What to consider when purchasing EVs?

[henley_turtle]

Hello!
I am a Master’s student in Reading University and pure battery electric vehicles is my dissertation topic.
I was investigating what keeps people away from purchasing EVs and how to help this environmentally-friendly innovative car find more owners, how to make EVs more appealing. Also, I realise that the trends for EVs are constantly changing together with people’s perceptions of this new technology.
Dear forum members, could you advice what factors in your opinion are the most important when considering an EV-purchase?
Also, as I have found out from literature that the perceptions of EVs depend on personality of the buyer, so I have made a short questionnaire –you might find it a bit unusual – to ask what different people think about EVs. I would be very grateful to all members of this forum who agrees to share a few minutes of your time and be volunteers for my dissertation survey: www.surveymonkey.com/s/LZW3N3W
This is not a commercial project and I will not have any personal gains, just your highly valuable advice for my dissertation.
I thank in advance everyone who helps me out with my project!

[jkh112]

I answered your survey questions. Now I have a few questions for you.
Why does agree/disagree keep switching from left to right? It can easily be answered incorrectly as the switch is easily missed.
Also I do not like the use of American English - parking lot instead of car park, why not use English?
And another thing, you ask what is your highest degree and the answers seem to be in ascending order but you put professional qualification after Masters degree, which is higher?

And another thing......no, that's all for now!

[henley_turtle]

Thank you for participating in my survey! I really appreciate it!

Was it a bit inconvenient that agree/disagree switches from left to right? - I thought it would be a good idea to keep respondents alert (when I sometimes fill in surveys and the questions are similar, I keep clicking answers automatically without thinking about the question ).
Also, thanks for noticing regarding American English- sorry, I'm an ESL-student, so I, honestly, did not feel the difference.

Good note re. ascending order of qualifications, really. Well, thanks God, there are just a few options in that question - hopefully, the respondents will find the right one!

Thank you for your notes - that's the way students learn!

[andyalan10]

Done

Just a small point:- Your "Master's dissertation" implies that you are doing a dissertation for someone else who is in a dominant position over you. You might want to rethink that one given the perverted mindset that I, and probably many others, have.

[henley_turtle]

Thank you for the note and your response! I actually meant that I'm doing Master's degree - but you're right that the sentence might be misunderstood - never thought of that.

The number of responses grows - thank you, forum members, for your kindness!

[anonymous-user]

I filled it in. I have filled in numerous similar surveys about EVs

So far not one of them has really covered the only reason that I bought my current EV

Which was low and almost fixed cost motoring for 2 years.

With the certainty of the lease cost and the near certainty of the fuel cost, I was able to calculate a total cost of ownership for the 24 month period. 7 months in, I think that calculation is going to be accurate. And it is lower than any equivalent ICE car worked out to at the time.

I would not buy an EV. For me the speed at which the technology should change in the coming years is too fast to 'risk' ownership. The "fixed cost" for 2 years and then walk away model does away with that risk in my mind.

The 'green' pitch is, imo, a red herring. Sure, local environmental benefits are to be had (i.e. I don't pollute my street). But the total environmental cost of replacing a perfectly good car with a brand new made to order vehicle, especially one laden with big batteries, is likely quite high.

That the car is actually nicer to drive than an equivalent ICE car is a big bonus, but not the main decision driver.

[Phunk]

Your point that slow charging is better for the car than Rapid charging is also false.

[henley_turtle]

Dear JPJPJP,
Thank you very much for your response and the valuable insights. Did your calculated total cost of ownership include the “plug-in grant” ? - I am talking about the UK government grant of £5,000 introduced in 2013 for buyers of ultra-low emission vehicles. Just wondering, if these grants stop soon, than it might lead to significant stagnation in EV market…
Also, what kind of technological development do drivers expect as the destination point where they realise that the technology has eventually matured? – Swap-batteries? Driving range, like Tesla’s?

[henley_turtle]

Dear Phunk,
Thank you for the response and the comments. I thought that frequently using fast charging ruins the battery. Isn’t that right?

[Phunk]

henley_turtle said:

Dear Phunk,
Thank you for the response and the comments. I thought that frequently using fast charging ruins the battery. Isn’t that right?

No - if aything, in the right conditions it improves it

[FiF]

henley_turtle said:

Dear JPJPJP,
Thank you very much for your response and the valuable insights. Did your calculated total cost of ownership include the “plug-in grant” ? - I am talking about the UK government grant of £5,000 introduced in 2013 for buyers of ultra-low emission vehicles. Just wondering, if these grants stop soon, than it might lead to significant stagnation in EV market…
Also, what kind of technological development do drivers expect as the destination point where they realise that the technology has eventually matured? – Swap-batteries? Driving range, like Tesla’s?

Sorry to butt in but there's another issue which is important and that's the development of the charging network.

As your survey touches upon I'm sure that the practice of regularly plugging an EV in at home or when travelling in a "splash and dash" strategy will just become a habit. Not a barrier to adoption.

