Electric Vehicle: Will you buy one

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Electric Vehicle: Will you buy one - if not why not?

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#1805684 23-Jun-2017 14:27

ubergeeknz:

MikeAqua:

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but:

As I understand it no-one is selling pure EV cars new in NZ at the moment?

You are indeed wrong. Hyundai will sell you a brand new Ioniq, today, if you want one. edit: you can also buy Tesla locally.

Indeed wrong ... golly that sounds so much worse than just wrong

Thanks. Didn't know about the Hyundai.

Are Tesla actually shipping cars to NZ or just taking deposits?

They are the one electric car that does impress me. Considering the performance they are good value and they finally have OK build quality. I can't afford one, but that's my fault not Tesla's.

Mike

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#1805692 23-Jun-2017 14:37

MikeAqua:

Indeed wrong ... golly that sounds so much worse than just wrong

Thanks. Didn't know about the Hyundai.

Are Tesla actually shipping cars to NZ or just taking deposits?

They are the one electric car that does impress me. Considering the performance they are good value and they finally have OK build quality. I can't afford one, but that's my fault not Tesla's.

Apologies, that did come across a bit snarky :)

Yes, you can order a car from Tesla (model S or X), and they will ship here. I believe they have even opened a showroom. The Model 3 is not out yet, but you can put a deposit down on one.

Hopefully Nissan will bring the 2018 Leaf over here, although there's been no solid leads on that yet.

MikeAqua

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#1805694 23-Jun-2017 14:41

ubergeeknz:

Apologies, that did come across a bit snarky :)

Not at all. Cracked me up.

Mike

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#1805729 23-Jun-2017 16:07

alasta:

What about people who don't do daily driving? I find walking and public transport perfectly adequate for short trips, so a car is only useful to me if it can do long range highway driving of at least 400km.

EVs will get to that stage eventually, but I think it will be another ten years before I would find one that meets my needs at a price that I can afford.

The perceive obstacle of range, with a few obvious exceptions, is predominately a mind-set issue. The same skills that enable you to plan for a 400km range will work for a 200km range. Car's didn't always have 400km+ range and gas stations weren't always located every 20km.

At the end of the day prudent drivers don't drive for as long as it takes to drive 400km without a break due to fatigue etc. 200Km is as far as most peoples bladders can last (especially families/groups). It only takes 20 minutes to 80% fast charge the present generation of EV's on the present generation of chargers. That's about the right time to use the loo, grab a pie and stretch the legs.

If you don't mind waiting for public transport, I shouldn't imagine you'd mind a 20 minute break every 2 hours.

b0untypure1

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#1808270 28-Jun-2017 14:54

I'm a huge advocate for EV and really hope I can own one in the future. The reasons I won't buy one right now are listed below.

1. Not enough petrol stations have electric charging

2. I commute over 240km a week which makes point 1 a deal breaker (it would also increase my commute because I'd need to go to town/hutt to recharge)

3. Often travelling home to family (wellington - new plymouth)

4. Price... although I could buy one outright without a problem - the government should be subsidising and encouraging EVs with cheap prices. We went drivers to go "man who would buy a petrol VW polo when the nissan leaf is half the price and you don't need to buy fuel!!"

ubergeeknz

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#1808301 28-Jun-2017 15:16

b0untypure1:

I'm a huge advocate for EV and really hope I can own one in the future. The reasons I won't buy one right now are listed below.

1. Not enough petrol stations have electric charging

2. I commute over 240km a week which makes point 1 a deal breaker (it would also increase my commute because I'd need to go to town/hutt to recharge)

Are you unable to charge the car at home? I think we have charged once away from home (we have put 3000kms on our Leaf doing around 70km/day commute)

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gzt

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#1808305 28-Jun-2017 15:19

240km per week is not much. All the same you would keep $30 a week over any other car. That's another way of looking at the payback. Even on finance.

Sounds like you might have on street parking and cannot charge at home. That's a bit of a problem. New Plymouth to Wellington if it was two or three times a year hire a car with the payback. More than that as you said it's a bit marginal. That half day trip gets a bit longer with charging stops.

Personally don't see a strong need for direct subsidies in NZ. A bit more needs to be done to get some low level EV charging into apartment parking, parking buildings, even just a monitored 10A, things like that could be useful in helping things along.

b0untypure1

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#1808336 28-Jun-2017 16:10

ubergeeknz:

b0untypure1:

I'm a huge advocate for EV and really hope I can own one in the future. The reasons I won't buy one right now are listed below.

1. Not enough petrol stations have electric charging

2. I commute over 240km a week which makes point 1 a deal breaker (it would also increase my commute because I'd need to go to town/hutt to recharge)

Are you unable to charge the car at home? I think we have charged once away from home (we have put 3000kms on our Leaf doing around 70km/day commute)

At the moment no..maybe when I get a new house with a proper garage :)

MikeAqua

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#1808374 28-Jun-2017 17:00

gzt: 240km per week is not much. All the same you would keep $30 a week over any other car. That's another way of looking at the payback. Even on finance.

