## A01 Don't buy autonomy, buy efficiency
If you plan to buy an EV Car, you're perhaps looking for data like price, autonomy, power, time to recharge 60% of your battery.... Perhaps real consumption in KWh/100 km. Or perhaps you don't understand what are all these figures and names. Most of the cars cited below are on the European Market, and also on the US/Canadian Market. There are some Chinese cars too, the first to be available on those markets.
### Definitions
Let's have a look to definitions :
* Power = The maximum that the EV Engine can give to move the vehicle in kW. The higher it is, the quicker it will go...but power is now easier to get with EV Engines. The more power you use, the more you drain the battery.
* Battery Energy or capacity = in kWh, is what the battery is able to give you, its capacity. Don't forget that a battery is better between 20% to 80%. The last 20% of capacity are longer to get.
* Power of charge = in kW, the maximum the station of charge / charger can give to your vehicle. The higher it is, the quicker you will get 80% or your battery capacity. DC chargers have more power than AC chargers
* DC = Direct current. For EV, it's only available on supercharger station. It's from 50 to 350 kW
* AC = Alternative current. For EV, it's available at home and at a maximum value of 22Kw. At home it's often between 3,6 and 7 kWh
* Cost of kWh : The price you pay for each kWh you inject with the charger. It depends of what type of charger you use. The quicker it is, the more expensive it is. A DC charger is 4 times more expensive than your charger at home, and twice a normal charger. But using DC charger too often is not good for all types of batteries.
* Consumption = The amount of energy you use for a distance. It's often given in kWh/100km or per mile.
* EV = Electric vehicle
* ICE = Internal Combustion Engine, the engine with diesel or gasoline.
Each year, I take some real world figures for consumption on the wesite Spritmonitor.de. It gives a more real sight of what vehicles can do, what it can really cost, after buying it. I give you the cost that you can have with an ICE Engine. On the French market, it's between 0,09 €/km (Diesel at 5l/100km or 47 MpG) and 0,12 €/km (Gasoline at 7l/100 km or 34 MpG) just for the energy. I will compare the for each category, the cost with a DC charge at the maximum that the car can do, the cost with a DC charge on a 50 KW DC charge (less expensive), and the cost with a charge at home for a distance of 1000 km. I will give you the difference of time in theory for this distance. You can find many tests on the internet in real world. Because you can use your EV car to go to your work each day, for less than 100km per day, or you can go on holidays and travel for 1000km in a day or two, the difference of cost and time is something you must choose, now with EV cars...You hadn't to with a ICE Car.
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### For the City
You have the choice between very small cars or micro cars with one or two seats and more normal cars or city cars, less than 4 meters long, with 4 or 5 seats. Some are able to do a long travel in quite good conditions, and some not.
At home, with a domestic charger, you can have the less expensive cost because you can take time to charge, during nights. The less expensive car is the smallest : The Citroen AMI with only 0,018€/km. The problem is the real autonomy of 41km that limits the use to a city, for this 2-seats car and you cannot use highways. The 1st 4-seats car is the Dacia Spring, able to do 160km and with a cost of 0,024€/km. It's not made to go on holidays (1000km in 16h) but it can. For a much expensive car like the small SUV Hyundai Kona, you can do 1000km in 12,5h with superchargers but it will cost 115€...and only 57€ with a slower charger (1,5 h more). The real autonomy (20% to 80%) of this SUV is 200km, when the city cars of the Stellantis group (Peugeot e208, Opel Corsa E) or the mini SUVs of the same group can do 250km with a higher cost of 127€ for 1000 km with 100kW superchargers or only 0,030€/km at home.
The difference is on the efficiency of these vehicles. A Dacia Spring is able to do 14 kWh/100km when a Hyundai Kona is at 16 kWh/100km and a Peugeot e208 is at 18 kWh/100Km. You can forget cars like ORA Funky cat, Honda E:, DS3 Crossback because of more than 20 kWh/100km. And the Renault Zoe was a good choice before, but now, with a slow charger and a not so good consumption, it's a car of the past, like the old Seat Mii / VW eUp. The Fiat 500e is a little different from her cousins from Stellantis with a better cost (0,026€/km) but a slower charge and smaller battery. It seems normal for a smaller car.
### For the Suburbs
This time, you will need a lot more autonomy or space. You have to go from cities to cities with children or shopping. You can choose between a compact sedan or a compact SUV. And now, it's able to go on holidays.
If you're aim is to limit the cost, you can try the new Renault Megane (with the right version of charger and battery). This time, you can do 280 km with one charge at 0,029€/km. And it will cost you between 125€ to do 1000km with superchargers and 62€ with a 50kW charger. The difference of price is...2 hours more for the travel. Other choices are the old Kia Niro for the cost, when the new Niro is not the most efficient now, because of a heavier vehicle with more autonomy. If you want to go fast, the Volvo C40 is the best choice with 12,1h for 1000km but the cost is to pay 160 € for that...For a similar cost, a bigger Tesla Model Y could do it in 12,2h for 150 € with superchargers. The autonomy would be similar with 300km but the cost of the spare parts is a problem for this brand. The best seller from the Chinese brand MG, the MG4, is the less expensive to buy with a real autonomy of 220km. The cost is good at home with 0,031 €/km and it's quick to do 1000km in 12,4h for only 135€. The cars f
rom VW Group are not bad (when it has no bugs) too and the old Nissan Leaf is not so far, despite a slow charger. But the new Stellantis group cars (Peugeot e308, Opel Astra) are behind. Forget the Mazda MX30, limited to the city, the Mercedes EQA, clearly a bad draft, or the BYD Atto3, too expensive to use.
