This €21k car runs on free fuel… so why do we turn our noses up at it?
A test drive in a Nissan Leaf has convinced our writer that electric cars are the future
Imagine there was a car that ran on free fuel. It therefore costs €2,000 a year less to run, and 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 would be queues around the block to buy this car. Yet such a vehicle does exist. But because it’s an electric car, more than 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, or one in every five cars, zooming quietly and cleanly around its roads.
Admittedly the Vikings have done 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) and parking costs nothing at EV points while you top up.
The Government has even installed 1,200 charging points nationwide, providing free electricity, and it also exempts EVs from VRT (worth €5,000) and provides a €5,000 grant.
This brings the cost down to below that of some similarly sized internal combustion engine mod- els. Hyundai, Volkswagen, BMW, Citroën, 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. So what’s not to like? Clearly something is bugging Irish drivers when it comes to EVs. Indeed, Ireland is
facing EU fines of up to €6bn for falling laughably short of its original target to have 230,000 electric cars on our roads by 2020.
The EU Renewable Energy Supply Directive requires us to ensure 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 reset to 50,000 EVs in 2014 and a new target of 20,000 EVs is now proposed,’ said Nissan Ireland 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. ‘The combined 2020 and 2030 costs to the State of failing to meet those commitments is estimated at between €3bn and €6bn,’ said Mr McCarthy.
So what is putting Irish drivers off taking the plunge? It’s not performance. The world’s fastest car is no longer a Ferrari or a 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 un-sporty Leaf clocks up a decent performance of 0-60mph in 11.5 seconds and a top speed of 144kph.
I drove a Leaf for a few days 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.
At least one buyer who purchased his vehicle 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. They have far fewer moving parts and require less maintenance. The batteries do have a lifespan of 10-12 years – but then so do most cars.
High depreciation is an issue that most buyers are willing to ‘factor in with an innovative rapidly developing product’, said Frank Barr, chairman of the 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 €6,000, making your car almost new again. Less things go wrong. My car with 154,000km on the clock still has original brakes operating at 96% efficiency according to its last NCT.’
Any shortfall in demand for used EVs merely shows how consumers 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 shows 2014 and 2015 Nissan Leafs going for €13,000 to €16,000, although it is true that EVs don’t rate highly in some motor depreciation surveys.
Less valid is the term ‘range anxiety’, where drivers fear they’ll be left stranded clutching a charging cable as dusk falls menacingly around them.
That may have been true in the past when charging points were rare. But with 1,200 public charging points on the island, they’re as common as petrol stations and more easily located via an in-car computer that’s standard on EVs and programmed to take you to one. You can also charge your car from an ordinary domestic socket.
But 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 €3,000 more than the 24kWh version).
That figure assumes ideal driving conditions. Realistically, Nissan says the range is 199km. But a new 40kwh Leaf is due on the market next Saturday with a ‘real’ range of 250-270km.
On average, a ‘fast charge’ point can bring an EV battery up to 80% full in 25 minutes. 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 fans say a full charge is rarely required – merely a topup that won’t take that long. And most do their charging at work (usually for free) or at home.
Now the big question – would I go electric? I don’t change my car very often, nor do I usually buy new cars, 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 – after all, what price can you put on saving the planet?