I need a new car, and I really want to go full electric. I’m wondering if anyone regrets buying one? What are the downsides?

  • @wizzor@sopuli.xyz
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    119 months ago

    EV driver working in automotive industry here. Based in N Europe, so take my words with a pinch of salt for other geos.

    If you can charge at home, don’t regularly drive very long distances and are OK with a smaller boot space EVs are a complete no-brainer.

    If not all of these are true, the convenience depends a lot on where you live. In Northern Europe, UK and northern parts of Central Europe public charging networks are pretty good although Norway is starting to see queuing to be a thing.

    In the US the only good charging network is Tesla’s, which means only NACS cars can charge there - EU regulator has done a good job here standardising to CCS2.

    Living with an EV does require some changes in behavior. You need to think about tomorrow’s needs today to have the right SOC for the next long trip or choose your shopping and dining options to facilitate charging. For me, this is perfectly OK and the pleasure of driving an EV more than compensates for the mild inconvenience. That said, the amount of inconvenience is dependent on the first three factors and the country you live in.

    When choosing your car, remember that you can’t normally use the top and bottom 20% of your battery (depending a bit on the chemistry), which is reflected in day-to-day range.

    Feel free to ask anything related to EVs, batteries, chargers or charging networks.

  • @TBi@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I only regretted that I bought a BMW because it eventually broke down and I had to pay an exorbitant BMw tax to fix it. So high it wasn’t worth it. To be clear the fix itself wouldn’t have been too much if BMW didn’t block third parties from doing it.

    Loved having electric though. Next car will definitely be electric. Full tank of ‘gas’ leaving the house everyday. Never having to go to petrol stations…

    • @batmaniam@lemmy.world
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      39 months ago

      Sadly that’s not going to be BMW specific for much longer, they’re all taking a page out of that book. 2022 Hyundai, long story on how I managed to kill a single spark plug at 30k miles, but this time last year the part wasn’t listed anywhere. It was FORTY DOLLARS for a SINGLE plug from Hyundai. I’m sure there were alternates that would work but I wasn’t going to risk it over 40 bucks at that low mileage.

  • @Kadaj21@lemmy.world
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    99 months ago

    I went from an 08’ VW Rabbit to a '21 VW id.4 a few months ago. Got the $4k tax rebate passed onto the dealer to bring my price down to $19k [~$21k after taxes/fees], it’s the AWD Pro S, and doesn’t have the Gradient Package [some silvery exterior bits and slightly larger wheels]. I love the car, my family loves the car. The only nitpick I reaaaaaally have and that most people have for the VW evs is the damn driver side window switches lol. You get 2 and have to tap a touch sensitive bit to switch it to the back. Makes no sense. The steering wheel touch inputs for cruise control and media are another controversial choice, but I’ve gotten used to it.

    As far as an EV in general goes. Like most have said, check out the charging network you have where you are and where you plan to be. I’ve only done one road trip in my id.4 [from buying it in Chicagoland and bringing it home] and while the range was “OK” [about 150 highway miles per charge], since I was along a string of L3s along the turnpike, I wasn’t worried about making it to a charger. My immediate area had a couple of L3s, but now there’s probably about double/triple around me now that’s opened in the few months I’ve had my car.

    That being said, my circumstance have the car as mostly a commuter, so I tend to last on a charge all week, and then L1 charge it Sun-Tues morning to start all over. Any around town stuff during charging time doesn’t really make a dent since it’s all within a few miles of my home. I also am able to charge at work for free, though sometimes spots get filled. Initially I was thinking about getting a L2 EVSE, but between home and work, I don’t really feel the need for one. I’d also need one with a good 50’ cord since I park in front of my house, otherwise wife and I would have to re-arrange the cars whenever I wanted to charge.

    That being said, if stuff happens and we do go up to my sisters about 40 miles away or something happens to where I do need to charge at a L3, the price per “tank” has been about $15 and taken 20-ish minutes. Most of the time I’m watching a few youtube videos, or going in for a restroom break and by the time i get back the car’s about ready.

    My car, and I think most EVs nowadays will have a setting limiting the charge to 80% to help with keeping the battery healthy. If I’m not using air conditioning at 80% my estimated range is about 190-200 miles, if it’s hot and I’m using AC, it’ll go down to 185ish. First upcoming winter, so I’ll get to see how much my car is impacted. I don’t usually worry about range. I did at first because I had a couple of close calls about charging stations not being available while doing some longish trips back and forth, but I think in general my immediate and surrounding areas that I might frequent have gotten more stations recently.

    OH. Insurance for me wasn’t much more than what I was already paying, but registration in my state tacks on another $200 dollars a year, presumably since having an EV you’re not paying into the gas tax. Some states don’t have EV fees, some do. So might want to check that. My co-worker just found out about that and wasn’t happy lol.

  • @LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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    49 months ago

    I’m very pleased. I have a 2023 Bolt.

    For us there was no way we’d get one without a home charger. It’s great because every day you wake up and it’s like a full tank of gas.

