sounds like motoring nirvana…You’d think there’d be queues around the block to buy this car.
Yet such a vehicle does exist.
But because it’s an electric car, over 99% of motorists turn up their noses at it.
There are only around 2,000 electric vehicles (EVs) on the road – 1% of the total fleet.
This compares to Norway, which has 126,000 EVs zooming quietly and cleanly around its roads, or one in every five cars.
Admittedly the canny Vikings have done a bit more to promote environmentally-friendly motoring: Norse drivers get widespread free tolls and parking and can use bus lanes.
But we’re not that far behind them in terms of EV perks. There are free tolls (at Fermoy in Cork) while parking costs nothing at EV points while you top up your vehicle.
The Government has even installed 1200 charging points nationwide, providing free electricity, and it also exempts EVs from VRT (worth €5k) and provides a €5k grant.
This brings the cost down to below that of some similarly-sized Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) models.
Hyundai, VW, BMW, Citroen, Peugeot and Renault produce EVs. But Nissan’s Leaf, a family-sized hatchback, accounts for almost 90% of the EV market here.
It costs from €21,490 - a good bit less than a Volkswagen Golf diesel and just a bit more than a petrol Toyota Corolla.
As an added bonus, it helps to save the planet, producing a fraction of the emissions of petrols or diesels.
So when your tree-hugging relative (every family has one) asks what you’re doing to save the planet, you can simply point to your car in the driveway.
And that bit of environmental kudos will become ever-more recognised as we move further towards climate change disaster.
What’s not to like?
Clearly something is bugging Irish drivers about EVs.
It’s not performance. The world’s fastest car is no longer a Ferarri or a Mazzarati Maserati – it’s an electric Tesla, which does 0-60mph in just 2.28 seconds.
Tesla is due to open a chain of EV dealerships and charging points in Ireland this year, albeit with prices that reflect the quality and performance of their EV sports car range.
But even the unsporty Leaf clocks up a decent performance (to me) of 0-60 in 11.5 seconds (with a top speed of 144kph).
I drove a Leaf for a few days to see what it feels like to go electric – and found the car quietly impressive.
I’m no Jeremy Clarkson. Like most motorists, I couldn’t care less about ‘torque’ or tearing around a race-track at 200kph. When is that going to happen in real life?
I found the drive pleasantly smooth, noise-free – and quite nippy. With all its weight in centrally-located batteries low down under the floor it handled nicely.
High depreciation, however, is a big issue, though one that
most buyers are willing to “factor in with an innovative rapidly developing product,” said Frank Barr Chair Irish EV Owners Association.
"Some are minimising it by upgrading quickly. Others like me are happy to wait for a mark 4 or 5 featuring substantial improvements and balance depreciation against extremely low maintenance costs and cheap (free up to now) fuel.”
“A replacement battery is only €6000, making your car almost new again. Less things go wrong and wear and rear is less. For example, my car with 154000kms on the clock still has original brakes operating at 96% efficiency according to last NCT.”
However, would-be EV buyers may still be concerned about resale values in a market with such little apparent demand – and such fast changing technology.
At least one buyer who bought a few years ago was angry that his car - with more limited range than current models - now seems obsolete.
He complained on radio that his fuel-efficiency gains were gobbled up by the rapid depreciation he experienced.
This, if true, doesn’t reflect the reliability of EVs.
EVs have far fewer moving parts and require less maintenance. The batteries do have a lifespan of 10 years - according to Nissan - but then so do most cars.
Even then, used batteries are still quite valuable and can be sold or incorporated into domestic electricity systems to store night-rate electricity for use during the day.
Any shortfall in demand for used EVs merely shows how consumers (rather unfairly) always want the newest version of every product.
One industry insider said: “EV buyers are trend setters. Would you want a first generation smart phone now?”
Maybe I would - if I needed a phone and its low price didn’t reflect its true value.
In any case, the prices of used EVs don’t seem to be that low. A quick glance at Carzone.ie showed 2014 and 2015 Nissan Leafs going for €13-€16k, which seems to reflect a reasonable level of depreciationalthough it is true that EVs don’t rate highly in some motor depreciation surveys.
Less valid is the much publicised term “range anxiety”, where drivers fear they’ll be left stranded in the middle of nowhere clutching a charging cable as dusk falls menacingly around them.
That may have been true in the past when charging points were few and far between.
But with 1200 public on the island, they’re as common as petrol stations and more easily findable via an in-car computer that’s standard on EVs and ready-programme to take you to one.
You can also charge your car from an ordinary domestic socket.
There is an issue with range and the time it takes to charge a vehicle.
The range of a fully-charged Nissan Leaf is now up to 250km for its 30kwh model (costing €24,490, or €3k more than the 24kwh version).
That figure assumes ideal driving conditions. Realistically, Nissan freely admit that the range is really 199k, which would require a recharge along the way to any city.
However, underlining how fast advances in this area are, a new 40kwh Leaf is due on the market on February 18 with a ‘real’ range of 250-270k, which could be a game changer as that’s the distance from Dublin to Cork.
On average, a ‘fast charge’ point can bring an EV battery up to 80% full in 25 minutes. That wait could be a nuisance, or a chance to grab a coffee break, depending on your attitude.
But there are only 70 fast chargers.
The rest could take anything from one to eight hours for a full charge, depending on the type of EV and how full the battery is.
EV-lovers say a full charge is rarely required – merely a top up that won’t take that long.
And most do their charging at work (usually for free) or at home. It’s all about being organised – or Buddha-like in your acceptance of delay.
Now the big question – would I go electric?
I don’t change my car very often and nor do I usually buy new cars – any new car - as they lose 30%-40% of their value in year one.
But the three-year running costs of a Leaf come in at €562 – one tenth what you would normally pay - potentially saving a quarter of the car’s cost in just three years.
Even more compelling are the environmental savings; what price can you put on saving the planet?
Ireland facing EU fines of '€6 billion' - Nissan
The EU Renewable Energy Supply Directive requires us to ensure that 10% of transport energy comes from renewable sources by 2020. That means 200,000 electric vehicles.
There’s less than three years to go and we’re barely at even 1% of that figure!
“The initial target was to have 230,000 EVs by 2020. It was re-set to 50,000 EVs in 2014 and a new target of 20,000 EVs is now proposed,” said Nissan CEO, James McCarthy at this week’s Transport and Climate Summit in Dublin.
These aren’t just numbers.
Replacing 200,000 fume-belching cars with EVs would seriously boost an emission-reduction programme that’s so far behind schedule it’s going to cost us serious money.
“Ireland is failing utterly in its EV strategy and C02 emissions continue to increase as the population and car ownership grows. 20,000 EVs by 2020 is achievable if the government gets serious, takes action and stops making grand statements of intent,” he said.
“The combined 2020 and 2030 costs to the State of failing to meet those commitments is estimated at between €3b and €6bn.”