Buying the Best Electric Vehicle - for your needs

Is the ICE the cheaper option?
If affordable was the only measure by which we chose our next new or second hand vehicles? Would there be only one standard for each model in the market? Oh no! Vinyl seats with wind down windows and flow through ventilation for summer.

There has been an Aussie boom in luxury and more expensive vehicles. The ongoing releases and announcements of BEV’s from the luxury car makers points towards a significant trend in this market.

Elsewhere I’ll not point the finger too harshly, but. The endless procession of over optioned luxury 4WD’s locally that serve as everyday hacks is also ever evident. There are many who could afford a new BEV. That they choose not to is less likely to do with economics, more likely to do with something else less tangible IMO.

As an alternative for those less keen or able to afford a vehicle directly.

Yes, the vehicle share (rental?) was provided by Car Next Door. Not a recommendation for the business, but an interesting signal in the market place.

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Differences in the batteries between models.

Under the bonnet so to speak of current models (more likely the floor pan and boot) most of which are or will be available in Australia.

Battery weights and usable capacity vary
from 165kg (21kWh) for the Renault Twingo ZE
up to 700kg (86kWh) for the Audi e-TRON Quattro.

The mid range vehicles carry typically between 300kg and 460kg of battery weight (40-64kWh).

Tesla seems to have a slight edge on energy density and the most powerful battery.
98.4kWh usable, 162 Wh/kg, 630kg battery weight.

Tesla has stuck to Lithium nickel cobalt aluminium oxide (NCA) battery technology. It’s packs build on relatively old cell technology incorporating 8,256 individual cells to make up the 86 packs each with 96 cells.

Competing BEV’s mostly use a different Lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) and higher capacity cells than Tesla. EG Hyundai Kona Electric 294 cells in 3 packs of 98 cells, 64kWh usable power and 452 kg. The energy density of 149 Wh/kg leaves a 9% gap to the best Tesla can offer.

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Kia supports charging electric vehicle owners a contribution to road costs.

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This whole argument confuses me. Electric vehicles already have to be registered. And their owners already have to pay taxes. If it’s a huge problem that they’re not also paying taxes on petrol, then that says to me we’re overly reliant on fossil fuels for our economy.

Introducing extra charges on EVs only serves to artificially extend this fossil fuel reliance. We should be preparing for how an economy without fossil fuels looks.

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It’s really a side issue to the quality and performance of an EV. We are currently not spoilt for choice or affordable models, although

Starting at $25,999 plus on road costs plus a battery lease cost, if I read the spiel correctly?

Whether we call petrol excise a general tax, a road use tax (or a carbon pollution tax as some EV owners might suggest) it’s part of the costs for users of petrol diesel and lpg vehicle owners.

If EV’s owners do not contribute the same based on their road use, isn’t everyone else that pays taxes subsidising the EV owners road use. This would include those tax payers who do not own a motor vehicle. (Most Aussies pay tax, notably gst which goes back to the states.) Eventually the revenue lost under the status quo as EV numbers increase needs to be made up by someone from somewhere. Why not the road user?

If governments are going to subsidise EV’s to encourage change, call it a subsidy, publish the cost to the community and declare who is benefiting.

If it is equal to the loss of petrol excise (a federal tax) let the Govt in Canberra make that call. A road user tax as per SA is really a new state tax, and goes against the intent of the GST to reduce the number of taxes at state level. Of course how is SA going to tax interstate travellers if their states do not apply the tax, and how can SA apply the tax fairly if you live near the border and drive 50% outside SA?

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It depends if EV owners want roads to drive on or if they would be happy to simply drive through the bush like the first motor vehicles had to do.

The cost of the electricity use to fuel these EVs is taxed unless someone has enough renewable power supply to fuel them, are we suggesting that EV owners pay more for the electricity than everyone else? Then what about those with Solar Panels but no EV, do we charge them a tax for the electricity they generate and use? I can imagine the screaming if that was introduced. My arguments are somewhat simplistic I know but how far down the rabbit hole do we go?

