EV as only family car?

tronicrage

I see a lot of people talking about using ev such as leaf as second family car. What about using it as the only family car?
Id be interested to hear anyone who does this?
We both commute to same work place (25k each way every day)

unkel

I've had my Ioniq EV as our only family car for almost 2 years now, no issues. Family of 5.

We rarely need to go beyond the range of the car (>180-200km on the motorway) but if we do, we obviously depend on fast charging on the public network, which is better now in the way that there are more fast charging points Ioniq can use throughout the country, but the number of EVs on the road has gone up from 2000 to 8000 in the last 2 years, so it is possible you will have to wait at a fast charge point as there might be others in the queue. This will be relieved when more public chargers come online and when the Ionity chargers are coming online both should happen this year

If you need to make a long trip every week or at least once or twice a month, I would hold off buying an EV, or at least buy one with a long range (Kona, eNiro, Teslas). If like me, you rarely make these sort of trips, go for it. Go test drive Ioniq, eGolf, Leaf and pick whichever you prefer. Any questions, ask them here and we will help you as best as we can.

KCross

The only reason really not to have an EV as your only car for the house is if you plan to regularly do longer journeys outside its range. If you do plan to do that then you are at the mercy of the public charging network and its a shambles at the moment from the point of view that each charge location only has one charger so it could be out of service or someone already charging when you get there. That can cause significant delay for your journey.

If you think you will only be going outside the cars range a couple of times a year then its worth the risk once you know about it up front and plan accordingly. i.e. the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and the charging infrastructure issue should improve alot over the next 12 months.

- What budget do you have so we can determine what car you are likely to be buying?
- What longer journeys do you do and how often?

tronicrage

Outside the commute, about two long journeys per month (galway to dublin)
Budget would be on hire purchase- maybe 25k .

KCross

tronicrage wrote: »

Outside the commute, about two long journeys per month (galway to dublin)
Budget would be on hire purchase- maybe 25k .

ok, thats pretty regular however that route is well covered with charge points so I think it would be OK as long as you get a car like the Ioniq or the 40kWh Leaf.

With those cars, even if a charger was out of action you would have enough to go to the next charger along the route.

You will need to stop for a charge though unless you are willing to slow down. Are you OK with stopping to charge on those journeys?


I presume that Galway to Dublin trip is not return on the one day?

Do you have the ability to charge the car overnight when you get there?
i.e. access to a 3-pin socket to charge overnight?

SteM

We're almost 2 weeks into having a Leaf 24 as our only family car. It's used to take the young lad to and from school and to after school stuff, used for shopping etc. It's also used for regular weekend trips from Tallaght to Greystones. We love it for what it is but I can already see that it would be a pain to do any long trips unless there was a fast charger on route. Even then, the thoughts of having to queue at a fast charger behind a couple of other cars with the young lad getting bored in the back makes me shudder.

unkel

Dublin to Galway is 200km and can be done without charging in Ioniq or Leaf40 if you drive a bit (Ioniq) or a good bit (Leaf40) under the speed limit. And as Kcross said, there are multiple fast chargers on the way, you can go to the next one if the first one you stopped at is broken or has a queue.

A nice new feature of EVs is that you now get a discount of 50% off all tolls too (and 75% off the M50 toll off peak) and on your Dublin to Galway return trip you would save quite a bit of money in fuel compared with an internal combustion engined car.

tronicrage

tronicrage wrote: »

I see a lot of people talking about using ev such as leaf as second family car. What about using it as the only family car?
Id be interested to hear anyone who does this?
We both commute to same work place (25k each way every day)

We're a two car household but I could not yet live with a battery only car mainly due to the poor fast charge network.

I drive a BMW i3 Rex which has a 33 Kwh battery , good for about 150-180 Kms and a petrol generator that kicks in if the battery runs low and it's proved a real life saver. Passing queues or broken chargers is a real pleasure.

