Do you own an EV and work in a STEM type of job sector

the_amazing_raisin

Okay, bit of a random one, but my wife and I were wondering recently if there's a larger proportion of technically minded people who own EVs.

So I thought a quick poll would be interesting to find out.

As a reminder, STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

I'll leave it up to ye to decide if your job is under any of those categories

Or if anyone wants to add their job as a reply to be more specific then go ahead

the_amazing_raisin

For context, both engineers in this house and both are EV owners

Liam2021

Health care manager, stay at home wife and 2 EV owners

SimpleDimple

I work in STEM and don’t have an ev, no option for that

TitianGerm

Head of Finance and a primary school teacher. Two EV household.

unkel

No STEM heads in this house, but 3 EVs and into them for a long time (former petrol head). I do like technology and very keen on renewable energies / battery storage.

crisco10

Engineer who works in renewable energy, and a marketer. Single car house which is an EV.

Defo would agree with your hypothesis. For example, I loved planning our summer holiday and "charging strategy". My wife couldn't imagine anything worse.

ted1

Power System Consultant Engineer and EV owner

Redfox25

STEM worker here. Wanted an ev for years so took the plunge in September and glad I did.

unkel

@crisco10 - "I loved planning our summer holiday and "charging strategy"

Shoulda got a Tesla. No need for any planning for charging 😂 The car is wasted on me, I almost never need to publicly fast charge.

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119954375#Comment_119954375

I can’t go to Mayo without planning where to charge my Tesla. I’m sure there are plenty of places across Europe that are the same, especially if you book accommodation without overnight charging.

On-topic: the only two EVs in my company are owned by people in IT.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119954558#Comment_119954558

Yep, the region we were in was the same. Closest SUC in any direction was an hour away. Granted the drive down thru france might have been easier to plan, but ionity and SUC had similar coverage on that route.

...Ghost...

Voted stem. However, I was working in a very different field 6 years ago with no stem qualification when I bought 2 EVs a couple of months apart. While tech minded, I just loved the idea of cheap motoring and something new.

Buddy Bubs

Own a BEV but don't work in STEM

Killer K

This is a very interesting poll. I wonder though are results going to be skewed in that those in a STEM role are more likely to click into the thread than those who are not.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119958046#Comment_119958046

True, and it's probably a skewed sample anyway because people who are enthusiastic about the technology of EVs will be more likely to regularly post on this forum, whereas people who regard an EV as just a car without a petrol cap are less likely to be here

Also people who just need a car and don't care much about what they're driving probably gravitate towards the familiar rather than engage in risk taking.

My favourite example of this would be a coworker who's partner had a car from a particular French brand known for their quality (or lack thereof) and the car gave her endless trouble. When it finally gave up the ghost, she went and bought the exact same model of car because it was familiar, rather than considering anything else

From my own experience, a lot of the people I know who own or are interested in owning an EV are either engineers or technology enthusiasts.

It's a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy however because most of my social circle are engineers or similar job roles anyway (perhaps antisocial circle would be a better description 😂)

As you say it's an interesting result but may not be reflective of the population of EV drivers as a whole

crisco10

Selection bias is totally an issue here obviously. It's a random Internet board, for people who like talking about EVs. Still an interesting domination in the poll tho.

ELM327

1-2 EV household (currently 1, havent replaced the Ioniq yet, may not replace for some time).

Both employed in tech.

cnocbui

The poll is missing the option for work in STEM and don't have an EV.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119958802#Comment_119958802

Well that's kinda covered by the third option. The pool was more to gauge the number of EV owners who work in STEM roles rather than the other way around

I see your point though, and on reflection I should have changed the first two answers to "I own an EV or I am very interested in buying one in the near future" to cover that

And as an extension I could probably have added an answer to the effect of "I work in STEM and do not own an EV, not do I intend to buy one in the near future"

Unfortunately I can't edit the poll now but maybe we'll do a take 2 of the poll another time

bad2thebone

I don't care what you drive, where you're coming from or going doing.... Doesn't matter a Jack to me to be honest. As long as you have a safe journey, arrived safely and your departure is comfortable. And most of all you're happy.....

