Thinking of moving to EV

I too happen to really enjoy my Model Y AWD. I only got it because I needed something easier to get in and out of while sticking with what I know and loved before….a 2022 Model 3 RWD. My favourite car to have owned by some distance. Super comfortable, quick and a joy to drive, but ultimately too low for me now.

I come from E46 stock too and a heap of Mitsi FTOs, including the lovely manual Mivec which made me grin from ear to ear every time I heard that V6 chooone. It won't beat my current EV at less than half the HP, but it had it's place and wasn't a car I needed to use for long commutes.

EVs just ticks a lot more boxes and with ranges of 400km now at the low end as standard, the old arguments are very hollow and cause my eyes to roll.

The OP is rocking in a dark corner after reading this thread.

"EV works for those willing to put up with much less range and much longer fill up times and will adapt to suit.

ICE works for everyone because of the much greater range and much shorter fill up times. "

More blanket statements, as sweeping as they are inaccurate.

The 400km range in my EV means the car is capable of going for longer than I want to drive non-stop. I don't want to spend an uninterrupted 4.5-5 or more hours behind the wheel at any time, let alone on a regular basis. I've definitely done more than 4 in the past, but I'm trying to be a bit more sensible in middle-age. So even if I had one of the EVs with 500+km range, I would still want to stop for a break regardless, which would happen even before reaching the 20% SOC in a car like that. Nowadays, between three and (at most) three and a half hours would be my limit before taking some kind of break. That duration of a drive gets me from my end of the island, just shy of the north coast, to Portlaoise, which in my car would still leave me some 70-80km of range. So on any trip outside the range of the EV, taking a break by that point would tie in perfectly well with a charging stop.

Now on a specific 440km trip we often do, sometimes myself and my other half share the driving - that's where the length of break we take would be shorter in an ICE car than in an EV - but you're only talking 10-15 minutes longer in the EV on a drive of that duration. Can I live with doing that 8 or 10 times in a year for the sake of a cleaner car, no more diesel, ~80% reduction in fuel costs, better acceleration and overtaking ability? Somehow, I'll find the inner strength.

Does ICE work for everyone? Really? Not me. I'm sure glad I'll never have to pay for a clutch replacement again, or an intercooler replacement, or an EGR valve getting clogged, or fuel injectors developing a fault, or get an exhaust welded/replaced, or top up with AdBlue, or even replace fuel/oil/air filters. I'm glad I no longer have the mental load of swiping through apps like Pumps.ie to try and find the cheapest place to fill up when I'm covering 35000km a year (at least as much of a burden as checking ZapMap for a charger). Looking at things from the other side of the road, all those things would have to become non-issues for me to consider moving from EV to ICE.

Other than those long-distance journeys, all our charging is done when the car is parked up outside the house, so your point about much longer fill-up times is misleading - you should include the phrase "for the small minority of people without the means to charge at home" when you say that. I just looked up the percentage of homes in Ireland which have private parking - it's at least 70%, and might be as high as 86%. So that means the significant majority of households in Ireland could have the means to charge at home, if they want.