“Massive support for the automotive industry will put significant debt on future generations,” the commission said in the document. “That support must respect our youth’s expectations on climate change and for a healthier and cleaner future.”
That will last only as long as it takes to put diesel and petrol models out of business. Then the VAT will be switched on again. Classic bait and switch.EU are considering exempting zero-emissions vehicles from VAT to help ‘green’ the recovery plan. This could change the economics of purchasing an EV very significantly.
Link to Bloomberg article
That will last only as long as it takes to put diesel and petrol models out of business. Then the VAT will be switched on again. Classic bait and switch.
The Irish exchequer is unusually dependent on revenue from motor taxes.
Agreed but working from home is not necessarily a good thing for many people who have small homes/small kids/work better in work so I wouldn't like to see a situation where people were forced to work from home.I really hope two positive things to come out of this Coronavirus situation are:
1. The government realise they could solve the traffic situation in our cities by incentivising companies to have more workers work-from-home. It’s critical that companies, not individuals, are incentivised because it’s companies generally blocking it, because of security/productivity/inertia. Reduce employer’s PRSI or something like that.
I hope they don't do anything stupid like banning diesel cars from cities. I have a 10 year old diesel car but I cycle into work so I fill my car with fuel about once every 6 weeks. Therefore my cars additional carbon footprint is tiny. If I am forced to buy a new car the additional carbon footprint will be massive and take decades to cancel out, if ever.2. We realise that we can have the current levels of clean air and low noise on our roads, even during rush hour traffic, if we just stop buying petrol/diesel cars.
There’s a real opportunity here, while the vast improvements in (certain areas of) quality-of-life are fresh in everyone’s minds!
as the battery age your range will decrease. How much is a bank of new batteries? how can you tell the condition on a 2and hand purchase?My wife and I both drive EVs, absolutely love them and once you get used to how quick they are, the smoothness of the drive, the quietness, waking up to a ‘full tank’ every morning, not going to petrol stations every few days, the low cost, the sturdy feel of the cars (the heavy battery means even a small car feels chunky, like that typical German luxury brand feel) etc there is no going back, ever.
There’s no doubt that you need to choose an EV that suits your needs, if you drive 50000km a year, all on the motorway, or you live in an apartment so cannot get a home charger, you probably should not be buying an EV yet.
To your questions -
1. Within 3-4 weeks you learn the range of the car and this mostly goes away. Queuing anxiety at chargers is much more real, because right not the charging network is a bit overburdened, but the ESB and Ionity are doing big roll-outs as we speak to fix this.
2. If you have home charging then you will hopefully be doing 95%+ of your charging at home, so the charging network is not a major deal, and as I say is about to improve very significantly.
3. I’d say no and no. We want people to use chargers then move their cars so others can get in there, so both charging and parking should come at a cost.
4. The 24kWh Leafs are incredible value if you just want to drive around the city with the very odd longer journey. €10k would get you a low mileage high spec 2014 capable of 120km per charge. The Ionia also gets very good reports. If you have more money to throw around, then the newer generation (Leaf+, Kona, eNiro, Tesla Model3) will all do 3-400km and are either available or will be by the summer, in the €35-45k price range.
The 0% BIK, Accelerated Capital Allowance Scheme and partial VAT rebate make EVs very attractive as company cars FWIW.
Yes range decreases as the battery health decreases. But this is really only a concern in Nissan Leafs (mostly older models, the newer larger battery models do not cycle as often so fare much better) where the battery chemistry is not great and they are not thermally managed.as the battery age your range will decrease. How much is a bank of new batteries? how can you tell the condition on a 2and hand purchase?
Some stats: Kerry 22 Aug
Distance Driven 370km
Speeds 71km/h
Consumption 26.3 KWH/100km
Trip to dublin 29 Aug
Distance Driven 365km
Speeds 80km/h
Consumption 25.4 KWH/100km
Total consumption over 1,860 KM so far 26.2KWH/100km which gives an expected range of 250k which is a little less than i thought! But in summary no regrets so far, as a family car it really suits
Hi Blackrock1. Did you work out the cost savings v's petrol over the trip?
Fantastic insight there Blackrock1, really appreciated. I am considering EV myself too. Up to 3 years ago I had an 80 mile round trip daily commute so, EVs were not the solution. These days if I clock up 30 - 40 miles a week plus a a 50 mile round trip to see my father in the Midlands that would be a typical week. Yes, there are 2 - 3 trips to Castlebar a year and only recently went to Baltimore in Cork for a few days but they are the outliers and a bit of planning ahead should cater for those trips. Mind, not too many hotels have charging stations. eTron is a lovely motor but I would say my budget might struggle to get to the Leaf!not really but i spent 30 quid on fast charging and did 846km in total between the trip up and down and driving when there.
