Unhappy with owning an EV in Ireland

I had a €1,000 deposit paid on a Skoda EV. After reading Eddie Cunningham's article in the Irish Independent a few weeks ago regarding the peace of mind he had while reviewing the new Skoda diesel, after he had been reviewing and driving different EV's over the previous 6 months, I have cancelled that order. Going to stick with a diesel for peace of mind for myself. Personally, not worth the hassle.

Never had an issue charging in the last 3 years. Never had to queue for a charger. Haven't done as much touring as expected with the pandemic etc ..but happy I can get anywhere in the country with one short charge. Main issue I've had is the car is charged faster than supermacs or burger king can make my food so have to go and move the car before eating or else charge up to 90+%

I often wonder about the independence of some print journos..

It's right in the name :)

It happened to listen to a morning show on radio when the two presenters started speaking about EVs and how difficult they are to charge. At some point one came up with the "Honey, you can't hoover now. I'm charging the car! ". Just to show how clueless they were regarding the subject. These "facts" then spread down to the public and people make decisions based on cluelessness.

The focus of not owning an EV has been almost exclusively focused on the Public charging network, despite the fact that for the vast majority of journeys -> You hardly ever use it.

I accept that a lot of folk cannot install a home charger as they might not have a driveway, however there has been big improvement with providing reliable on-street charging. These very clever lampost chargers are popping up. I've seen/used them in Malahide and Sandyford Industrial Estate (which has about 10 in a row). I've heard from several friends who were successful getting their management company to install EV chargers in shared parking for apartments. There will be people for whatever reason the above does not work, and I think a BEV for these folks makes no sense at the moment. It will cost more and fill your life with hassle.

The EV discussion still seems to be RANGE RANGE RANGE, despite the fact most modern EVs can drive across our small island no problem on a single charge. We tend to not focus on all the benefits driving an EV brings:

• A vehicle that gets consistently greener over it's lifetime, and pollutes less and less as the grid improves.
• Batteries that last far longer than the average lifespan of a car, and have second life grid storage utility before being recycled.
• Drastic improvement in air quality, where the majority of people live (schools, urban environments etc)
• Less death and illness as a result of cleaner air and less pollution
• Improvement in noise pollution, which is real if you live in a city!!
• Less car fires as a result of a safer and less combustible drive train/motor
• Your EV will sing you to sleep everynight...after tucking you in

I bought a phev because you cannot rely on public charging, that being said I will use it, when available, when I have time, not much more I can do other than that, I have a choice in buying the right tool for the right price, where as I see being force to charge after 200 km the wrong tool for me. I could spend 50 k and be force to charge at 400 km,

Your a Phev designer now? Its lucky for the rest of the phev designers that electricity and charge points are available outside of the home.

The range on the diesel Skoda car that I have at the moment is 1,450km on a full tank. The Enyaq that I had ordered was supposed to be around 500km. It was also about €10,000 more expensive for the privilege. I feel better once I cancelled it to be honest. Everyone has their own opinion.

A bit off topic but my opinion is traditional petrol stations are doomed. 90% of people for 90% of trips will fill up at home.

Those without home chargers will probably fill up at supermarkets for 30 minutes while performing weekly shop at unmanned "pumps". Lidl has already started a real roll out.

Motorway services will have people stop for 10 to 45 minutes. They may eat, toilet break, work or watch videos while waiting.

Petrol stations could become cafes, or take away venues, with all parking spaces limited to 20 minute expensive charge. However they may be in the wrong location, particularly compared to the amount of parking at supermarkets. Many petrol stations closed in the past, particularly on main streets. Adapt or die. The mark up on real food may be high enough to keep them going. They say they make money on fuel.

Agresed just add EV is great, everything else bad.

Only an EV driver would stop for a charge on a trip, you are no better than the rest and to be fair its not the first time I have seen it be said, when you assume that a phev driver stops every 50 km, even when I had an outlander with chademo, it would have been ridiculously stupid to stop at every charger.

On the other hand if I travel somewhere and my car is going to be parked you can be sure it will be plugged in if available, if convenient and why not, just because some one else was foolish enough to think that a charger would be available when he arrives.

That crap of charge at home is hilarious, it should really apply to EVs, it would avoid asking a business to open a window to plug in a granny charger because some Muppet is trying to make it from charger to charger or to home. I have seen that personally and some one else here, whos wife had to do the same, as the only driver for my family, I am not going to put my family through that.

The 24 kW leaf was the bee's knees here for a long time, while phevs were only a compliance, same year phevs can still travel across the country while doing the short trips on EV, it remains to be seen on what the ID4 or KIA 5 or some other EV that the Evangelist's are singing about will do in 10 years time.

I was disappointed in a recent EV for sale that was nearly 8 years old with a new replacement battery only doing 300 km motor way, it would be far too close to my minimum of 320km, while nearly 4 times the price I paid for my present car or double my previous.

Is anyone actually on this "unhappy owning an EV in Ireland" unhappy owning one?

(Hearsay like brothers, uncles, sisters that didn't bother doing any research before purchasing not included)

Just WOW...that bit in brackets! Way to further silence the voice of that silent minority group 'somebodies brother'!😉