Is Living With an EV Worth it? My Honest Thoughts.

Reading some of these comments there will always be those who look for a reason not to move with the times. The same could probably be said of those who were resistant and concerned their horse wouldn't get any exercise when Henry Ford built the Model-T. :) A car run on renewably sourced electricity, charged overnight at a fraction of the cost of a petrol/diesel car makes perfect sense for many of us. Most journeys are local and well within range. Even more so in UK and much of Europe cities and towns are closer. I will do 80% of my driving with an electric mini and then probably just hire a larger can when needed for camping trip and trips to friends and family x number of times per year. Cheaper than owning a car and paying tax, insurance and watching it depreciate on the drive. How many of us actually use all the space in our vehicles most of the time. Probably, for most of us, quite rarely if we're honest ...

i've driven an ev now for 4 months. not one issue. zero. none. i do not expect the car to drive itself. i am perfectly capable.

🤔 interesting video. Thank you for the video. Ive been thinking about going this route but I can see that it just isn't for me. Maybe I will look into hybrids.

You didn't explain the cost of charging your car for the duration you owned it. Also something to consider is the increasing cost to charge EVs in the EU and since Canada loves to copy the EU that is something you should look into. Have you paid off the car already?

I'm the owner of a 2023 Mazda MX-30 GS as my first EV because I like the look & finish and the way it handles. Price wise, it's pretty good as Mazda offers a 4000$ rebate and another 12000$ in rebates from the federal & provincial governments (Quebec, Canada). I have to say I use it as my primary vehicle to do all my shopping/groceries/meetings etc... all within 40 km from my house and I won't use it during winter time (October 31 to may 01). I have a level 2 charger at home. I understand the range is said to be 160 km but I've done more than 180 km on rural roads & city roads and it was showing15% left. ***I have a compact SUV AWD for longer trips (maybe 12 times/year) and for winter driving! If you're looking for a primary vehicle EV for all year around including long trips, you should consider an EV with a 360 km minimum range knowing that in winter time when it's really cold (-20c +), you'll be using "heating/heated seats/heated streering etc..." which will have a negative impact on the range (minus 40% +) and it will take longer to charge. 😊 I forgot to mention, my average is 16 kwh/100 km.

100% perfect review- My wife and I live North of San Antonio and we go to Austin and into San Antonio daily. We BOTH have Mini SE's and absolutely love them- they are ONLY fo daily driving and they are the BEST at daily driving- very fast very smooth easy to park front wheel drive but really hold the road and even on 110v charging we wake up at 80% charged and over the weekend we start Monday AM with 100%. BUT we have Gas cars for longer drives (Houston Dallas) so realistically we have no range anxiety ever. Some quick hits and misses. AWESOME interiors- BMW qulaity one of a kind experience. Drives better than any GTI or "hot hatch". Yes if this had 160 mile range it would be PERFECT- the new one will but not a fan of the interior. Misses- 1> No AM radio- Im a talk radio guy and all EV's are doing this not just Mini and 2> It is quiet but since they have thin windows could be quieter. I am going to get some sound deadening put under the carpet- most owners could care less and is NOT a deal breaker 3> In cars with larger batteries it is 100% known to not charge to 100% all the time (Maybe on road trips) but Mini is all over the map on that- I have asked the dealer and other owners- some do some dont- my wifes is 10 months old and I do think that we have lost a little bit of range charging it to 100% everyday. again, not a deal breaker but wish they were more exact. 4> Lower trims dont get the better (Not great but good enough) HK sound system. But this thing is so solidly built (One of BMWs best cars?) and just puts a smile on my face every time I drive it. I am old and have had MANY great cars (My weekender is a Mercedes SL550- last of the v8's lol) but I will put the Mini against it or any other car for driving dynamics. Seriously excellent car and again great on point review.