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119958880#Comment_119958880

A worthy philosophy, however I will say that being happy when arriving to work is maybe a bit too ambitious 😁

Personally I set the bar at "not wanting to murder the next person I speak to" as my mental health level for getting to work

bad2thebone

You'll have to find out where that anger,resentment and fear is stemming from 😂😂😂

I'm sure you're not that wound up going to work 🤣

DownByTheGarden

It stands to reason because you need relatively well paid people to afford EVs.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959018#Comment_119959018

I think you can replace EVs with New Cars in that sentence. No need to narrow it to EVs.

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959037#Comment_119959037

Not true. Changing from your existing ICE to an EV is a lot more expensive than changing from ICE to ICE. The majority of people changing cars are not buying new cars either. If changing to an EV they probably are going with a new car. Its an expensive change.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119954059#Comment_119954059

me too; the poll is useless without those options, because you've no baseline to compare to without them.

DownByTheGarden

I work in STEM, other half doesnt and we have an EV and an ICE. We both drive whichever one fits our trip on the day.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959052#Comment_119959052

Au contraire it is indeed true.. New versus New, ICE and EV are the same total cost of ownership.

And yes it is expensive, because all new cars are a luxury really. For example, according to this price list, https://www.hyundai.ie/hyundai-price-list/ , the cheapest Tucson is only €2.8k cheaper than the cheapest Ioniq 5. So call it €3.2k by the time you install a home charger. Then assume petrol price of €1.75, electricity price of €0.25/kWh (which is actually more than twice the price I currently pay for night rate) and mileage of 16k km a year, the ioniq 5 will cost somewhere between €750 and €1k less to fuel. So, you'll have the €2.5k caught up in about 3 years. (or put another way, with similar financing arrangements, the fuel savings could feed the marginally higher repayments on your car finance). And if you do more miles, it will actually pay back quicker.

The difference is that instead of pouring your money out the exhaust pipe, you're at least getting a more valuable car for the same money.

I agree with with the comment re 2nd hand cars, that's why I said New Cars can only be afforded by well off people.

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959385#Comment_119959385

You dont get it do you :) Gone off on a tangent.

Take a step back and look what the thread is about, now ask yourself, how many people do you see driving EVs from lower paid soci economic grooups compared to how many of them drive ICEs. It really is one of the most obvious things if you open your eyes.

Would STEM jobs be on the higher end of the salary scale? Yes they would, by a long way. Now put the two together. Doesnt matter about anyones opinion on how expensive it is to run an ICE or an EV. Its the barrier to entry that is relevant to this thread.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959416#Comment_119959416

My amendment was simply that New cars are generally for better paid workers, or people who love debt. (Which may include EVs and ICE). And also, plenty of non STEM roles are well paid.

Maybe you're right. I dont get you. So we'll leave it OT.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959416#Comment_119959416

There's a flaw with your argument, there are many other job sectors which have similar or higher pay than STEM

A look at the top paying jobs in Ireland, a STEM role doesn't appear until number 6, and that's a GP which arguably isn't a tech job. STEM roles probably covered about 50% of the list (depends on where you'd consider project manager or solutions architect)

So yes, having a higher than average income is a requirement to buy an EV but that doesn't explain the results of the poll. If it determined by income purely then I'd expect closer to 50%

The high response of people saying they are in a STEM roles indicates that EV owners tend to be more technically focused people, either professionally or as a hobby

I actually think this is a bit of a problem by itself. People who are enthusiastic about a new technology can tend to overlook it's shortcomings, and in my experience engineers and similar roles tend to involve putting up with some stuff that other people wouldn't

That's not to suggest engineers are superhuman, but I imagine most people would agree that it takes a certain mindset to try a load of different button combinations to bring up a particular menu without giving up

So I think that's something to keep in mind when people are asking questions about EV ownership. To be fair I think a lot of people here are generally good at describing the realities of EV ownership, despite the fact that most of the regular posters here are biased towards EVs, myself included

ELM327

to phrase this poll another way, if you asked instead, do you own an EV and have either been described as socially awkward, self identify as a nerd, or generally like to understand how things work - you'd get close to 100%.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959551#Comment_119959551

Ha, absolutely true. I guess I had to draw the line somewhere 😁

As I said the poll stemmed from a conversation between me and my wife wondering how many EV owners are engineers.

