Electric Cars Claire O’mahony discovers all you need to know before going electric
Claire O’mahony explains all you need to know before going electric
Electric cars are the future of personal motor transport and that’s reflected by the growing number of e-vehicles on Irish roads, a figure that’s been doubling year on year with a sharp rise in sales reported in 2021. While would-be drivers are attracted by the idea of lowering their carbon footprint via their choice of motor, they can often be bewildered by the range of options facing them and confused about the technology. But with electric cars, or EVS as they’re known, are set to dominate the car market, it makes sense for anyone thinking about changing their car in either the near or not-so-near future to get to grips with the basics.
What types of EVS are there?
This is where you’ll need to learn some acronyms. EVS can be divided into battery electric cars (BEVS) which are solely charged by an electric motor and rechargeable batteries, and these batteries can be charged at home or at a public charging point. Then there are plug-in hybrid cars, or PHEVS, and these have an electric motor as well as petrol or diesel engine and the battery can be plugged in and charged like a fully electric car. Finally, a HEV or hybrid electric vehicle has a petrol or diesel engine and an electric motor, and the battery can only be charged by the petrol or diesel engine.
How do they benefit the environment?
EVS are not ‘zero emissions’ because much the of electricity we use in Ireland is produced by fossil fuels which means that your EV still has a carbon footprint. However, according to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), the emissions per km from driving electric is less than driving petrol or diesel, even taking into account emissions from the power station. “As we keep putting more and more renewables into the system, and to our national grid and our national electricity generation, EVS are going to get cleaner and cleaner as they move forward,” says Shane Prendergast, Electric Vehicles Programme Manager at SEAI. EVS boast zero tailpipe emissions, and this improves air quality, and saves pedestrians and cyclists from breathing in dangerous gases. They’re also quieter, thus reducing noise pollution and other environmental benefits include less oil and dirt and fewer parts to replace.
Talk to me about charging
Drivers have the option of charging up at home, which is the cheapest, easiest way to do it. If you’re travelling you can charge at one of the 1,200 charging points available around the country, where it’s a case of plugging in and simply letting the car do the work. A home charge takes six to eight hours, public charging can be for one to six hours, and there’s also fast charging (30 minutes for an 80 per cent charge) and high powered charging (100k in six minutes) available. “The first thing people ask is ‘Where am I going to charge this electric car?’ and the reality is for most people that place is at home,” says Simon Acton, chairperson of Irish EV Owners Association (IEVOA), which represents the interests of EV drivers in Ireland. “Anyone who has off road parking can get up to a €600 grant from the SEAI to get a charger installed at their home and as someone who has driven EVS for the last four years I can tell you that 95pc of the time I charge at home.” For apartment dwellers and those who don’t have offstreet parking, this is being addressed through incentive schemes for local authorities and landlords to install charging points.
How far will they take me?
One of the biggest reasons for EV hesitancy amongst drivers is ‘anxiety range’, or concern about what distance you can journey on one charge. Most of today’s models can travel over 300m on a full charge, and some can even reach 500km. “We’ve been told over the years that electric cars have a very short range. That’s quite outdated, if it was ever true,” says Tom Spencer, editor of independent web guide Irishevs. “The average journey in Ireland in a car is 16.4km from the time you turn it on to the time you turn it off. But the average EV now has a range of about 290km as a minimum so you could use most EVS for perhaps a week, if not more, and you wouldn’t need to charge it at all.” He points to resources that can help you plan your journey such as Zap-map, a free app for EV drivers which shows the location of every public charger in Ireland and colour codes to show the speed of the charge. “Unless you’re doing Dublin to Cork every day and coming straight back, range isn’t the issue that most people think it is,” he says.
What else do people worry about?
Concerns about EVS sometimes include wondering if you can take them to a car wash, and the answer to that is yes, you can. IEVOA’S Simon Acton says that negative experiences with batteries in mobile phones and laptops, where they don’t tend to last very well, shouldn’t put people off. “Electric car batteries will generally last in the region of 10 to 12 years and then there’ll be options to upgrade them at that point if necessary,” he says. “We’re in a space at the moment where probably the first electric cars in Ireland only arrived in 2012 so we’re not yet through that 10-year period yet and there are still a lot of those original cars on their original batteries and driving around quite happily, so the perception that the batteries will only last two or three years is totally not the case. They will last probably longer than most people will keep a particular car.”
Will an EV save me money?
at depends on how you look at it. ere are several government incentives to buy an EV including an SEAI grant of up to €5,000 to purchase a new battery electric car. But despite that, EVS aren’t cheaper to buy than petrol or diesel fuelled cars and they can even be more expensive. Savings on EVS are instead made over time. “If you compare an internal combustion engine to an EV, you can save probably up to 70pc and in some cases more your annual fuel costs and that’s only touching the start of it,” says Shane Prendergast. “Fully electric vehicles qualify for the lowest motor tax that’s there and the plug-in hybrids are at the very low end of that scale as well.” ere are also savings to be had on maintenance costs. “On an electric vehicle, there’s substantially less moving parts within the drivetrain of the vehicle compared to say a petrol or diesel engine, so your standard maintenance costs are going to be a lot less than what you pay on a petrol vehicle or a diesel vehicle,” says Shane. “When you combine all of that – we call that your total cost of ownership – and you actually compare your total cost of ownership rather than just the upfront price of the vehicle, then EVS more than wash their own face and in most cases you will make a saving over the lifespan of the vehicle.”
What’s it like to drive?
Hugely enjoyable, say EV lovers. “ey’re much more like driving an automatic,” says Simon Acton of the IEVOA. “ey’re very smooth, they’re very quiet and they’re very responsive as well, unlike petrol or diesels cars where you really need to rev the engine to get all the power. In an electric car you get all the power straight away. With the batteries underneath the car, the weight is very low down so they feel steady on the road and they’ve a very low centre of gravity so they’re great to drive.” According to the SEAI’S Shane Prendergast, the driving experience creates what’s referred to as the ‘EV grin’. “You see people going on their rst drive and they come back with a smile on their face,” he says. “We have done research before and it actually showed the phenomenal change in behaviours and attitudes to EVS when they actually get behind the wheel of one and experience it for themselves. We would always say to people if you’re interested in EVS go take that test drive.”
Is the future electric?
Undoubtedly. e Government has set out a target of having 840,000 passenger cars and 95,000 commercial EVS on the roads by 2030 as part of the Climate Action Plan. Looking to what car manufacturers are doing, many are ditching production of petrol and diesel cars within the next 10 to 15 years to focus on hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles instead. e closer we edge towards this time, the more the residual value of your diesel or petrol car will go down. A good starting point if you’re considering switching to an EV is to look at your lifestyle and how using a car ts into it on a day to day basis. “If you can get by using public transport or walking or cycling, that’s much better for the environment. But if you are somebody who cares about their carbon footprint, it’s a great way to make that impact,” says Irish EV’S Tom Spencer. “For me it’s to have an honest assessment of what you need, and then look at what suits you. Don’t get something that’s 800km range if you don’t need it. Just go for the car that you need.”