The choose that you will have to make is between the chargers. It can cost you 60 to 70 € more for 1000km to gain only 2-2,5 hours. It's time to travel differently with a real time to make a pause at each charge (4 to 6 times for 1000 km). The consumption of these vehicles are between 17kWh/100km for the best, but essentially between 18 and 22kWh/km. These cars are confortable for a family with a small children but can be limited if you like to take many luggage. Many of them are on similar platforms than the bigger cars...
### For the Families
If the family grows, you have to choose a bigger car : a sedan or a standard SUV. It's made for longer travels...in theory. It's the category where the brands has invested the most.
The less expensive to use with a domestic charger is clearly the old Hyundai Ioniq with a consumption of a city car in a Sedan size. The reason is a small battery size for only 200km of real autonomy. But for more modern cars, it's between the Tesla Model 3 and the Hyundai Ioniq 6 : around 300-330 km of autonomy and the Hyundai is 20 minutes quicker to do 1000km with superchargers with a cost of 136 € for both. For a domestic charger it's just 0,032€/km. Most of the other cars of this category are far behind. The new Mercedes EQB is not bad with just a problem with the speed of charge, for the moment. I was surprised by the good result of the new Toyota Bz4x which took time to be validated by the manufacturer. The Ford Mustang Mach-E is behind all the new SUVs and Sedans with too much consumption and cost. Jaguar iPace has not been upgraded and is now a bad choice, like the Chinese Aiways U5 or the Merced EQC, the other bad draft of the brand.
Everything is going very fast in this category with constant upgrades. Some new cars are strange like the Fisker Ocean, too heavy, the Nio ET5 with a too large battery too, just to make a better autonomy than a Tesla Model 3. The cost to do 1000km is between 140 € for the best with superchargers and 55-80 € with a 50kW charger. The consumption are between 10 and 24 kWh/100km and even more for the worst. The good news is that some manufacturers are working on efficiency, not to only put bigger batteries. The Long Range models of Tesla are not good choices if you calculate.
### For the Workers
The choice is so light with too old vehicles or not really made to work out of cities. But it's going to change during this year with the new vehicles from Renault-Nissan, Stellantis and maybe more. For the moment, it's only 170km of real autonomy and a consumption of 25kWh/100 km. If the cost is only 0,043€/km for a domestic charger, it's not far from an ICE if you use a supercharger (189 € for 1000 km....).
### For the ...Rich
Now, you want a big sedan or a big SUV....And I don't think the cost is your problem. You want it quick !
It took time to Mercedes to build a good car for that. The new Mercedes EQE has the larger autonomy with more than 400km and a consumption of 17kWh....but this consumption data comes from many Taxi users, not highway drivers. The old Tesla Model S is not so far but is now behind the smaller cars of the brand. If the Porsche Taycan is not quicker than the others, its consumption is a big problem with 28 kWh/100 km. The rare Lucid Air from ancient workers from Tesla is not better. The problem is that all these cars don't do better than the best sedans. It's just bigger with more space and confort. I didn't have data for a Audi eTron but it wouldn't be far from the Porsche which shares some parts.
### Conclusion
As you can see, you can be quicker with a Ioniq 6 than a Porsche Taycan. The price of the Hyundai is not low but think about it. The biggest autonomy is with the Mercedes EQE, well designed for its core market. But do you really need 420km each day ? I don't think so and some of the city cars are enough for a daily life. The mean autonoomy is about 300 real km. The problem is that all those cars are very heavy with many more than 2 tons ! The bad thing in this study is that the new cars are not better than the old cars for cost, and sometimes for autonomy. Many manufacturers follow the choice of autonomy without measuring consumption. I can say that the official cycles are focused on autonomy, not electric consumption for the moment. with better indicators for the consumer, it could change a lot. Imagine if we had a new scale of letters for the electric cars : A Hyundai Ioniq or a Dacia Spring would be A, when a Mercedes EQC or a Porsche Taycan would be F.
As you can see, the use of an EV car is not the same than an ICE vehicle. If you want to be very quick, you have to pay the price, as expensive as a ICE car can be, and sometimes more. But if you are smart, you can choose the right vehicle for your common use...or maybe think about train or bus and even an electric bike. Many said that the EV is for the rich. That's not false with sometimes a difference of running costs at about 700 to 1000€/year. But it's not a trick of the Chinese, because, for the moment, they are not better than the old manufacturers from...Korea, some of Europe and the new leader, Tesla. The quality of the batteries and component has a cost and that's what does the efficiency. But some of the new BYD cars or other brands are better than the first models on the market. The war on EV is just beginning and the batteries will be smaller and lighter in a few years....I hope so, if the customer is smart and buys the efficiency, not the bigger size of batteries. The charger network is going
better each month and will help that.
2Dɛ
=> https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZqmXeZMkPqrjdIfJyJo5MonNfb94SrHA3y All the figures and data are available in that file
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