Random EV thoughts.....

Struggling to get more than 15km from the battery in this weather I'm going to just use hybrid mode until it's a bit warmer, the car is bloody Baltic on battery only which isn't going down well with herself. Petrol has dropped to 157.9 nearby which makes it nicer too.

The crucial bit "Since utilities are highly regulated and revenue-capped, they need to return excess profits to their customers in the form of lower rates"

In Ireland on the other hand, all the utility companies are making record profits because of the energy crisis...

I was spending 80 euro a week on petrol, using an EV I spent 20 euro a week on night rate electricity. I reckon I saved 16,000 euro on fuel costs over 4 years. Depreciation on the car ended up around 1,500 per year. Servicing, tyres etc. around 400 per year.

My EV was not 50k but 25k for a used EV. It had it's limits such as needing to public charge on trips above 160km.

The actual cost of ownership can vary a lot depending on daily commute, if you can home charge, if you need a small or big car, if you need a brand name car, and how well you can shop for a "bargain".

I also kept my old car as a weekend car which helped on longer trips to avoid public charging.

For some people it works out cheaper than a petrol or diesel. Indeed buying new, the right car, may be the lowest cost of ownership. Something like an MG4 may have negative depreciation, and be cheaper to run than even a free petrol car.

My lowly 2014 Nissan Leaf is not doing well in this cold weather. Range is down a lot, am aware low temp affects range but really evident in last couple of days

Just wondering, for the more modern ev’s, are they any better in this overly cold weather?

Nope. My 2017 Tesla Model S (facelift model with the much more efficient motor / drivetrain) uses about 35kWh / 100km in short trips in this sub zero weather. It would use about half that on the same trips in summer. So range is effectively halved doing all these short trips. What doesn't help either is that I never pre-condition the car and - just like your Leaf - doesn't have a heat pump

My Ioniq was much better on short trips as it had a very efficient heat pump, another benefit was that the car was clear within a minute. No other car I have ever been in came even close to that. It's usually several minutes.

Double or treble the battery size helps. You can preheat the car while still plugged in which helps warm cabin and slightly battery which reduces consumption during initial warm up phase. Newer cars tend to public charge faster and have more efficient heat pumps. Lower drag on some EVs less so others. Speed of driving has a big impact, even with a tesla high speed, cold weather equals reduced range. Headwinds can really impact range but it's not windy this week. I set my EV to start charging late overnight, say 3am start so the battery would be full and warm by the morning and would not sit at 100% unnecessarily long. My mobile phone does similar, it charges slowly overnight only topping up to 100% just before wake up alarm. This is better for phone battery.

I was on around that when I bought my first Tesla

Sure why don't we all drive around in twizys.

That would be your choice obviously. But surely you'd be prepared to pay extra tax for a Tesla Plaid so you could experience warp speed on the daily grind. Seems to me people have no particular issue paying a shed load of VRT to experience the thrills of driving larger, sportier ICEs but rail against any suggestion that equivalent EVs be taxed similarly.

SSo a 90kWh etron would be taxed less than a 100kWh model S, despite the latter being twice as efficienct as the former. BS

I'd imagine power output will become a factor. Say 200hp equivalent KW (Average family Ioniq 5 ish level) will be around €350 per year with bands above and below. I can't see any arguement really against paying €1 per day motor tax for the private transport for the average family needs. Road usages will be in addition to that and weighted against ICE if they do come in.

The potential issue with road usage will be how its managed for business uses, delivery drivers, trucks, taxis etc so while in simplistic terms it sounds good but the knock on cost implications and admin costs could be an issue that make a simpler motor tax based system easier to start with.