There's a lot of p1ssed off people at chargers these days and you got to think whether waiting at a charger 30 mins for another EV owner to charge + you have to charge for up to 30 mins yourself and there could even be 2 cars ahead of you. I got to tell you it gets old......fast !

If you are to get an EV get one with the largest battery you can afford , the more range you have from your home charge point the better.

things will take at least 2 years to improve much as the ESB are due to install more chargers this year after nearly 4 years since the last fast charger was installed.

slave1

If you will need to depend on the charging network then I would not recommend an EV only scenario, on your long journey you have a few fast chargers but you cannot depend on them eg the Athlone was out for over 3 months and just got sorted a week or so ago

Mike9832

slave1 wrote: »

If you will need to depend on the charging network then I would not recommend an EV only scenario, on your long journey you have a few fast chargers but you cannot depend on them eg the Athlone was out for over 3 months and just got sorted a week or so ago

If the BMW i3 looked like a 3 series it would be the perfect EV

Pity

Gile_na_gile

Am taking the same leap to leaf, and I think for the 28-29k pricepoint, the Leaf is a good compromise in that it does get Dublin to Galway on a single charge at 90-100km/hr. However in winter, with that gaoth aniar and a chill, it will probably not make it without a 50% top-up on the way. Perhaps not always convenient, but always possible to hire a diesel / ICE for extreme outliers if not up for public charging.

Alkers

Gile_na_gile wrote:

Am taking the same leap to leaf, and I think for the 28-29k pricepoint, the Leaf is a good compromise in that it does get Dublin to Galway on a single charge at 90-100km/hr. However in winter, with that gaoth aniar and a chill, it will probably not make it without a 50% top-up on the way. Perhaps not always convenient, but always possible to hire a diesel / ICE for extreme outliers if not up for public charging.

Or depending on the frequency of such trips a phev may be a good option. Petrol for long journeys and your daily commute etc on the battery

The 60 Kwh Leaf and Kona should make a big difference for longer distance driving , when the ESB begin installing 150 Kw chargers they'll be on major routes which I'm assuming will be Motorways, they need to have a minimum of 4 chargers on site or we'll still have the same situation but they did say 100 chargers but if you think of motorway that would mean 4 x 2, one for each side, so technically that would be 8 for each side of the motorway, that would be great and it would make any EV a lot easier to live with.

I could live with the i3 33 or 44 Kwh a lot easier for longer trips if I could pull up and charge on the motorways.

They also said upgrade existing chargers which I'm assuming to triple headed units and still only 1 charger per site and still 50 kw max.

If a 40 Kwh EV could charge at 100 Kw there would be little need for 60+ Kwh in Ireland but I expect the average motorist not to change to EV until they have at least 60 Kwh.

It's a pity Nissan did not have a generator option in the beginning , I bet the leaf would have sold in far greater numbers and it would have made up for any loss in battery capacity.

I'd also like to see a good improvement in cold battery charging.

Mike9832

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It's a pity Nissan did not have a generator option in the beginning , I bet the leaf would have sold in far greater numbers and it would have made up for any loss in battery capacity.

I'd also like to see a good improvement in cold battery charging.

The other Japs will save the day here imo

Mazda/Toyota/Suzuki/Subaru are rumoured to be working together on a rex EV due 20/21

Rotary based rex

Specs i have seen on forums are 30-40kWh Panasonic cells and 80bhp rotary engine

Sounds amazing tbh, would love ab30-40kWh Mazda 3 Rex

Yes, it would be a great way to encourage a lot more people into EV , the i3 Rex is just fantastic when I need it.

Give people the choice at least. It's a shame BMW removed the Rex on the 42 Kwh for Europe, there must have been some kind of tax incentive for them to do this, I see no other reason.

Higher powered charging would make electrics easier to live with, but I expect 60 Kwh electrics to meet the needs of the majority of people, the question is will the majority see it like this ?

