The new Corolla saloon is a lovely looking car. The image of the Lexus.
cluaindiuic:
First things first. Let me make it clear that Iām not a motoring enthusiast in any shape or form. I want to get from A to B in the way that makes the most sense factoring in speed, cost etcā¦ The electric car we bought works for us but our circumstances are fairly specific and theyāve worked heavily in our favour. There are certain drawbacks, Iāll get to those. Nothing thatās a dealbreaker for me. Might be for others.
The scenario we had back in December was that we were paying about ā¬600 a month in petrol between Mrs. CLD and myself getting to and from work each week in separate cars. Her commute is about 90KM per day. Mine is about 130KM per day. Adds up pretty quickly. I was driving a 2011 Octavia, she was driving a 2005 Citreon C4. Just before Christmas the C4 blew up[Head Gasket or something, like I said, not a car guy] and we were left with some decisions about how weād get to work. At the time we were kind of forced into sharing a car to work, which actually became a viable option for us. It involved me going to work earlier and leaving earlier but my work didnāt mind so thatās what we did.
The day before the C4 went kaput we had actually been in a Hyundai dealership looking at the Ioniq. The idea of an electric car had been in my head for a few months after I found out there were car chargers in my workplace carpark. My main concern had been the range of the car and if Iād be able to comfortably get to work and back on a single charge. The Ioniq has an advertised range of 260KM. The reality of that is more like 200KM at a conservative pace but itās comfortably over the 130KM I need to get to work and back. So after the C4 went bust I started researching it a bit more seriously.
Hereās how the finances of it worked. You get a ā¬5000 grant from the government for new electric cars.
From my point of view I wanted to minimise that ā¬600 a month we were spending on petrol. We continue to travel to work together, I charge in work during the week and we take advantage of the free public charging stations around the country. The most useful of those to us is the one in Naas which is on our path home. We can fast charge to 185KM in about 30 minutes there. Itās beside a Tesco so you just walk in, do some shopping, come back and its done. We kept the Octavia and weāre filling it up about once a month. We charge at home maybe once a week. That costs about ā¬3 a pop. So our ā¬600 monthly fuel bill as it was is down to about ā¬85. The monthly repayment of the new car plus the monthly cost of running both cars is roughly equal to what we were paying in petrol per month from July - November. So you could kind of say we upgraded from a 2005 C4 to the Ioniq for free.
The main drawback is the conflict between speed and range. You can get good range or you can get where you want to at short range quickly. But you canāt get good range at high speed. There isnāt a linear relationship between speed and battery usage. When you go over 110kmph each extra bit of speed you do drains the battery at an exponential rate. You can make long trips, you just have to be a bit conservative with your driving. I had a stag recently in Dingle and made my way up and back in the Ioniq from Kildare. I charged once in Limerick on the way and once in Limerick on the way back. Almost exactly 600KM total trip. On the motorway you can go 110kmph, if you go more than that youāre risking not having enough range to get to your destination. It might cost you a little bit of time but so be it. I made a trip that would have typically cost me ā¬80 in petrol and I did it for free. If it cost me 2 hours more overall for the trip, is my time worth ā¬40 an hour? Iād say yeah. Others may not. I donāt think it cost me that much time wise, maybe 60-90 minutes more than a normal petrol trip.
You also have to be conscious all the time of where you are going and what range you need and where you can charge. Itās a small bit of a learning curve but thereās a good ESB eCars app that tells you where the chargers are and if they are in use. So far weāve had zero issues with chargers. Maybe weāve been lucky. The fact that our daily commutes are taken care of are a big chunk of the driving that we donāt need to worry about.
Right now Iām delighted with the decision we made. At the moment itās working exactly how we intended and the cost of the new car is offset by the massive petrol savings we are making.
Hit 100000km on Saturday. Pretty much doing 40000km a year in the Ioniq.
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Iād never have the patience to drive 110 on the motorway all the way down to Limerick. And Iād imagine my head would explode worrying about the battery life.
Still though, fair play lad. It looks to have worked out well for ya.
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Ah yeah you just need to be conscious of it all the time. Motorways can just murder the battery in no time. I had a match in Portlaoise Saturday and whored it like a gobshite thinking I had comfortably enough to get up and back without issue. Didnāt realise how much I used on the way down and had to be VERY conservative on the way home. Arrived home with around 10km left. Grand. Idiot.
Iāll be looking at those Volkswagen ID cars when they come out next year. But for now the phev is the answer for me.
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Yeah Iām interested in the Kia Niro. Maybe in the new year.
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Are there any scrappage deals on EVs at the moment? None on the Nissan Leaf anyway
What about service costs?
The vans look the business.
Yes they do but they donāt come in until 2021/22
Tesla Model 3 arriving on these shores in the next few weeks, guys. Starting at ā¬49k, it blows away everything in its class.
The Model S looks like a Mazda 6, the Model X looks like an egg on wheels. Hopefully this one will look a bit better.
I think weāve had 5 or 6 services in that time. The first one was free. To keep the manufacturer battery warranty you need to do services with a Hyundai dealer which is going to be a little more expensive than normal but to keep the warranty itās probably worth it given weāre early adopters.
I would guess weāve spent maybe ā¬1000 - ā¬1200 on servicing the car in that time. That includes new tyres. Weāve thankfully had no issues and the battery is still in a 100% state.
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Seems a reasonable cost for that many services. Will be interesting to see how trade in fares out or are you on a PCP
Whatās the story with electric fellas, will resale value be a big negative as theyāre improving rapidly? Iām looking for something for myself
Save the planet. Donāt buy ICE cars
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If only we could restrict the peasants/townies to lab grown meat and electric cars
PCP would be tied to mileage, which wouldnāt work for us. Weāre just on a regular car loan.
Resale value is a big question mark. Ioniqs are quite popular so Iād be hopeful I could at very least recoup whatās left on the loan but itās really hard to know, especially from a dealer. As the battery is 100% there is no difference between now and when we got it performance wise. But our mileage is big so itās very difficult to know where itād land.
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Worth looking to upgrade now imo as Electric is now seen as cool. Mileage will be negative alright, Iāll be interested to hear what kind of value dealers are offering you when you go to upgrade.