Seems like there's a fairly large overlap on that particular Venn diagram 🙂

Gile_na_gile

"I own an EV/PHEV/Hybrid and I work in a STEM job am a tech nerd".

Could compare with the FB group for a broader selection (of the great unwashed :)

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959945#Comment_119959945

That would require interaction with Facebook, which I try my best to avoid

But it would be an interesting result if anyone wants to go ahead and create one

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959416#Comment_119959416

I know people in retail shop floors who drive EV’s, warehouse GO’s that have EV’s and I know owners of multi million euro car dealers that still drive diesel.

I have never every bought a brand new car despite owning cars that were 120k plus when new!

Buying new like for like is an expensive luxury. We need peoplE buying new now so the next in line can buy second hand.

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959416#Comment_119959416

Your argument doesn't stack. Cost is not the only barrier to entry. Fear, ignorance, lack of supply, unsuitable for (insert reason here), I could go on. On cost, you don't need to be wealthy to own an EV. I wasn't an Engineer and didn't work in STEM. My earnings were quite low at the time actually, but I saw the bigger picture and took a stretch to buy a 3 year old Leaf 24 from the UK. Cost around 14k. Added a bargain 5 year old Leaf 24 a couple of months later for 5k. Sold our petrol cars for around 3k. In 5 years of ownership, both cars had tyres and wiper blades replaced. Brake pads on one car. Saved hundreds per month on fuel and around 1k per year on tax.

My FIL is a pensioner. He drives the older Leaf I sold him. My MIL drives a Leaf 24 nearly 4 years now. Not exactly a wealthy woman.....stay at home mom. My SIL works in a restaurant and drives a Leaf 30. She is just above minimum wage. Her hubby is a chef...doesn't drive. I know several EV owners in regular non tech and not high paid. I also know a sh¹t load of engineers and trades people, none of them drive EVs. A couple of them laughed at me when I said the repayment on my Model 3 was 800 a month. Crazy money they said. They only pay around 400-500 for their 3 year old Golf/Octavia or whatever else. But they also spend an average of €100 a week on petrol or diesel. They didn't laugh after the penny dropped.

Now....consider the repayment for something like a Leaf 40 is 500 per month and fuel cost would be less than 100 per month. The sums start to make sense and that's before we talk about second hand EVs.

innrain

Confession time. Hardcore STEM household with maths, physics and IT background/jobs. Nerd and lab rat at the same time. Working in research for the last 20 years so I've been in contact with cutting edge tech and concepts in different aspects of life.

For me the efficiency of the electric motor was the deciding factor when considered getting the EV. So far there is no better alternative to obtain kinetic energy.

Anecdotally I know lots of people not in tech who own EVs mostly because I helped them break the ice, by discussing possible shortcomings, debating the misinformation thrown to them every and sharing some info I gather here and there.

josip

Not in STEM (accountant). I drive a Leaf because the numbers stack up.

kanuseeme

I guess maths comes in handy.

RainInSummer

Software engineer. Wife is a real engineer. One EV, one petrol.

Driving EVs 8 years now. Relatively early adoption on my part.

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119961511#Comment_119961511

Point is cost is the biggest barrier to entry by far. I too got a leaf 24 in the uk for €9k 10 years ago. Then a Leaf 30 in 2016. They were reasonably priced EVs. No such thing anymore.

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119967051#Comment_119967051

Gas thing is you could have kept the leaf 24 for the 10 years and sold it today for the same as you bought it!

Codpeas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959071#Comment_119959071

What baseline do you think it needs that involves non EV owners? The question here is whether the occupation of an EV owner can be categorized as STEM or not - anything else is irrelevant in this instance.

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119967051#Comment_119967051

10 years ago you couldn't finance a packet of peanuts unless you had the money in savings to back it up. Nowadays, even a person in a low paid position can afford an entry level EV if they can afford an ICE. The caveat is that their fuel spend should roughly match their repayments. Anyone doing over 300klms per week should easily meet that threshold.

A 3 year old Leaf can be picked up for €25k or less with repayments of about €400pm. If someone is spending €100 a week on fuel, it's a no brainer. Fair enough if someone wants to spend a few grand cash on a bangernomics car, but it's a false economy most of the time and a lack of understanding of TCO.