Increase Rego costs, would that help? That would I think be a more even approach to the cost of road use, the cost would be spread over all users in a somewhat more equitable way. If trying to encourage EV usage then ways to achieve that are often not to increase the cost of ownership above that of fossil fuel driven vehicles. Aside from the cost of their fuel whether that be FF or renewables what other ways can we even the cost out. So if someone was to say to me it isn’t fair on FF users I say that it isn’t fair on EV or Renewable energy users to be topping up the FF users.

I also think FF should have a premium on use, it isn’t really a renewable resource we can endlessly plunder nor is it good for Climate Change, our environment in general, or our health. Does the federal excise on fuel and even the GST from fuel sales really go to roads or is it just plonked in General Revenue streams and doled out as seen fit by both levels of Govt. I think it is most likely the latter rather than the former. We have become reliant on revenues that are derived from FF sources eg Coal. We need to seek a new, or perhaps better put a different way of generating revenue for the Govts we have.

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As I pointed out above, an extra charge on EVs does not fix this issue. It doesn’t charge based on road use, it only gets some more money out of EV owners so we can continue to use petrol taxation as the method of measuring road use.

If we actually want to make this about road use, then a better system needs to be devised. Personally I would argue the vast majority of road users aren’t driving because they want to and rather because they have to. Therefore simply integrating the costs into income tax makes the most sense to me. Penalising individuals who drive a lot is probably just targeting people who can’t live near their work, or have to visit family regularly

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Direct importing vehicles into Australia is also a possibility. For standard motor vehicles it has been a niche market, especially with limited RHD choices.

Two and three wheelers though are less problematic.

One interesting import option once US production is rolling along is a battery electric Trike.

Starting at under US$18k before import and compliance costs. Yes, it does look like a bit of a crossover between a … Errrr - Ummm?

A rough guide on to go about it with reference to one business with experience in importing bikes and compliance for local registration. There’s up to 14 operators able to comply and certify imports, although the best option may be to choose one near where you live or the import is first landed.

P.S. I’m not tempted. An assumption is the vehicle occupants would need to be Australianised and wear appropriated headgear. :wink:

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Thanks to @phb there is now one more to take note of.

$44k on road for the cheapest version.

The all petrol alternative MG ZS Excite is half that price.

Of course one needs petrol, the other doesn’t. One leaves a trail of CO2 etc to mark its path. The other moves silently, powered by your choice of clean and green. One is immune to the risks of imported petroleum products. The other risks needing a large solar PV on the roof to help with charging.

One is very not MG like powered by a 1litre 3 cylinder turbo. The other has no turbo, and no guilt.

As @phb comments one goes further on a tank of fuel than the other on a full charge. It depends on what one values and what one can afford. My personal EV was under $2k and folds easily to carry onto the train. Neither of the MG options are that flexible, or as cheap to own and run.

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Taxes proposed on electrics

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How to recover costs from vehicles that do not pay taxes through the cost of fuel.

The USA already on the front foot adding fees to registration. Although the fees and rego costs appear to be a fraction of the same basic costs in Australia.

Federal Fuel excise in the USA comes in at US 18.4c per US gallon or Aussie less than 7c per litre. There are varying state taxes that bring the average total cost up to US 28.96c per US gal, or around AU 10-11c per litre.

There is a US$7500 tax credit available to buyers in the USA of new EV’s. IE equivalent to more than $10,000 in Aussies. Despite cheaper fuel (petrol) and mixed response to climate change the takeup rate of new EVs in the USA is 3-4 times that in Australia.

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Adding an upfront fee to registration is one solution, but unlike the existing fuel tax the amount paid is the same no matter what mileage is covered. If one travels 1000km or 100,000km per year, the rate applied at registration is the same. This can disadvantage those who use road infrastructure less, and subsidise those who use it more.

The ‘tax’ per kilometre is more of a user pays type system (and similar to fuel taxes) and the more mileage one does, the higher the contribution towards the road infrastructure which is used. It may be a fairer system and also encourage minimisation of use over time (increasing pressure to shift towards public transport or carpooling).

