Worst thing about owning an EV

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

Insurance rates are inconsistent. My insurance only went up modestly when I exchanged my 2014 Japanese ice (valued around 10,000) for my 2021 European EV (valued around 40,000). Maybe 200-300 bucks a year total?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

Yes of course your electric bill goes way up but of course this is less than the cost of gasoline. That’s the whole point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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).

It’s probably because they are too heavy for any portable jack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

Yes of course your electric bill goes way up but of course this is less than the cost of gasoline. That’s the whole point.

Ours hasn’t gone way up. It’s not a noticeable difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

Yes of course your electric bill goes way up but of course this is less than the cost of gasoline. That’s the whole point.

Ours hasn’t gone way up. It’s not a noticeable difference.

Then you don’t drive much.

[Anonymous]

Isn't our electricity powered by coal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't our electricity powered by coal?

Very little is anymore.
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

Yes of course your electric bill goes way up but of course this is less than the cost of gasoline. That’s the whole point.

Yes, the Tesla app shows you how much you spent in electricity compared with the average gas cost that you saved. I think for the last month it said I spent $17 in electricity and would have spent $70 in gas for the same miles. That's charging at home. Superchargers while on road trips are more expensive. People in some states complain that their electricity costs so much that they're not really saving, so you would have to check your local rates to see how it affects you.

[Anonymous]

We installed solar panels to offset electricity consumption from the grid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't our electricity powered by coal?

Even if it were 100% coal, for a mile driven, it’s less carbon emissions from electricity powering an EV than gasoline powering an ICE.

[Anonymous]

As others have pointed out, the main challenges are charging infrastructure (whether at home, public chargers, or finding one on a road trip) and reduced range in cold weather. On the other hand, driving an EV is a much more pleasant driving experience IMHO than an ICE. Very quiet driving and no oil changes to deal with. On the whole, I pay about a third the cost to recharge than what it cost to buy gas.

[Anonymous]

The range issue is really the only downside for me. I have had a Nissan Ariya for a year. It’s been great — easy to charge, nice to not pay for gas, all around good experience. The long distance charging challenge, however, is real.

[Anonymous]

We have one plug-in hybrid and one all EV and it's great. Mostly use the electric on the plug in but can flip to a hybrid gas engine when we need to go long distances.

I see no downside at all.

[Anonymous]

We've had 2 EVs. Both Chevys. We bought our first one in 2016. We also have a Chevy PHEV. I can't think of many things that we don't like other than our car charges relatively slow on DCFC, but in 8 years I think we've used DCFC fewer than 5 times.

We also have no desire to own a full ICE vehicle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

Yes of course your electric bill goes way up but of course this is less than the cost of gasoline. That’s the whole point.

Ours hasn’t gone way up. It’s not a noticeable difference.

Then you don’t drive much.

Like the PP, we also haven't noticed much of a difference. We have had a PHEV and a full EV since 2016. Each car gets driven about 6k miles a year.