Ev saving verses diesel

kippy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124209104#Comment_124209104

Of course its required.

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/1103/1541822-electric-cars-charging-infrastructure-ireland-problems-challenges/

https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2026/01/22/energy-demand-may-trigger-electricity-shortage-event-in-two-to-five-years-warns-regulator/

At the moment electric is the only show in town for reaching various targets - the infrastructure needs to be there to support it.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124209433#Comment_124209433

So from the articles

"It is estimated that 80% of charging is performed at the EV owners' place of residence"

"..Rapid growth in energy demand, driven primarily by data centres,…"

"…Dr Paul Deane of the Sustainability Institute at University College Cork argued the chance of a power outage was low, .

..the amount of power loss would be quite low…"

This is a very poor attempt at creating something about EVs from nothing.

Bass Reeves

TBH EV are a no brainer. recently I know two sales executives who are paid on a milage basis move over to EV's Both do in excess of 60km per year and cover the country. We are looking at changing my better half's car. The criteria is an EV with an effective rage of 400km, so we are looking at cars with a 500km range. on most trips longer than that you are looking at a halfway stop. at present it may take a bit of journey planning but its not a significant as many make out.

what is really noticable is the value in EV's with small battery ranges. You will pick these up $ years old with small Km for 20k or less. as asecond family car they are a no brainer.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210171#Comment_124210171

I wouldn't say it's a no brainer. There's absolutely nothing wrong with something like a petrol hybrid Yaris as a second car. Better residuals, ultra reliable, cheap tax. Tiny fuel costs particularly as a second car doing low mileage. How much would you actually save per year driving an EV? Probably very little I imagine.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210210#Comment_124210210

A petrol hybrid the same yaer will be 20-25% more expensive than the low range EV's. As well second family cars often put significant milage up doing short runs. Being an Ev the preference then would be to use is as much as possible

AirBiscuit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124209089#Comment_124209089

I do 300+ km trips semi-regularly in an Kona. In an old Octavia I averaged 64km per day, including 8 months as a novice driver. (253204Mi 15/01/2022 to 289999Mi 27/07/2024)
In the Kona I started at 47831 KM (16/01/2025) and am now at 79184 KM as of today (81.22KM/day)

I know that doesn't suit your criteria because I am not an "average" driver as specified by you, but High mileage drivers in EVs do exist. You can only go so far off a home charge, after that the experience is shite.

Even the low rate tariffs have their downsides. Energia may offer sub 10c pricing for 4 hours a night but the drawback is a higher unit price at all other times at 40.16c/kwh. Best of luck if you aren't in some mega-efficient passive home built in recent times.

I never had to worry about a long trip with a diesel. Not going to affect the majority of people with an electric runaround as a secondary, or even primary short range car, but when compared to a diesel: definitely worth consideration. What was, at worst, a 4:30 hour drive in a diesel (with breaks) is now easily a 5.5-6 hour plan-a-thon in an EV when 2 charges are needed because of things EV proselytisers omit such as **** 45 minute / 1 hour limits on fast chargers before you get penalised. Even if there are literally no other EVs around.
Have you ever had a petrol station you stopped at on a long range trip penalise you for filling up to over 4/5ths of your tank capacity? Or charge you extra for taking too long to get to that level of fill, even if you filled as fast as you possibly can?

It's deceitful not to mention that on the part of EV owners (of which I am one). Proselytising EV owners must make sure nobody can be aware of any possible downsides, I guess. Nothing bad can ever be said about the venerated cheaper-to-run-under-ideal-circumstances EVs by anyone.

Rant over, I've wasted enough of my life typing this so I'm unfollowing the topic.
EVs are great only when everything is lined up correctly. Diesels are alright without the need for the prep-work.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210171#Comment_124210171

FWIW i know someone driving an (IIRC) 2019 kona with the 64kWh battery who reckons he still gets 400km on a full charge.

given that last year i paid 22k for a 22 kona with that spec, a 2019 one (should you be able to find one) should be easily under 20k. i can't say how much he's paying for servicing per year though.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210414#Comment_124210414

It's not anyone's criteria its the generally reported average for an Irish motorist.

Also not sure why you'd need to stay at a fast charger for an hour ? But then I've only ever used ionity and 30-40 minutes was always more than enough.

A Kona requires two stops to do a 300km trip or you mean a 600km round trip?

Finally for the last 4 or 5 years I've had something like 12.5-13.5c 9 hour night rate electricity with day rates at double that, why would anyone take a plan with 40c plus day rates ?

magicbastarder

the EI rate i'm on is (i think) 31c during the day; 15c between 11pm and 8am, and 8.5c between 2am and 4am. as mentioned, i can add about 90km in that two hour window each night - giving a theoretical max of nearly 33,000km per year of (summer) mileage for about 440 euro.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210429#Comment_124210429

I saw a few 22 Kona's with the 39kw batter for less than 20k. In particular I saw one with less than 15k km for 20500 euro. It was a higher trim model I think

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210414#Comment_124210414

Someone buying an EV for regular 300km+ trips when it's being charged entirely at public chargers has only themselves to blame for their own poor research into what they were buying. Same poor research on tariffs and servicing costs. The issue with public chargers is probably also down to poor research and planning.

