E-mobility will play a central role in the transport revolution. But buying an electric car is already worthwhile today? The advantages and disadvantages.
Munich – when will electric cars dominate the streetscape?? There are well over a billion cars on the road worldwide, the vast majority of them with an internal combustion engine. Plus hundreds of millions of motorcycles or scooters. europe, china and the u.s. are leading the way in the transformation of transportation and are driving the shift to e-mobility. The question that more and more car buyers in germany are asking themselves: is it worth buying an electric vehicle or should we wait and see?? An overview:
Electric cars: e-premiums, tax breaks and increasing ranges
Acquisition costs: Comparatively speaking, cars with electric motors are more expensive than comparable models with internal combustion engines. However, government subsidies ensure that the purchase price of an electric car drops by thousands of euros: on the one hand, this is due to the e-car subsidy, which costs 9000 euros (base price up to 40.000 euros) or. 7500 euros (base price up to 65.000 euros). By the way, hybrid cars are also supported with an innovation premium* (6750 euro). In addition, electric cars will be exempt from vehicle tax until 2030. In the case of electric company cars, there are even further tax benefits to be had.
Selection: the supply of electric cars – especially affordable ones – is still much smaller than for vehicles with gasoline or diesel engines. But more and more manufacturers are also adding affordable models to their portfolios, so that small e-cars are sometimes available for prices starting at 10.000 euros are available. With VW, europe’s largest car company is also pushing ahead with its model range, and in a few years an electric counterpart will be launched in the small car segment as well. volkswagen showed the prospect of a supposedly low-cost electric car at the IAA 2021. Other companies from asia and europe are also pushing ahead with the market launch of affordable e-cars.
range: the days when electric cars can only travel a few hundred kilometers on a full battery are slowly but clearly drawing to a close. As an evaluation of e-drivers.Com Recently, it emerged that there are more and more electric cars on the market for which ranges of between 400 and 500 kilometers are no longer utopian. Thanks to meticulous development work – in which government subsidies also play a major role – ever better ranges are being achieved, and long-distance travel with electric cars should become increasingly attractive in the medium term. This inevitably leads to the next point.
Video: Are electric cars really the ultimate?? A comparative report on the new technologies at the IAA
E-cars and the infrastructure: public and private charging networks
Electric charging stations: The still incomplete infrastructure of charging points is undoubtedly one of the biggest obstacles to the breakthrough of electromobility. There are tens of thousands of charging stations in germany, but most of them are located in urban areas. Outside metropolitan areas, you have to plan charging stops, for example via apps. Two pensioners recently informed transport minister andreas scheuer in a letter of complaint* about the pitfalls lurking here.
Add to that the question of whether infrastructure can cope with growing demand. What could await electric car drivers in germany is shown by a development from the uK: starting in may 2022, electric cars will no longer be allowed to charge in their garage or at the workplace for nine hours a day – because British operators fear a collapse of the distribution networks!
In the meantime, the solution for the garage at home is a wallbox – but even here there are pitfalls that can cost nerves and make an acquisition complicated: this begins with building regulations, leads to strict requirements for government support* and ends with considerable costs for the installation.
Charging electric cars: Waiting times are decreasing – energy prices as a focal point
Waiting times for charging: another disadvantage of electric cars is that charging takes more time compared to stops at gas stations with gasoline or diesel cars. When a combustion engine is filled up, a normal process, including payment, usually takes around five minutes. Charging times for electric vehicles are becoming shorter and shorter – even today, a range of several hundred kilometers is possible after charging for 20 minutes. You don’t have to be a clairvoyant to see that the time required for modern e-drive systems will continue to decrease in the medium term.
Energy consumption: a big disadvantage of electric cars is the winter resp. Cold snap. modern energy guzzlers in the form of various heaters (seats, steering wheel, rear window, etc.).) cost of range, plus conventional heat regulation of the passenger compartment. All these components, which incidentally also drive up fuel consumption in internal combustion cars, cost electric cars 10 to 30 percent in terms of range, according to an evaluation by the ADAC.
Energy prices: and what about the problem of the sharp rise in electricity prices?? The current price hike in the energy sector is frightening many citizens and poses the question to potential e-car buyers of whether the purchase of an electric vehicle can be financed at all? Energy economist claudia kemfert explained to the business weekThe price of electricity could easily be reduced. On the one hand, the EEG surcharge will fall anyway*. Because it is calculated from the difference to the electricity exchange price, and that is going through the roof at the moment," says the expert from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). She also calls on the government to reduce the electricity tax as part of the increase in the CO2 price. In their view, electric cars are "much more energy efficient by design than internal combustion engines". Even with high electricity prices, you would save money with an electric car.