Owning an EV: The good, the bad and the ugly
Your automobile is the second most expensive asset that you own after your home and most of us view more than just a mere mobility solution. Owning an electric automobile comes with its bells and whistles, it has its share of issues and a vehicle isn’t a pair of jeans that you can return to the seller if you don’t like it and getting rid of a car that you might not like is a real pain in the back end. Transferring registration and ownership documents, insurance and to add insult to injury, all vehicles without exception are depreciating assets, according to the omnicar car depreciation calculator, a vehicle loses about 9% of its original value within the first 1 minute of its purchase [1].
Now with such a rapid drop in value, it’s almost impossible to recover all of the hard-earned money that you have spent on your car. This is exactly why people are advised to be extremely careful and make informed decisions before making their car purchases. EVs actually depreciate much faster than conventional ICE cars because of the rapid advancements in battery, motor and electric drivetrain technologies. A used 2016 Tesla Model S costs around US$39,998 less than 50% of its original price of over US$80,000.[2]
Having said that, we must acknowledge that EVs are the future of both personal and mass transport and to make a wise investment, one must fully understand the positives and the negatives of owning, running and maintaining an EV.
The Good:
In addition to being great for the environment, EVs have the following advantages.
EVs last longer
Most ICE cars are rated to last around 300,000km before the cost of maintenance becomes too high to be justified and unless you own a Toyota or a Honda it’s not very likely that your car will last any longer. According to Tesla, an EV battery would last around 10 years or between 200,000km to 320,000km before the battery pack becomes unusable by then the cost of batteries would be so low that it would be better for you to replace just the battery than to go ahead and purchase a whole new car and once the battery pack is replaced, it will last for an additional decade. [3] Other components such as the power electronic components, the motor etc. won’t degrade by a significant margin even after using them for a decade and typically are guaranteed to last 15 to 20 years. [4]
EVs are low maintenance
Extremely low maintenance. An ICE car has around 4000 components that work independently and any of them can go wrong. A typical EV even when it is fitted with the latest tech has less than 1000 and except for the motor, the tyres and the brakes, there are virtually no moving parts which means very little wear and tear. Thanks to technologies like regenerative braking, the brake pads will last longer and run cooler than those on a typical ICE vehicle. And there are no complicated oil changes, oil filter changes etc. that you’d typically need to do in your ICE car every few thousand kilometres and this results in significantly lower costs associated with the maintenance of your vehicle. Additionally, the lower number of moving parts also reduces the chances of mechanical failure, resulting in a safer driving experience.
Electricity was, is and always will be cheaper
Electricity in India is dirt cheap, costs less than ₹8 per unit in most cities. A typical Nexon EV costs less than ₹1 per km to run and an e-scooter like the Pure EV E-Pluto 7g costs only ₹0.1 per km to run. A conventional ICE car running on petrol would easily set you back by ₹10 per km and an ICE scooter would set you back by at least ₹1.5 per km. Plus, electricity prices have been stable for over a decade in India [5]
At first glance, it might seem from the graph that electricity prices have doubled in over a decade, but once inflation is taken into account, the cost of electricity doesn’t seem to have changed by much. On the other hand, petrol prices have shown themselves to be as volatile as petrol itself and its quite possible that over the next few years, petrol will continue getting more and more expensive and electricity will become more and more accessible and affordable.
EVs are like wine, they get better with age
An EV is primarily software-driven, the overall experience can be improved throughout an EV’s life through software updates. With just a few tweaks in the software, an EV can be made to go faster or be more efficient. Additionally, all components of an EV are electronically controlled, they are much easier to automate.
The bad
Not a lot of things are bad about EVs per se, but still, they do come with their fair share of flaws.
EVs are harder to fix
A typical EV has fewer parts to fix, to begin with, but these parts are quite sophisticated and a higher level of technical skill and knowledge is required to repair them in case something breaks under the hood. Components such as motor diver circuits, battery management systems, DC-DC converters have extremely complex components integrated into them and in several cases, it is cheaper to replace a failed component than to attempt any repairs due to the sheer complexity of electronic modules.
Software and hardware locks
Since an EV is primarily software-driven, it’s much easier for automakers to implement locks on the overall EV thereby blocking an owner from attempting any repairs on their own or depending upon third-party service stations which might be cheaper or better than the ones at the dealership. This might also block the user from making modifications to their vehicles. Additionally, automakers can deliberately disable certain features of an EV and force users to enter into subscription-based services. The legislature and the executive need to take cognizance of such a future in the automotive sector and act accordingly with proper regulatory frameworks that are in the best interests of consumers.
The ugly
There’s one and only one aspect about EVs that can be considered ugly and that is,
Poor resale value
EV technology is growing by leaps and bounds. Every year there is a new algorithm for BMS, an improvement in battery technology and an improvement in charging hardware onboard the vehicle. Plus there’s the aspect of battery degradation. All of this offsets any benefits that are associated with the lower wear and tear of the car’s components and its longer rated life and because of this, you might not be able to recoup a significant proportion of the money that you invest in an EV. But the amount of money that you end up saving in total running costs and maintenance might help you offset the losses associated with depreciation.
All in all EVs sound like a decent deal and by the end of this year, more EVs are expected to it the Indian market from the likes of Tata, Mahindra and Hyundai. Models such as the Altroz EV, the eXUV300, the eKUV100 are worth waiting for.
References
[1] https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/car-depreciation
[2] https://www.edmunds.com/used-tesla-model-s/
[3] https://www.primecom.tech/blogs/news/electrical-vehicle-motor
[5] https://scripbox.com/plan/inflation-calculator
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