What you're all forgetting to mention is the big fat elephant sat in the middle of the room, COST EFFICIENCY. Eg.
Insurance if you can get it, a lot of insurance companies are now refusing to insure EVs, due to their tendency to spontaneously combust, the cost of a new battery which under law now has to be replaced in the event of a bump.
The cost of charging now supercedes that of petrol, curently at the moment it's on par with diesel.
At 70mph, you can get to London and back none stop on the motorway from Manchester, in half a day, on a cold winter's day or hot summers day, day or night. on a full tank of diesel, just.
I have a KIA Venga 1.6 CDI ECO. It does 45mpg urban and town, 70mpg at 70/80mph motorway, it costs me £30 per year to tax, due to it's very low almost insignificant carbo imissions, half of which as a Blue Badge holder I can claim back.
My total running cost minus fuel for the year is just under £400.
What's yours?

Lovely and honest review abt EV. These factors highlighted are the reasons why I would continue with my prius phev.

NO

Thanks for sharing. I came across what I think is an apt analogy for EVs -- and that is PC's in the 80's/ early 90's: cool, could do stuff even with a lowly 8086 processor...that became the 286 chip, the 386...finally settling in as a commodity with the Pentium chip. I think we're solidly past the earliest stages of EVs so maybe a lot of 286 and 386's out there....but, but, but..as you noted, if it's your ONLY car, maybe wait.

Aside from weekend getaways, I've done a single long road trip in an EV, a VW ID4. While trip planning was most definitely required, I found the drive far less fatiguing over the competition, most likely attributed to the shorter legs, about 100 to 150 miles between stops. I wouldn't say I was waiting for the car to charge, the vehicle was ready after a quick coffee, bathroom, or Walmart stop. I noticed to pass the same semi trucks repeatedly which was an interesting observation.

I drove across country in our Tesla model y - no preplanning except booking hotels around 600 ~ 800 miles apart close to the highway (total trip was 3000 miles). I plugged in the next hotel destination and the Tesla calculated the trip and told me where I should charge and for how long. I highly recommend trying a Tesla on a road trip and compare it to any other EV. We now have switched to 2 Teslas and haven’t run into any issues on any road trips.

About think the majority of people live in houses with access to home charging. Not in Europe.

There are 1,841Tesla supercharge stations in the U.S. with California having the most with 363. and seeing that the U.K. is 1.7 times smaller than California this would mean that the equivalent superchargers in the UK would be around 242. At present there is about 115,000 gas stations in the U.S. However, at these supercharge stations their charging output is reduced when more than one vehicle is charging so it takes longer. If all petrol stations reverted to superchargers, most would be turned off since the load would exceed the grid capacity very quickly. The average UK house consumes around 3500 kWh per year, these superchargers dish out up to 250kWh per charge which means that charging 42 Teslas at the same time with an average charging time of 15 minutes uses up the amount of energy of the average household in the UK in one year. There are about 30 million cars on British roads, imagine what would happen if they decided to charge their cars at the same time and even if restrictions are introduced at hourly times it would still mean that over 1.3 million cars charging per hour is the equivalent consumption of 30,000 houses in one year and that is just for one hour of charging. But there are also around 7 million commercial vehicles and some of their batteries are significantly bigger. When are people going to realise that EVs will be unsubstainable when a saturation point is reached, you can work out how many EVs would do this, it's not very large.

Thousands of people die from fossil car pollution every year ......is it worth it...

you have to be an idealistic, left wing, trans, bi, bearded weirdo to think an EV is in any way practical.

I too have an SE. Mine turned a year old a few days back. She's done 13,320 miles in thay year. Mostly commuting. About 2000 miles of road trips. Two of 700 miles. Electricity cost of $331.53 at home.
No worrying about getting to work when there's a gas shortage.
The reviewer nails it when he days the SE is a fantastic commuter and back road car, but a lousy roadtrip car. I bought mine for commuting. I still have my R53, but havent used it much since I got the SE.

The SE is also a fun car to autocross.

I've owned a plug-in hybrid, and now an EV. Charging at home is super easy, no wall box needed. For yearly road trips, i'll simply rent a gas car. Most americans drive under 40 miles daily.

I got a Mustang Mach-E for two main reasons. 1. Route Planning and 2. Plug & Charge. Makes road trips I take every day of the week easy (I don't roadtrip that oftern, virtually no one does unless they drive a bus everyday). I didn't even realise until I was about 2 hours into a roadtrip that all I did was type in the address and go. Didn't plan where I needed to charge or anything. Got to an EA station, plugged in, and went to the bathroom. I do wish EVgo had corridor charging because I find their stations more reliable.

