Worst thing about owning an EV
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Anonymous
| Thinking about buying an EV next after just blowing $2k to fix my stupid ICE engine. However, I’d like to know what the worst thing about owning an EV is. Yes, I get range anxiety issues, but 98% of our driving is likely to be around our home and we almost never take long trips on the road. Even if we did, we could just rent a car. Is it the upgrade cost for an electrical panel? Expensive repairs? Crappy resale value? What is the worst aspect? |
Anonymous
| I have had a VW ID.4 for a year and I love it! I think having to use public EV infrastructure on road trips is the worst part. The tech is glitchy and you have to sit and wait for it to charge. If you are mostly driving around town and charge at home it will not be an issue. I have also heard that body repairs are more difficult and expensive but have not needed anything fixed on my car yet. |
jsteele
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I am a new EV owner so I have not encountered potential long range downsides. But from my limited experience the worse things are expensive insurance which is related to expensive repairs. Again, I have not needed repairs so far so I have no firsthand experience. But based on my research, you are basically limited to dealerships for service because few independent shops want to work on EVs. They are easily totaled because nobody wants to touch the battery pack so even minimal damage to that causes the car to be totaled. If you don't have access to home charging, I assume that charging can be a pain. That would be especially true in cold climates where you need to precondition the battery before charging. All in all, I am very happy with the car and would be reluctant to go back to ICE now. |
Anonymous
| Id4 owner. There was a battery recall las year and it took a while to find a dealer and tech to do the work. Otherwise I LOVE our car! We leased one 3 years ago and just leased a new one when our lease ran out. |
Anonymous
| Trying to figure out how & where to put the gas in. |
Anonymous
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We’ve had a few EVs over the last 5+ years and overall they are great. We still have an ICE car for road trips but as ranges increase that will become obsolete.
I love not having to get gas. It’s so easy just to plug in at home. Ours have all been fun to drive. Almost zero maintenance. Range has been the only potential downside for us but not really a huge deal. 👍👍 |
Anonymous
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We have one charging spot and two electric vehicles, so it's annoying to have to rotate charging.
I also hate having to plug in when it's raining, as our spot isn't covered. |
Anonymous
Honestly? I have no complaints. We have had our EV for three years. We leased, and then we bought out the lease because we loved the car so much. We also installed a Level II charging station at our house (which was no issue - even in 2021) - we also have solar panels so it didn't appreciably increase our electric bill. We just plug in whenever it gets low and its fully charged in a couple hours - it would be aggravating if we didn't have charging station. No maintenance except getting tires rotated and fluids refilled. No repairs in three years. Haven't needed to resale - and probably won't until it dies. At which point, I got what I needed from it. The ONLY thing is accounting for range IN WINTER and in the mountains (hilly areas). Range is significantly less in Winter due to heating concerns, and hilly areas can take more energy than you think so you don't want to play the odds. That said - I've NEVER run out of energy (I have rolled into the driveway with just 2-3 miles left a couple times and that's not necessarily fun, but a little exhilirating when you make it). Also, it takes a while to warm up in the winter (so having the option to turn it on to warm up in the winter before you get in the car is helpful). Other than that, EVs (not hybrids) drive like a dream because they go to 60 in less than 5 seconds, making merging onto the Beltway no problem. |
Anonymous
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NP.
-Those of you who installed the charging stations at home, did you have to update your electrical panel? -Has it significantly increased your electric usage? -Is the increase more than offset by lack of need for gasoline? |
Anonymous
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The insurance on my wife's EV is much higher than the insurance on both ICE we also own.
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jsteele
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We did not have to update our electrical panel because we had already done that several years ago. Like a poster above, we have solar panels so any increase in electricity use would be negligible. If we were paying for the electricity, it would be costing our about $20 per month. But, that is very limited around town driving and doesn't include what we would spend on public charging on road trips. Yes, the increase is more than offset by not needing to pay for gas. |
Anonymous
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We have had a Chevy bolt twice- we bought in 2018 and took a buyout from GM around 2020 when there were battery recalls- we ended up getting more than what we paid for the car!
We don’t use it for road trips- charging on the road is expensive and slow and a lot of chargers are broken. But the car is our preference 90% of the time. No maintenance, quiet, cheaper to drive. We absolutely love it. |
Anonymous
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We had to pay quite a bit to extend our electrical from our house to our garage.
Other than that, agree with PPs. If you can charge at home overnight I see no downsides. And unlike a PP we do have 2 EVs and only one charger & don't mind rotating at all. Range issues are fine - we have one Tesla & one other EV; we prefer road trips with the Tesla for the superchargers. Haven't had maintenance issues. But, I do think that flat tires in EVs are different than with regular cars. You have to call a tow truck rather than doing it yourself (or at least that was the case with our Prius plug in many years ago, this might be outdated info). |
Anonymous
| I love my EV to drive. No issues with charging (my apartment building has a free charger and my office has one with low cost charging and I don't drive that much). I just charge it when I get down to around 100 miles, which is usually about once a week. Tesla charging network is super easy to use for road trips where I need it and getting better even in the three years I have owned. The biggest issue that I have is constantly being asked range anxiety questions by people who don't understand how it works. For example, people talking about road trip charging talk about the time to a full charge. I have to tell them that it almost never makes sense to wait for a full charge (unless you are eating or doing something like that where you want to stay anyway). Those last few miles take the longest to add when you are charging at a fast charger and the car will always tell you to get going on your trip below a "full" charge. Overall I never want to drive an ICE again. |
Anonymous
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We have Tesla's and find that the longer charging stops can be a bit of a bummer on longer trips (like you're adding 20-25% to your trip length). Though if you have kids, it's honestly not that much longer from any other stop you'd make since kids always take forever. I recommend getting the longest range battery you can - even if you don't commute large distances. We have two MX's; one with about 200 mile range and the other with 350. The 350 one is much preferred on road trips, as stopping every 300 miles is about how much I'd want to even if I was alone. We've driven all over the USA and in more remote areas in the south and even with the 200 range, it was totally fine.
Adding the charging panel to our house was not a huge deal, and reasonable cost (I think under $1k). We also added Tesla solar panels so our electric costs have been offset quite a bit. |