The total cost of finance is proportional to the amount borrowed.

For the more affordable/shopping basket/urban runner EVs you pay about 150% to 200% more than a comparator petrol vehicle. So your finance cost will be higher - and that's assuming the same finance rate.

That assumption may not be valid. I've recently seen Honda advertising 1.7% finance.

If I was contemplating a near new leaf it would cost me ~$39k. It's most comparable to Jazz, which near new would cost about $25k new.

For $36k I could get a new civic hatch. For $40k I could get the turbo-charged 'warm' hatch.

That's why vehicle price is important. When the price is right people who 'just want a car' will buy EV. They will become the default. Right now only people who specifically want EV will buy one.

An example is friends who just built a nice new house. They made sure the electrician included provision for EV charging. However, they have no intention of buying an EV yet.

Mike

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#1808475 28-Jun-2017 19:54

MikeAqua:
gzt: 240km per week is not much. All the same you would keep $30 a week over any other car. That's another way of looking at the payback. Even on finance.

The total cost of finance is proportional to the amount borrowed.

For the more affordable/shopping basket/urban runner EVs you pay about 150% to 200% more than a comparator petrol vehicle. So your finance cost will be higher - and that's assuming the same finance rate.

That assumption may not be valid. I've recently seen Honda advertising 1.7% finance.

If I was contemplating a near new leaf it would cost me ~$39k. It's most comparable to Jazz, which near new would cost about $25k new.

For $36k I could get a new civic hatch. For $40k I could get the turbo-charged 'warm' hatch.

That's why vehicle price is important. When the price is right people who 'just want a car' will buy EV. They will become the default. Right now only people who specifically want EV will buy one.

An example is friends who just built a nice new house. They made sure the electrician included provision for EV charging. However, they have no intention of buying an EV yet.

But your new Jazz/Covic/turbo-charged-warm-hatch would also cost daily/weekly/monthly/yearly more in fuel/servicing/Road use charges (or fuel tax) which all adds up too?

SWMBO is in the market for a new car right now, and is easily convinced that her $250/m fuel bill is a major part of the repayment costs on the 12,000 budget we have for a new-for-you car to do her daily 70km commute more efficiently.

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#1808570 29-Jun-2017 07:05

MikeAqua:

gzt: 240km per week is not much. All the same you would keep $30 a week over any other car. That's another way of looking at the payback. Even on finance.

That's why vehicle price is important. When the price is right people who 'just want a car' will buy EV. They will become the default. Right now only people who specifically want EV will buy one.

Right... I commute about 80km/day in a second-hand Mondeo at a cost of about $6K/year for fuel and depreciation. Where can I get an EV (any size) for that price?

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b0untypure1

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#1808579 29-Jun-2017 07:45

gzt: 240km per week is not much. All the same you would keep $30 a week over any other car. That's another way of looking at the payback. Even on finance.

That's exactly why I got rid of my Toyota Camry ($60-65 fuel per week) and bought a Honda Insight ($60 every 3-3.5 weeks) :)

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#1808615 29-Jun-2017 08:30

Don't have the energy to read through the whole thread but in response to the OP question.

I drove an electric car for the first time last week, a BMW i3.

It hasn't put me off and I will consider electric when our next car is due to be replaced. Won't be an i3 though, it's butt-ugly.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

frednz

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#1808651 29-Jun-2017 09:35

floydbloke:

Don't have the energy to read through the whole thread but in response to the OP question.

I drove an electric car for the first time last week, a BMW i3.

It hasn't put me off and I will consider electric when our next car is due to be replaced. Won't be an i3 though, it's butt-ugly.

I don't think I'd worry too much about the "butt-ugly" aspect. After all, a lot of people don't like the look of the Nissan Leaf either!

The main things to think about are range and cost and if you're satisfied with these aspects, I'd buy an i3 in preference to a Leaf!

floydbloke

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#1808682 29-Jun-2017 09:57

frednz:

floydbloke:

Don't have the energy to read through the whole thread but in response to the OP question.

I drove an electric car for the first time last week, a BMW i3.

It hasn't put me off and I will consider electric when our next car is due to be replaced. Won't be an i3 though, it's butt-ugly.

I don't think I'd worry too much about the "butt-ugly" aspect. After all, a lot of people don't like the look of the Nissan Leaf either!

The main things to think about are range and cost and if you're satisfied with these aspects, I'd buy an i3 in preference to a Leaf!

I'm not overly zealous about going electric (I stated I'd consider it, not definitely buy one). If I'm going to drop that sort of cash on replacement car, then how it looks is one of the factors. If I can't find one that me (and mrs. Floyd) like the looks of at the right price, chances are we'll stick with a fossil-burner.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

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