My last car did around 600km on a fill costing roughly 90 quid so maybe 100 euro cheaper give or take?
Fantastic insight there Blackrock1, really appreciated. I am considering EV myself too. Up to 3 years ago I had an 80 mile round trip daily commute so, EVs were not the solution. These days if I clock up 30 - 40 miles a week plus a a 50 mile round trip to see my father in the Midlands that would be a typical week. Yes, there are 2 - 3 trips to Castlebar a year and only recently went to Baltimore in Cork for a few days but they are the outliers and a bit of planning ahead should cater for those trips. Mind, not too many hotels have charging stations. eTron is a lovely motor but I would say my budget might struggle to get to the Leaf!
I am fascinated with the whole transition to EVs and I think the matter will be accelerated further when:
a) The Greens put in a few sweeteners in the October budget, has to be significant though not just tipping around the edges.
b) Manufacturers push out more models with better batteries to lengthen the range
c) Public charging infrastructure is drastically ramped up
Good read. Why the Audi over a Tesla? (apologies if you've already posted this information).sharing a post i did on a thread on boards regarding my initial experience with a new EV, Audi Etron (50 variant)
The trip was a 370km spin from Dublin to Sneem in Kerry via mallow. Check on ABRP and the guidance was to stop at ionity cashel and charge to near full. i was a little worried about what to do when i got to parknasilla but when i called the hotel they said they would have outdoor plugs that i could use, and it turns out ESB have an AC point in sneem village as well.
First thing to note is that as a family car the etron excels, the boot space is really great, over 600litres and a very large amount under the boot floor aswell once you remove the polysterene spacer where a spare wheel could go. i got a weeks worth of grocery shopping, a laptop back and a few other bits under there, and in the main boot itself i got too massive suitcases and a buggy, scooter and a few other smaller bags, it really excelled.
onto the trip it self, we had 4 in the car and a packed boot, it was 190k give or take to cashel and i left home with a full battery, when i got there it indicated circa 40k range left. So first lesson, the e-tron is very inefficient, even more so at motorway speeds with extra weight! There was also some wind and rain that day (last sat 22 Aug)
In cashel the Ionity chargers were working well and 3 of the 4 stalls were free (i-pace as charging when i got there) the cable location isnt ideal for an etron as you need to pull right up to the unit and keep in right to the left of your parking space as the DC port is on the drivers side, after a little back and forth i got there, the cables are short and pretty rigid, id worry a little about my wife doing it on her own. once plugged in it was fine, used my audi charging sub, 31c a kwh, charged at 118 kw/h for when i was looking at it (etron 50 maxes at 120 v 150 for the 55) and charged the car to full in around 38 min (the e-tron maintains a pretty high charging rate from 80-100, i think circa 50 kw/h). We took the kids into mcdonalds and the car was charged completely 5 minutes before we were done.
Next part of the journey was another circa 200k but with less motorway, and when we got there i was showing 60k of range left so efficiency improved at lower than motorway speeds. We plugged into a granny charger when we got there which was handy, only charged at 2.1kw per hour but the first few days we werent driving too far so allowed me to get it back up near full and keep it topped up for the trip home.
Trip home was the same but in reverse, again no issues with ionity at all, working well and fast speeds.
with two small kids i would have needed a half way break of at least 45min anyway so the journey didnt take any longer in an EV.
i would definitely be much more confident about longer trips now, just need to make a plan and a back up plan, to be fair we do about 10k km annually and most of it is local so its only a consideration a half dozen times in the year.
Some stats:
Trip to Kerry 22 Aug
Distance Driven 370km
Speeds 71km/h
Consumption 26.3 KWH/100km
Trip to dublin 29 Aug
Distance Driven 365km
Speeds 80km/h
Consumption 25.4 KWH/100km
Total consumption over 1,860 KM so far 26.2KWH/100km which gives an expected range of 250k which is a little less than i thought! But in summary no regrets so far, as a family car it really suits us.
Good read. Why the Audi over a Tesla? (apologies if you've already posted this information).
Gotta do what you gotta do.Was in Dingle two weeks ago. A Dublin reg Model S and iPace, and a GB reg model X were in our hotel carpark. (Model S had the granny cable running in the window!). @Blackrock1 great review!
Yes, though it would be fairly slow. Some cars, like the BMW i3 REX actually come with a small petrol engine under the bonnet that does exactly this; run only when needed to charge the battery up, but the car is driven by the electric motors at all times.Is it possible to carry a small, petrol, generator that would charge the EV in am emergency?
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