You are right though. EVs are not the right choice for people who don't want to do any prep-work. Or simply don't do it.

It's not unlike people who bought diesel and then only do short journeys in it.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210210#Comment_124210210

A second EV doesn't really make much sense for us af the moment at least.

Me and my wife share the two cars. We do about 32k km a year, currently about 25k in the EV which we'd consider the main car and 7km on the other car.

If we replaced the other car with an EV, we wouldn't drive it enough for the lower fuel costs to make up for the higher purchase price or make up for the lack of utility. The other car is a 7 seater we bought last year for €3k. Handy for giving lifts, bringing pets with us and also suits for the odd trip we do outside the EVs range. I even brought a couch home in it last week!

We would probably get away with a cheap older EV like a leaf as a second car if we had to, but saving €200 a year on fuel wouldn't be worth it to us for the drop in utility.

The cheapest car I've seen that might replace the utility of the 7 seater is a Vauxhall combo (3 full seats across the back, big boot), there is one in NI for €15k but it looks pretty basic and it's range is awful.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210876#Comment_124210876

tbf that sounds like an ideal second car, massive utility, low price, if it broke down for good in the morning you are down max 3k and you are doing the bulk of your miles using a cheaper fuel with the EV.

MadeInKerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210876#Comment_124210876

We were the same for about 10 years. An EV and an ICE. The EV used to do 90% of our mileage between us. We would only use the ICE if we had to go a long distance which was rare or if one of us was already out with the EV and the other needed to drive somewhere.

3 years ago we decided to go with 2 EVs. Worst decision ever. Should have just kept the ICE on the road for the €1500 it would have cost us to get it fixed instead of dropping €30k on a second EV that gets used just as seldom as the ICE did.

Next year i think we will sell one of the EVs and buy an old petrol again. Try and plug some of the painful depreciation that we got ourselves in for.

TerrieBootson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124207880#Comment_124207880

Time is the big cost for me. I charge €40.00/hr for work or travel to a job, so time spent charging a car is costly. So driving fast on the motorway depletes fuel faster, but I can refuel on in 5 minutes, the other not so much

greenbin2

I have a diesel car and do high milage and would never consider and electric car

Then I watched this video..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM&pp=0gcJCZEKAYcqIYzv

Its an hour and a half, but it all makes so much sense now...

every drop of fuel you invested in was sucked from a massive (but not infinite) underground tank, it's been transported to where you got it, and then you burnt it, and it's now gone for ever

If you have a battery, and say 10 years later the battery needs to be replaced, the old battery still has everything in it that was in it when you bought it

Now it's of very little use to you, but it can made into a brand new battery instead of smoke for everyone to breathe

There is more lithium in ground up old batteries, then in actually lithium ore

Only thinking about the €€€€ is thinking just like the oil tycoons

MojoMaker

I have an electric car and do high mileage, cross the country weekly, and get on just fine. Charging network is perfectly adequate and the journeys are so much nicer since I ditched the ridiculous diesel wagon.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124210876#Comment_124210876

That's got nothing to do with EVs.

If you had 30k petrol car vs a 3k Petrol.

A 7 seat EV vs petrol fiat 500.

It's basically bangeromics and big car vs small car. No?

I say that because I've got the same utility deficit when I down sized from a 7 seater to a petrol hatch back.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124211119#Comment_124211119

I'm intrigued, why was it the worst decision ever?

MojoMaker

Wasn't really an EV mistake, but a general buying mistake to drop a wedge of cash on an object that wasn't really needed or justified.

Otherwise known as Magpie Syndrome.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124219909#Comment_124219909

Because they spent €30,000 on a new car when they should have spent €1,500 repairing the old car

MadeInKerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124220086#Comment_124220086

Got it in one :)

djan

It's one thing to look at the costs which let's be honest for the vast majority of people will be much lower in an EV but the actual driving enjoyment and comfort of the average EV over its ICE counterpart.

With and EV you get better performance, quieter ride and more features amongst other things. To me, even if costs were the same an EV is much nicer to drive unless you are comparing it to petrol exotics and their fun audacity.

People love arguing about the extreme what ifs that seldom occur and forget that for the majority of their use cases the EV is objectively the better choise for most drivers.

With regards to infrastructure, it is improving and will improve quicker the more people switch to EVs. Private operators will be quick to capitalise on this market if the national plans are slow.