I need a new car, and I really want to go full electric. I’m wondering if anyone regrets buying one? What are the downsides?

  • wizzor
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    27 days ago

    EV driver working in automotive industry here. Based in N Europe, so take my words with a pinch of salt for other geos.

    If you can charge at home, don’t regularly drive very long distances and are OK with a smaller boot space EVs are a complete no-brainer.

    If not all of these are true, the convenience depends a lot on where you live. In Northern Europe, UK and northern parts of Central Europe public charging networks are pretty good although Norway is starting to see queuing to be a thing.

    In the US the only good charging network is Tesla’s, which means only NACS cars can charge there - EU regulator has done a good job here standardising to CCS2.

    Living with an EV does require some changes in behavior. You need to think about tomorrow’s needs today to have the right SOC for the next long trip or choose your shopping and dining options to facilitate charging. For me, this is perfectly OK and the pleasure of driving an EV more than compensates for the mild inconvenience. That said, the amount of inconvenience is dependent on the first three factors and the country you live in.

    When choosing your car, remember that you can’t normally use the top and bottom 20% of your battery (depending a bit on the chemistry), which is reflected in day-to-day range.

    Feel free to ask anything related to EVs, batteries, chargers or charging networks.