To Ev or Not To EV

EV industry is going through an inflection point in India, and the big question in most of the car owners is whether to get an EV or just wait and watch. The later option is a fair state as adopting an EV is a paradigm shift and one should do proper analysis before committing to it.

Why I am writing this article?

I’d own a Tesla for several years when I was in the Bay Area, and would like to share some of the insights I have learnt when driving an EV. This should help a reader in evaluating his/her needs and make an informed decision. Let’s dive in. 

Personal experience. I owned a Tesla car for several years when I was in the Bay Area. It drove like a butter. There is literally no comparison between driving an EV vs IC car when it comes to driving experience. It is smooth, no pollution (noise & air), zips from 0 to 60-70KM/hr speed in 2-3 sec, without any jerks. A truly out of the world experience. And the best part is zero gasoline! I commute to work, and just plugin in the charger at office parking. I didn’t spent a single dime on fuel for all those years - whereas the gasoline rate all over the world was skyrocketing due to Ukraine/Russia war.

Oil import sucks. India is one of the biggest importer of crude oil on the planet, unfortunately. Going forward, our energy demands are only going to increase. Given we want to be a developed, self-reliant nation in the next 20-25 years, we need alternative sources for energy. India is a net exporter of electricity as of today. Why not use it for charging our vehicles! I strongly believe moving to EVs will go a long way in alleviating oil imports.

Handling Climate Change. It is a real problem. Owning an EV gives a sense of satisfaction that we are doing our part in handling it, at least not making it worse. It also makes us more aware of our environment. For example, our household plastic bag consumption is almost zero for last many years!

Having said that, EV market is still at a nascent stage in India. Though the government is aggressively promoting it via various subsidies, schemes such as the “30 by 2030 mission” (30 % of all new registrations be EV by 2030) [1], one needs to be realistic and practical while switching to EV. One needs to consider his/her use case thoroughly before committing to it. Let’s look at some of the key factors that I found useful.

Key Considerations

Daily driving pattern: Check your daily commute. Is it predictable? Is it within 50-60% of the single charge range? Do you have home charging option easily available? (I’d prefer the 7KW that can charge unto 80% within a couple of hours). If you check all these boxes, then switching to an EV is a reasonable bet.

Two or more Cars: If you happen to own more than one car (it is a high privilege in India), then going for an EV is typically a no-brainer. Will not add anymore :)

 

Economics: EV comes with a hefty premium. Let us keep aside all the positive things mentioned above, and consider plain economics. Is it cheaper to own an EV than an IC with similar vehicle specification in the longe run? Can I even breakeven the hefty premium that EV comes with? If so, in how many years? These are all valid questions.  

Let’s consider a case:

Suppose my average monthly commute is 1000 KM/month. I buy an EV worth INR 15L (on road price), with a 40KWh battery pack with a range of 300KM. State electricity charge is INR 5/KWh (current price in Karnataka, and not considering demand cost period). The cost / KM comes around ~INR 0.68. (=40*5/300).

Now consider an IC vehicle with similar specs. It’s on road cost is INR 11L, and mileage is 17KM/L. With petrol price of INR 100/L, cost / KM is INR 6.0 (=100/17). In this case, (extra premium of INR 4L, plus running costs), I'd need almost 6 years to cover up the extra premium. Not impressive, right? Similarly, if my monthly commute is 5000KM, I'd recover the premium within 1.5 years. Well, the above estimates will change in practice as there are variants such as fluctuating gasoline prices, IC car service costs, etc but one does get a ball park figure of the breakeven timeline.

 

I plan to share a cost model in next blog where one can enter cost of EV/IC car, gas/electricity charge, mileage and it will generate a graph showing the timeline of recovering the EV premium, based on monthly commute. Stay tuned!