60 Kwh and 150 Kw charging would be very nice indeed.

You could argue that the generator removes the need for a larger battery and you could say the larger battery removes the need for a generator but the generator always removes the need to wait at charger queues so the generator idea is really good at this point in time.

liamog

The tender has been published for the equipment,

https://irl.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/publicpurchase_frameset.asp?PID=140749&B=ETENDERS_SIMPLE&PS=1&PP=ctm/Supplier/publictenders

They are asking for 150kW Chargers that support simultaneous operation.
Stick two of these at each of the motorway service stations and you can have upto 4 cars charging at once.

Alkers

liamog wrote:

Stick two of these at each of the motorway service stations and you can have upto 4 cars charging at once.

That's still pissing in the wind when you see how busy most of the motorway service areas are, I've often queued for petrol which might have 16 pumps and only a couple of minutes per car.

2 at each garage ? that would be mad when I have seen 1 car charging and 2 waiting. Need minimum of 4 chargers per site.

Gile_na_gile

They don't say two per station in the tender details. I think that was just mentioned as a possibility by liamóg.

Crock Rock

You'd need a charging point at home, which for a lot of people ain't an option (apartment dwellers, people with on-street only parking).


I doubt an EV could even do 160 km/h. which rules it out for me.

unkel

Crock Rock wrote: »

I doubt an EV could even do 160 km/h. which rules it out for me.

There are 3 EVs for sale in this country that can do >160km/h (GPS speed)

1. Tesla Model X
2. Tesla Model S
3. Hyundai Ioniq

Crock Rock

unkel wrote: »

There are 3 EVs for sale in this country that can do >160km/h (GPS speed)

1. Tesla Model X
2. Tesla Model S
3. Hyundai Ioniq

Never realised they came so far! Range is another sticking point for me. I can get 800 km on a tank (and that's not even reaching the red light)!

Mike9832

unkel wrote: »

There are 3 EVs for sale in this country that can do >160km/h (GPS speed)

1. Tesla Model X
2. Tesla Model S
3. Hyundai Ioniq

Kona can also and doesnt take a day to get there like the Ioniq

Crock Rock

Crock Rock wrote: »

Never realised they came so far! Range is another sticking point for me. I can get 800 km on a tank (and that's not even reaching the red light)!

If you want anything close to 800 Km per tank then you will need to stick with diesel......how often do you drive 800 Kms ?

As for 160 Km/h , do you drive on unrestricted parts of the German Autobahn often ?

unkel

Crock Rock wrote: »

Range is another sticking point for me. I can get 800 km on a tank (and that's not even reaching the red light)!

When EVs could do about 100km, people said they wouldn't touch them until they could do 300km. When the second generation economy EVs was closing in on that about 3 years ago, the same people needed 500km. And now the latest generation of the affordable EVs like Kona / Niro can do about 500km (800km hypermiled), those people want 1000km

500 Km Kona/ Niro, ? not at decent speeds, not a hope, more like 350-400 , not saying that's bad at all.

slave1

800 range is just silly talk for EVs, who’d ever need that on this island and in any case the weight of the battery pack to achieve that range would be self cancelling as it would be so heavy it would be self defeating

unkel

We don't need 800km range at all. But ideally in a few years time a cheap EV (€20-25k) should have a range of about 400km and can recharge from say 10-90% in 10 minutes (300kW charging)

Mike9832

unkel wrote: »

We don't need 800km range at all. But ideally in a few years time a cheap EV (€20-25k) should have a range of about 400km and can recharge from say 10-90% in 10 minutes (300kW charging)

Sad thing is

It can be done with today's tech

An efficient body EV like an Ioniq or Prius could do 400km motorway driving with a modest 60kWh battery and recharge another 200km in 15 mins

Make it legislation that every forecourt that sells petrol/diesel/alcohol/cigarettes needs 2 x fast chargers or they can't sell those items

Instead we get Audi releasing 30kWh/100km monsters and a government with no balls