Hearing a talk a few years ado from a transport planner, alternative systems I can remember include a movement toll…where vehicles pay for moving between sectors within a city. These in part are similar to congestion taxes, but apply all the time and dependent on the number of sectors travelled (some public transport systems are based on sector payment systems).

Road tolls could also be applied to every road/intersection and vehicles pay for each part of road travelled.

Others include raising taxes in other forms such as through higher personal personal or other levies. The challenge, like a flat registration fee, it can disadvantage low mileage car owners over those who do high mileage.

Unfortunately there isn’t a free lunch if one expects to use public infrastructure which in the past has been paid in part through fuel taxes.

I would argue that’s only true on paper. The reality is if you drive a lot, you either live in a more rural area or live a long way from your job. Which makes both taking public transport or car pooling less viable. Statistically you’re likely to be on a lower income too, decreasing the affordability of extra charges.

As mentioned though a simple charge on registration would discourage EV uptake. Putting the environment aside, this disadvantages us in the long run. Higher EV uptake would encourage private investment in EV charging stations, as opposed to the current system of Government and NGOs funding them. Sooner or later we will need them.

For that reason I’d argue integration into income tax, collected by the Commonwealth but set by states, would be the fairest way. This means it could be based on income. Also it would mean states with toll roads wouldn’t be subsidising those without. And states that spend more on roads would have a higher charge, which presumably would be states with larger driving distances.

The fairness of taxation on all road users is a challenge. The recent focus on EVs simply highlights the inequities.

As aptly pointed out, in the article heavy road haulage in Australia pays only 12% of land transport taxes. This is substantially lower than the true cost of their impact on the road network. In comparison NZ recovers 37% of its land transport taxes from heavy vehicle use.

Targeting EVs is a very small pimple in comparison. Charging the heavier road vehicles by tonne miles will become inevitable once they start to transition to alternate fuels. GPS tracking is becoming a fleet norm making accounting a simple task, and could start today rather than wait. A flat charge added to E-truck rego is never going to be acceptable to the industry due to the significant variations in road use across all vehicles.

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The RACV recently looked at the total cost of ownership across a broad range of vehicles. Staying on topic it assessed electric vehicles as a stand alone category.

For private ownership the RACV assumes all vehicles compared are financed through a loan over five years and an average use of 15,000 km per year.

In the review the RACV commented:
Earlier this year, RACV’s fifth annual survey of consumer attitudes towards EVs revealed that three in five Victorians would consider buying an EV as their next vehicle.

The RACV also commented that there was an increasing choice of EVs in the $100,000+ price range. It’s unlikely those purchasing these vehicles did so based on minimising the expense of ownership.

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Hyundai is bringing it’s latest Ioniq branded BEV the IONIQ-5 to Australia for a July-Sept 2021 launch.

Some early speculation suggested the vehicle would include V2G/V2H (Vehicle to Grid/Home) however the press release only mentions V2L (Vehicle to Load). This Hyundai suggests is limited to simpler things such as recharging your e-bike, e-scooter, or power for camping.

The vehicle is larger physically than the Kona Electric BEV. It has newer technology including batteries. One feature is the capability of charging from 10%-80% of capacity in 18 minutes!

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Here is a real eye opener.

Who would have expected Porche to be the biggest seller in the large vehicle category with their electric Taycan?

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Starting price is a bit eye watering but then the Turbo S gets really painful at the hip pocket…still the MG ZS EV, Hyundai Ioniq, Hyundai Ioniq 5, or the Nissan Leaf seem more than adequate at much reduced prices to the Porsche range. The cheaper vehicles seem to have all the needed and many of the wanted bells and whistles for much less hip pain (except the Badge and shape of the Porsche).

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It wasn’t about a comparison between different models of electric vehicles but that the electric Porsche Taycan outsold both the Mercedes and BMW equivalent size ICE vehicles which always dominate the category.

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