Discussions about EVs

A Peugeot Ion.  Source: EV Obsession

From EV Obsession

The writer owns an EV and gets lots of questions.  Here are some typical questions and his answers:

Charging Time

“How long does it take to charge up”?

I usually answer this one with a question of my own.-

“How long are you staying for”?

“Oh, about 20 min, or half an hour, I suppose, just to have a break and a cup of tea”.

“Well, that is about how long it takes to charge up. As soon as I get here, I just plug my car into the charger, here, go for a break for about 20 min, or so, and when I get back, it’s charged-up, and ready to go”.

Charging Cost

“And how much does it cost to charge-up, then?”.

“You would be lucky on the motorway to get more than 50 mpg, and, as a gallon is about 5L, and a litre is about £1.20 on average, to do 50 miles will cost you at least £6. For me to charge up to add 50 miles of range, costs me only £1”.

While I am on the subject of costs, I usually choose this moment to mention other cost advantages, just to drive home the point.

“As for servicing,” (pregnant pause here), “I have to have the motor coolant changed every 20 years, and every year, I have to get the pollen filter changed. Because of regenerative braking, the brake-pads last for ever. There is no oil and filter, no air filter, clutch, exhaust, spark plugs, timing belt, etc etc, to replace, and no expensive engine and gearbox to wear out.”

Battery Replacement

“Um, very cheap then, but I’ve heard the batteries don’t last long, and cost a fortune to replace.”

“Well, they last a lot longer than people expected, because now we have some EVs that have actually done big mileages, the estimates have been revised, a lot. For example there is a Nissan Leaf taxi, in the UK, that has done over 100,000 miles, with no significant loss of battery performance. The batteries don’t go “dud”, in any case, but just very gradually reduce in capacity. A battery is said to be “spent” when the capacity has fallen to 80% or less, but whether the owner considers it “spent” depends on how much they are bothered by having 80% of the original range.

As for the price of replacement, batteries are less than half of the original price, now, and could fall even more, so by the time you need a replacement, it might be very cheap. Also, your ‘spent’ battery, having 80% capacity, has a resale value, typically being used for grid storage, or home power storage.”

There are lots of other good answers in the article, but maybe you should hop across there and read the whole piece.