I just wanted to say that I really appreciated the way you did your ad break. 100% relevant to the video and it didn't feel like an ad break.

I also own a Mini Cooper SE. I bought it with the same mindset, as a 2nd car, for city driving and daily commute (which btw makes probably at least 80% of my driving). In that way it makes a ton of sense. I also own a diesel Mercedes V-Class, which I use for long journeys, roadtrips and camping (this car makes also sense just as a 2nd car). So i guess the 2 are supplementing each other quite well. But if I had only one car, I wouldn’t have bought an electric car. Not even a Tesla Model 3 just because for now the situation is much too problematic for long journeys or road-trips

🔥🔥🔥

Please do more tech rewind 🙏

Mark, Did anything happen to your nose, Cause it look kind of fake ??????

great video! i wish the petro canada ev charging network was better back west. love watching your videos and the charging east series. Still 4-6 more weeks wait till mine and im stoked! keep up the great work!

The money you save on fuel & EV maintenance you can use to start purchasing a new battery after 8 years

I bought a bolt EV to commute to work. I have a long commute but am able to charge at home and at work for similar costs (about 10 cent per kWh). It has significantly saved money on my commute. However, I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't have a place to charge at home until range gets way better.

Since I only have 1 car for everything I bought a hybrid. Basically I've cut my gasoline usage in half, saving money and emissions. Much like an electric car a hybrid uses the electric motors to generate power fo the battery while coasting and I can come to planned stops w/o the friction brakes saving wear and reducing maintenance costs. My next car will probably be a PHEV.

I've driven electric vehicles since 2014, when I purchased my first Tesla Model S. I agree with you that pretty well any EV will be a good choice for commuting, and in fact, will save significantly on operating costs. When government incentives are factored in, the payback period can be very attractive for commuters. I have also taken my Model S on several road trips over the years, and found it to be much lower stress than when I owned a gasoline vehicle. The key to that enjoyment is the Tesla Supercharger network. It's essential to have a reliable and complete charging network when road tripping, and to choose accommodation that offers overnight charging. Yes, it takes a bit of planning, but it's something that most people quickly get the hang of. Knowing your EV's capabilities means range anxiety is no longer a factor, even in winter.

Your thoughts on roadtripping is why I'm considering getting a PHEV instead of going for a full-on EV when the lease on by Subaru Outback runs out next year. I really wish Subaru still made Outback hybrids but they don't so I'm scoping out other models. For my daily driving, it'll basically only be using electric, but when I'm doing a road trip, I know I'll be able to use gas and not have to worry about managing charging. We only have one car so it's what is probably best for us right now until the charging network improves.

Straightforward and honest take on this improving reality

Living in a rural area with extended work commuting hell no. Not for me. They need to make these as an OPTION for people and not try to force everyone to buy one. EVs are absolutely no better for the environment.

I wish you luck my friend. I really hope the electric Mini Coopers are more reliable than their gas counterparts

Have a Chevy bolt 2023 as a 2nd vehicle. And only after my condo got their own private charges did we buy it. You need a "home" charger.

Public charging cost is on par with gasoline cost of a hybrid car.
Level 3 is $0.5/min, while level 2 is around $2/hour.
Canadian prices.
If you can’t charge at home, forget about it.

Range anxiety would worry me a lot. I know how I am with phone batteries! 😂

We can only afford one car and I like the idea of charging it at home. However, we do several long family trips during the warmer months (Spring, Summer, Autumn) in the UK. The planning that needs to be done beforehand and then not knowing for certain if you'll have a working charging station or an available charging station, it's too much of a hassle especially when you have your wife and kids to worry about too. Maybe we'll have portable chargers in the boot one day.

Thanks for the balanced thoughts. Enjoying the channel.

I think it’s 2 asterisks, not only 1: if you can have your own wall box. If you rely on the public charging, it’s not as good.
I live in the Netherlands and I bought a Tucson Hybrid because charging an EV in the public charging would have been more expensive.
And I’m not counting the road trips.

EV are still far from the convenience of a gas car.

Agreed. I would not buy an EV if I didn't have another car for road trip. I currently have a PHEV which does the job for daily and road trip.

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