TL;DR: Sorry, no TL;DR this time, but please read to end before commenting.

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Context

I live in Scandinavia, where EVs are probably the “coolest” in the world and when you say you bought a car the question is “which Tesla did you get?”. I’ve driven cars for past 15 years, but never owned. It was rental cars, pay-per-minute, company cars, both ICE and EV. Couple of months ago I became an owner and it’s a brand new ICE car.

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My story

I really enjoy driving EVs. The power delivery and silence is amazing. I don’t care about 0-100 in 5s. 8s is perfectly fine. The charging infrastructure is quite ok in the area, you could say there is “plenty of chargers”. So what went wrong?

I use the car every second day during the week, on weekends it’s mostly about spontaneous trips out of town. Distances vary from 10km in the city to 150-200km out of town. With quite a few road trips of 2000-2500km to other countries. So what is the problem then? EV should be more than enough. Well, yes and no.

Sorry all, I don’t like Tesla. I don’t like the exterior and I don’t like the interior. Nothing personal, I just don’t like it. This is important, since Model 3 LR is probably the go-to car when it comes to what you get per $. The choice is still limited. If not Tesla, then maybe ID4 or Skoda Enyaq? ID3 and Leaf is is too small. Hard to say, because EV selection is like 1/5th of ICE selection. I was also interested in a Mustang Mach-E and EV6, which were really nice. It doesn’t help that most EVs are TVs on wheels. Dear manufacturer, please, normal climate controls and couple buttons won’t make your car feel old. Also, Tesla, FFS at least provide an option for a HUD if you really want the interior to be “clean”.

My petrol car was about 48.000 euro and for that price I got an automatic gearbox, nice leather interior, powered seats, matrix LEDs, high-quality sound system, all safety systems and cruise control with stop & go and really nice lane-centering. Model 3 LR would tick most of the boxes at 53.000 euros, but since that isn’t an option for me the next pick was ID4 which came at a whooping 60.000 euro spec’ed similarly to my ICE. Kia EV6 which was also on option comes at around 60.000 euros too. Prices include all tax breaks and benefits for EVs (which are huge).

When you look at the map, there is plenty of chargers, so it should be good right? Right!? No.

I live in an apartment block and street parking is next to impossible. There is a garage under the building, where I park and despite the building being only 5 years old, there is no possibility to get any charging at your spot. OK, so let’s look at charging options. All chargers that are close (5 minute walk) are 22kW, not bad, BUT, they are on paid parking places (I would need to pay for parking AND charging there) and they are constantly occupied despite EVs being at 5% of all cars in the country (and 30% new sales in 2023). There are constant fights “because you already are full, move your EV”. I get that, everyone needs to charge, but when I come home, I want to park and forget and pop a cold one or go to bed. I don’t want to park, charge, and in 3 hours go back and repark the car to the garage. It is not convenient and the primary reason for owning a car is convenience.

Let’s look at fast chargers then. They are expensive AF and too far away. 0.5 to 1 euro per kWh and many also have 30 minute time limit. That means that I will be working within the 10 to 80% SOC. For ID4 that means I will be using around 53kWh of the 77kWh it comes with. At 16-18kW/100km (average, cold/hot temperature, AC/heating, highway) that means 300-350km of effective range. Also, subtract from that range, going to and from charger (about 20-30km return trip in my case). Not great. Charging like this means around 8-10 euro to go 100km. That is VERY close to 12 euro per 100km worth of petrol I need now. That is a marginal difference in running costs given the initial price of purchase. On longer trips I usually stop every \~400km in an ICE. Stopping for 10-15 minutes wouldn’t be end of world, but stopping for 30 minutes and diverting 5-10km is not great. Range anxiety is a thing, but I also have it in ICE: I fill up with petrol now before the light comes on, so, good for me I guess? If I stick to fast charging, I am also concerned about battery. Bjorn from YouTube recently showed a Model 3 with 15% capacity decrease after 2y and 100.000km of fast charging - absolutely horrible.

Filling up is easy. You go to gas station, fill up pay with card and off you go. It takes couple minutes. Using chargers isn’t. There is way too many different systems, it isn’t easy. Multiple apps, charging cards and tags (like Shell Recharge). Why!? We already have the greatest thing with us: credit card. Tap, pay, that’s it. I don’t need 5 more apps on my phone and deal with multiple subscriptions. If I want to stick to one charging provider I limit the amount of charging point to maybe 10-15%. Absolutely ridiculous.

I skip the environmental aspect on purpose. Most friends and people I talk to admit, that the environmental aspect played minimal role. It’s all about making your life easier. I get it, you have a house and you charge for next to nothing, but most importantly you have a place where you know you will always be able to recharge.

From my point of view few things need to happen before people (like me) will go EV:

1. EVs are still more expensive, despite all tax breaks and other benefits
2. Range HAS to increase - advertised (ID.4) 543km WLTP is effectively 300-350km, that isn’t enough
3. Access to charging - it is still poor in apartment blocks areas
4. Fast charging - way to expensive and possibly creates strain on the battery if use regularly
5. Chargers need to have a credit card terminal - dealing with apps, accounts, subscriptions scares people off, so either make ONE app or accept credit cards ALL OVER European Union
6. Manufacturers need to start being real - don’t advertise full charge range if at the same time you recommend charging to 80% because of battery health reasons and charge times

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Conclusions

In many discussions it’s always EV vs ICE which is sad, because that is not the point. Everyone understands that for many people EVs already work now. Arguing with someone that “you don’t do 600km everyday” is the stupidest argument on the planet, because it works only if you have dedicated charging spot and we get it, it works for you. More importantly, if someone tells you “here are the problems I see”, if you reply with “you are wrong, that isn’t a problem” we want get anywhere.

This is a transition period and EV owners should be ambassadors for the change. They should recognize limitations that others, who haven’t switched yet, see and help to remove those limitations. In many cases electrified drivers I met are just condescending and ignorant, which causes more friction and unnecessary arguments. Do not advocate for “EV only parking”! Advocate for more chargers, so that ICE owners see that we can co-exist now and charging options are plentiful. Most population doesn’t care whether their car runs on dinosaur juice or lightning. They care about convenience and cost. They don’t want to think about which charging network can I use? Should I precondition the battery? What will happen if is always charge on high power chargers to 100%? Will my battery last more than couple years then?

Last and only remark about politics: The EU ban on new non-CO2 neutral vehicles from 2035 and many more strict local regulations are not the way to go. I know that politician’s mind work only in the “tax it” and “prohibit it” ways, but this is stupid. Work on infrastructure, work on real-life ease of use and convenience instead and people will switch. In the worst case, if we get to a point where there is 10 or 15% ICE cars and 2-3 gas stations around the city for the super stubborn petrol enthusiasts, so what? In real life the benefits will be great. Is this such a big deal that you won’t campaign CO2 neutral, but 99% CO2 reduction? Get real, bans and tax punishments always create negative reaction and in the time of change, we have to avoid that.

In the end people go for what is “better” for them, if EV is better (whatever that means) they will go for it. If they didn’t, it means that it isn’t better for them. Let’s change it, shall we?

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