How to ensure an electric vehicle is the right choice for you

IT pays to do your homework before opting for an electric vehicle (EV), ideally, by speaking to an outlet that stocks a full range of cars.

Motorists should vigorously check that buying a new electric car is the right thing for them to do now, a leading motor industry figure claims.

A core part of the check process involves going to an outlet, or outlets, that sell petrol, diesel and hybrid models — not just EVs — to get a more accurate choice of what best meets their everyday needs.

At its most basic, it means getting advice from the dealer on what would suit you. In the general course of events, you would expect people to do that.

But enough motorists, albeit an apparent minority, appear not to have and now find themselves with a car they realise too late is not for them.

So, to avoid disappointment, possible heavy depreciation and having to pay extra to switch to a more suitable non-EV, the advice is to get expert on-the-ground advice.

Urging people to shop around in such multi-model outlets is Hyundai Ireland managing director Stephen Gleeson.

He gave the advice in the course of an interview sought by Independent Motors amid unease among potential buyers about used EV values, especially.

Mr Gleeson insisted the first thing a potential EV buyer should do is go into a garage that has a broad spread of power bases: electric, hybrids or conventional internal combustion engines, and ask: “Do you think an EV is the right car for me?”

And why? Some garages, he claimed, are selling EVs that may not be really suitable for the buyer’s needs “because they are in the business of selling electric only”.

Contrast that with a sales executive with all, or most, power types, who can assess an EV’s suitability for you.

If it is suitable, fine. Satisfied customer. But that same executive could just as easily advise that a petrol or diesel would suit the customer better right now.

In such a case, Mr Gleeson said, the sales executive is doing his/her job in selling the right car for the client.

He emphasised that so long as the advice is right and the deal is made, the salesperson is not going to worry if it is an electric, hybrid, petrol or diesel model. It is a sale.

This all sounds so obvious, but apparently, it is advice not being followed by a proportion of motorists who seem to feel they have to buy electric, often because that is the sole choice from EV-only outlets.

All this is not to be confused with a headline case where an EV owner wanted to upgrade after a year and was presented with an enormous bill to do so.

The publicity surrounding that, as well as people who chose badly, has created a lot of talk around EVs. And that is a good thing in that it is clarifying several issues.

Mr Gleeson agreed there is a lot of negativity around but he sees that lifting relatively soon. He said a recent Nevo electric show at the RDS, for which 20 000 people registered, shows the huge level of interest in EVs.

Some people are caught in negative equity, he said, after making a wrong decision but he believes the numbers are relatively small. His advice? Hold on for another year when he expects used-prices to have firmed up.

The good news for existing owners is he believes there will be a scarcity of good EVs to trade against new models over the next three years or so and that will bolster values.

“I think people will look back and say that these are good times to buy an EV. Used values will settle down.”

Meantime, more affordable smaller EVs will dramatically change the buying landscape. Several manufacturers have smaller cars in the pipeline.

Hyundai, as just one example, will have a new small EV by the end of the year, costing somewhere upwards of €25 000/€26 000. Size- wise, it will lie between the current i20 and i30.

Mr Gleeson said some manufacturers are trying to get people to buy €40,000 cars in the absence of larger volumes of smaller, less expensive models.

He also believes part of the negativity has to do with criticism of the charging infrastructure.

“It’s better than you think. It is possible to drive long distances in an EV with a bit of planning.” — Irish Independent