    My wife still has a gas car and we bought the electric planning that we’d still use the gas one for road trips. The Bolt in particular doesn’t have super fast charging (probably like 45 minutes to get to 80% using a fast charger) so if we didn’t have the second car that might be my one concern.

    My wife wasn’t sold when we got it, but the electric was for me so we went ahead. Now she likes it. I’m banking on better EV options being available when we get our next car but I think it will be electric too.

  • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    No regrets, coming up on a year …

    • if you can charge at home, it’s a no-brainer, but I know people who say it’s no big deal to go to a charger every week
    • level 2 charger was $400 + electrician was same as a stove circuit, so less expensive than I expected. I could get away with less
    • you don’t need trip chargers nearby, but you do want them on route you’re likely to road trip. The closest one I’ve used is 100 miles away
    • you really need to be able to use Tesla Supercharger network. It makes travel so convenient

    I did get range anxiety for a while, but never an actual problem. 1,200 mile road trip fixed that. The first leg from VpBoston to Virginia, my excellent (Tesla) trip planner scheduled charging stops of 10, 10, and 4 minutes, whereas I’d normally expect two stops and a meal, so not really noticeably longer. The final leg was a bit tougher, returning from upstate NY, but mostly because a lack of chargers. It ended up no big deal

    • down daemon
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      9 months ago

      what do you do if you just straight up run out of charge out on the road?

  • @Candera@lemmy.world
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    99 months ago

    Model 3 owner (before the crazy) and I love it still. auto pilot is amazing, I hate elon but honestly the super chargers are so much better than the other plug. I may consider something besides a tesla if they get an auto pilot thing and adopt the plug, but unfortunately for the time being i’m stuck giving money to the jumping dip$h1t.

  • @weew@lemmy.ca
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    79 months ago

    I love mine. Hyundai Ioniq 5.

    2 years so far and it’s been great. Wouldn’t ever go back to gas. I don’t even have a charger at home, but there is charging at work. I only need to charge it like 2 shifts per week, maybe 3 if I did a lot of driving, so it’s not hard to keep it topped off just from work. Every once in a while the work parking lot is so damn full every single day that I can’t charge there all week… So I have to suffer the inconvenience of… Going to a gas station and using their fast charger. Ugh.

    Road trips take a bit more planning but I don’t go on many road trips anyway. One per year, at most.

    Weekend mountain trips and camping/skiing is great, though.

  • @Boinkage@lemmy.world
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    159 months ago

    I love mine, Chevy bolt. The biggest downside is that you need to plan road trips more carefully with them, and road trips will just take longer. Once you accept that, it’s actually kind of nice to periodically take 20-30 minute breaks while on a trip.

    These problems are greatly alleviated if you also have a fossil fuel car. My partner has a gas car, so if we’re just going for a weekend or there aren’t good charging options, we just take the gas car so we don’t have to worry about charging.

  • @southernbrewer@lemmy.world
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    89 months ago

    We have a Nissan Leaf (30kWh) which has been great. No regrets.

    The things you worry about before buying (range, battery life) are absolute non-issues. For optimal battery longevity you don’t want to use a fast charger very often, so just charge it at home which is generally more convenient anyway. You can make exceptions occasionally when you need to.

    We use it for city driving, for which the range is more than adequate and we mostly only charge it every few days. We haven’t yet attempted to take it on a proper road trip; so far we just borrow a friend’s hybrid if we need to do that, basically to avoid having to think about charging.

  • @caboose2006@lemmy.ca
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    89 months ago

    It all depends on your use case. For me with a 20 mile round trip daily commute and a 200 mile drive every other week where the car is then parked for 36-48 hours at a hotel with a level 2 charger before returning home an ev is great. If you can charge at home I think it’s a no brainer if you’re looking to buy new or slightly used. If you’re constantly driving hundreds of miles in a day then no probably not. Downside are longer road trips, as some other people said in places where charging is sparce you’re looking at 50-100% more time for distance traveled. But if you don’t mind being more leisurely and chilling out at a restaurant or what have you then it’s not a big deal. And initial price. They are still expensive.

  • @bstix@feddit.dk
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    9 months ago

    No regrets, but I do acknowledge that it’s very different and has different challenges. The usual worries before buying about range, mileage, battery drainage, top speed, maintenance fees, towing capability etc, do not actually exist. I understand why people worry, but no, they are not actual issues.

    In reality: Software. That’s an issue. Car mechanics do not know how to service software. Doesn’t matter if it’s a subscription to a service or a mandatory but malfunctioning pressure valve, it’s software and they don’t know about it. It usually not a serious issue, but it might be, especially for cars with a lot of gimmicks and shit. This issue also exist with new fossil fueled cars as well. For most part, it can be ignored.

    The charger at home may be an issue. (Maybe i. Europe mostly?) Some cars only accept voltages with a very low resistance. Both Renault and Tesla require a better grounding than the building code in most countries. It’s not costly to fix, and it’s a one time fix, but it may be a surprise…(that you need to expand on your electric circuit just for this), but you should have done anyway).

