Hacker News Reader

Comment by ErroneousBosh | Hacker News Reader

"Cheaper to run" if you only count the cost of fuel versus the cost of electricity, and only if you can charge at home.

It currently costs 85p/kWh to charge an EV near where I live if you can't charge at home, and 95p/litre for gas (my car is dual fuel).

Then you've got the vastly more expensive insurance for EVs.

Then you've got the cost of paying for an EV.

Then you've got to find an EV that directly replaces the existing vehicle. There are currently no EVs on the market that can tow heavy trailers off road, which is the main reason I have a biggish 4x4.

View on HN

Wow that is super expensive.

I usually charge at the super market (60KW) for 44ct / kwh which is not cheap but much more reasonable.

For comparision my employer offers charging at 23ct and my home price (from the grid) would be +-30 if I could get a charger there

It is, but the charging companies operate a cartel.

The cost of public charging is still one of the biggest problems. I'm currently on a night-time charging tariff at home at 4p/kWh. It will go up to 8p/kWh in October but that's still pretty good considering it's not uncommon for public rapid charging to be 10x that.

Of all the rapid charging networks, I find Tesla are often the cheapest, there are Tesla 250kW charging stations near me that are 33p/kWh during quieter hours.

Why is EV insurance that more expensive than an ICE vehicles'?

Repair costs are very high (and take ages) and most of them are expensive cars outright which puts the premiums up.

Performance being pretty high on even a basic Tesla doesn't help things either. The insurance market in the UK is very expensive anyway and any excuse to wind up premiums they'll gladly use.

Wait, insurance includes repair costs? What kind of insurance are we talking about? In Spain, mandatory insurance plus some perks is about the same: includes damage to others, own car broken glasses, theft and fire, and road assistance. Maybe Tesla is slightly more, expensive because the horsepower of their cars is too high, and it gets in the group of cars with over 300 HP, so insurers assume it is a bit of a sports car. Anyway, the difference with similarly powered ICE car is negligible.

In Germany full coverage does include some level of repair costs.

I have had my side mirrors and windshield repairs covered.

> Wait, insurance includes repair costs?

Yes of course, it's part of the actuarial calculation. As cars age they become more expensive to repair and eventually will cross a boundary where the insurer will write them off on any type of accident, rather than trying to repair. This naturally increases the base insurance price.

OEMs in the EU are only required to produce spare parts for 10 years after a model is withdrawn, which is a strong indicator of when write-off becomes the primary option.

I don't know, but it was going to cost me about two grand a year to insure a Kia Niro EV compared to 200 quid to insure a 4.6 litre Range Rover.

Presumably because (at least round here) they're driven by retired guys who are simply not capable of staying in front of a 700bhp gokart that gets to 60mph faster than if you threw it off a cliff.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com