What is a barrier is the extent of the charging network and the attitude of others to those charging spaces which exist. Journeys into unfamiliar territory seem to require a significant element of planning. Journeys on familiar ground are at risk of being thwarted by spaces blocked by ICE, coupled with disabled and to a lesser extent parent and child spaces kept clear, but no action on EV places. To some extent when I was over in Sweden my regular supermarket had 4 charging spaces all tucked away in a not that close corner of the car park, so blocking never occurred, but remoteness probably added to the charging point installation costs.

[henley_turtle]

Thank you, FIF, for the comment! Very interesting point about Sweden.
I’m wondering who is bearing the costs – does their government finance supermarkets in terms of charging point installation Or is it the attempt of supermarkets to please customers? In Sweden, it is probably, quite complicated to have an EV– cold winters in major part of the territory might be decreasing capacity of batteries… Well, if it is a governmental initiative – that’s very wise. In some countries they even go further and let EVs use bus lanes.

[anonymous-user]

henley_turtle said:

Dear JPJPJP,
Thank you very much for your response and the valuable insights. Did your calculated total cost of ownership include the “plug-in grant” ? - I am talking about the UK government grant of £5,000 introduced in 2013 for buyers of ultra-low emission vehicles. Just wondering, if these grants stop soon, than it might lead to significant stagnation in EV market…
Also, what kind of technological development do drivers expect as the destination point where they realise that the technology has eventually matured? – Swap-batteries? Driving range, like Tesla’s?

It did include the grant, but not explicitly. I took the 24 month lease price and made a cautious estimate of MpkWh, a cautious estimate of electricity costs and added a 5% contingency to create my estimate. I reckon it will prove to be accurate to within £3 a week over the 24 months based on the first 6 months.

As well as increasing availability of public chargers as others have already mentioned. I do expect the technology evolution of the EV to deliver

- lower cost EVs and also a wider range of EVs to choose from
- longer range per charge
- faster charge rates (which might be achieved by battery swaps)
- a load of things that you, I and anyone else probably haven't even thought of yet

If you think about the evolution of ICE vehicles , which is still going on of course, it is plain wrong to think that today's EVs are anything except the forerunner to better things to come or a white elephant. It still could go either way imo.

[anonymous-user]

henley_turtle said:

Thank you, FIF, for the comment! Very interesting point about Sweden.
In Sweden, it is probably, quite complicated to have an EV– cold winters in major part of the territory might be decreasing capacity of batteries…

I can tell you that in Norway you can't turn round without seeing a Tesla

That is mostly driven by tax on the purchase price of cars. Basically, in the UK to buy a Tesla at £70k you are comparing it with some quite tasty ICE powered metal

In Norway, you are comparing it to pretty bog standard cars and the Tesla more frequently wins!

It is like going looking for an A3 diesel due to budget constraints and BMW being able to offer you an M5 for the same money...

[GreatGranny]

Filled it in.

Just one point, there's nothing between high school diploma (same as A levels?) and degree.

[squirejo]

I have done this for you. One consideration- I am sure there is some info about adoption rates and geographies from Olev. I can tell you anecdotally that adoption in London is massively on rise. And that is creating another new problem which is the availability of the on street chargers. One must keep in mind that having off street parking in London is far from the norm. This is a key factor for me and may well lead me to change my Renault Zoe for an i3 range extender.

[henley_turtle]

JPJPJP said:

I do expect the technology evolution of the EV to deliver
- lower cost EVs and also a wider range of EVs to choose from
- longer range per charge
- faster charge rates (which might be achieved by battery swaps)
- a load of things that you, I and anyone else probably haven't even thought of yet

You are right - there's long way to go for the majority of EVs, especially looking at Tesla's range, and the technology does not seem to get cheaper so far. Also, now as Honda, Hyundai and Toyota are focusing on hydrogen technology with just Nissan sticking to EVs - who knows which one will eventually win the technological battle?..

[henley_turtle]

JPJPJP said:

I can tell you that in Norway you can't turn round without seeing a Tesla

That is mostly driven by tax on the purchase price of cars. Basically, in the UK to buy a Tesla at £70k you are comparing it with some quite tasty ICE powered metal

Norway is lucky to be able to set their own import duties independently from Brussels and, thus, to give preference to alternative technologies. Also, not every country has such huge oil reserves versus relatively small population, so their consumers can afford Teslas.

[henley_turtle]

GreatGranny said:

Filled it in.

Just one point, there's nothing between high school diploma (same as A levels?) and degree.

Thank you for filling in my survey - I appreciate every response!
Yes,by high school diploma I meant A-levels and below. Apart from the degree and High school diploma, I also included an option of professional education.

[henley_turtle]

squirejo said:

I have done this for you. One consideration- I am sure there is some info about adoption rates and geographies from Olev. I can tell you anecdotally that adoption in London is massively on rise. And that is creating another new problem which is the availability of the on street chargers. One must keep in mind that having off street parking in London is far from the norm. This is a key factor for me and may well lead me to change my Renault Zoe for an i3 range extender.

Thank you very much for participating in my survey!
So you are a current driver of Renault Zoe? I was always curious - how is it when your car does not produce noise - doesn't that scare pedestrians? They, probably, do not notice your car approaching until it is very close - how do they react?