    I will acknowledge that range is a downside. Not in everyday use, but for longer trips, you will have to plan your trip according to charging. It has never been an issue for me, because I generally never drive that long without pause anyway. Time it to to your breaks is all there is to it.

    For a comuter car with home charging, you will have absolutely no issues in switching. It does have many more surprising positives than negatives. Like, never having to set foot on a gas station. Never mind the cost, but the time spent on going there or stopping on your commute to do it, or holding the nozzle in the cold, or being tempted to buy stuff in the convenience store etc. In comparison, I go home and plug in to charge my car, exactly the same way that I charge my phone, so it’s ready for the next day. It’s not difficult at all. It might take 30 secons and more often than than fueling but it’s still much faster than stopping on the road, gas or not.

    Only actual real downside for me is that I’m also a cheapskate. I prefer to time my charging to the variable electricity prices, but not everyone has that option and it’s completely voluntary… I’m not sure if it’s worth it. Sure, i save a few bucks, but the hassle of it is real. I am considering changing to a subscription model instead, just to avoid worrying about it.

    The best advice that I got before buying was: “Just drive it”.

    Don’t think about it: It’s a tool, use it. In a lot of ways an EV is much better suited for that, because you only need to worry about it being ready to use. You probably never thought of that for your ICE car, because you’d do refueling and other fluids on the road. If you fuel at home, you’ll also have to refill your sprinklers and remember to wash it every now and then… Maintenance is home based, not on a station.

    There’s a whole lot of benefits to it as well, but you didn’t ask for those, and I think you should just go test drive one to see for yourself.

    • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Tesla require a better grounding than the building code in most countries

      Is this a European thing too? I’ve never heard of this limitation in the US, and I certainly didn’t have to get anything changed. I’m curious about the details

      • @bstix@feddit.dk
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        39 months ago

        Yes it’s country specific, but more about old houses.

        In my case the building code says the ground should have an impedance of maximum 1666 ohm. My installation was already grounded and had about 400 ohm.

        The charger guidelines says 200 ohm, however the car refuses to charge on anything over 100 ohm. I had an electrician add a new ground spear, bringing the impedance down below 1 ohm.

        The building code in USA already recommends 25 ohm, so it shouldn’t be an issue if the installation is up to date.

  • @beanlink@lemmy.world
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    49 months ago

    Yes but it all depends on your use case. If you travel a lot for work that involves some mountain passes or states with low EV adoption due to politics you are gonna have a rough time or be very limited in your options.

    If your use case is less than 200 miles a day and charging infrastructure is built up in your area then you are all set.

    • @Acters@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Depends on vehicle and load requirements too, if your load it just only you and sometimes passengers then getting a car that can do 10% fast charging for only 15 minutes and still go pretty far is great. On the other hand the Silverado EV is best range EV truck available as of 2024.

      The 10 percent challenge from our of spec is best one I found for road tripping scenarios. https://outofspecstudios.com/10-challenge (mobile browser not recommended ) their other graphs are really nice too.

      Unfortunately, the only cars that do get proper range from the 10 percent challenge is just too expensive, such as the Porsche taycan(especially 2025 version being insanely fast charging with efficiency) and Lucid sedans.

  • @NutinButNet@hilariouschaos.com
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    29 months ago

    I had one and severely miss it. Well, I don’t miss the one I had but I miss the EV part of it.

    I had a 2015 BMW i5 which apparently that and the 2014 models had a whole host of problems, especially if you were like me and had the range extender which was basically a small motorcycle gas engine seated in the back and could be used to charge the battery. Being BMW’s first generations, it’s not too much of a surprise that they’d have issues but there was more beyond those like the small form tires that didn’t last long, were rare, and expensive and the 12v battery which was also expensive, rare, and difficult to replace…

    Beyond all that, I just miss the simplicity and the feel of the EV drive. Stepping on the accelerator and you feel it accelerate. It has much lower maintenance, with the only trade off being that tires usually don’t last as long as an ICE because the battery adds so much more weight and the battery replacement can be pricey. But other than that, no oil changes, no transmission worries, no smog checks, no needing to let the car warm up…just hop in and go. I also miss the charging aspect of it. Sure, it sucked not having the same range as a gas/hybrid where I now get about 500 miles on a full tank, but I actually liked going to charging stations and just sitting there while my car charged. I also liked the price difference, so much cheaper. I also liked that I could be lazy. I didn’t have to “fill up” when I was tired on my way home or early the next morning because I would charge at home and have a full “tank” to use the next day.

    I only got rid of the i5 because of the host of problems and got a hybrid instead which has been fine and a better car in many ways, but I still long to go back. I’ve been thinking very strongly about going and trading in for an EV each weekend that passes by. I’ve been researching possible EVs to go to and have a few in mind I’d like to check out now that the prices are way down.