Correcting misconceptions about EVs is a tiresome endeavour, with the same ones coming up again and again! So we’ve decided to pick out some of the myths and misconceptions that we hear the most.

A lot of the myths surrounding EVs are rooted in some truth. Or maybe they were relevant to some extent at some stage. But the technology has moved on so much that many of these misconceptions are downright outdated at best, and sometimes downright ridiculous.

EVs aren’t any more environmentally friendly than an efficient petrol or diesel

You can see how some people believe this. The thinking is that EVs need electricity and that electricity just comes from burning fossil fuels. So EVs are still really dirty, you just send the emissions elsewhere. But when you stop to think about it and you look into the numbers, it just doesn’t add up.

Let’s start with sending the emissions elsewhere. That is true to an extent as we do burn fossil fuels to make electricity in Ireland. But is that a bad thing? Is it not better to take the toxic fumes from a combustion engine away from our towns, housing estates, and schools? And even if these emissions are sent somewhere else, there are still a lot less with an EV than a combustion engine. Let’s look into it in more detail.

Typical petrol or diesel engines are only around 20% efficient. That means that more than three-quarters of the energy that was in your fuel tank is actually used to move your car! The rest is lost as waste and inefficiencies. And that figure is only applying to the fuel in your tank. You then have to consider the losses in extracting the oil, processing it, and shipping it to your local forecourt! Not to mention the vast amount of electricity that it takes to refine oil into fuel. Now that 20% efficiency number will change depending on the particular car and its use. On a National Road, less is wasted. In a town in heavy traffic, the figure will be worse. On the other hand, an electric car will be about 80% efficient, nearly four times the amount!

So let’s think about where the energy to power your EV comes from. Figures will differ around the world. Here in Ireland, we have a relatively clean grid that is improving all the time. We’ve still a long way to catch the likes of Scotland, Norway, or even Costa Rica, but it’s changing every year. In 2019, 36% of the energy on our grid was from renewables. This increased to 43% for 2020 and is likely to be better again in 2021 and 2022.

But it gets even better for EVs. The grid experiences peaks and troughs of supply and demand. Currently, most charging of EVs is done at night time when people are asleep and demand on the grid is lower. Consequently, the electricity used will have a much higher proportion of renewable energy. For people with solar panels on their roofs, they can sometimes drive exclusively on renewable energy!

And we just have to mention the likes of the IONIQ5. The launch edition had a solar panel built into the roof of the car. The amount of energy produced is small, but even in rainy Ireland, you could produce enough energy in a day to do a short school run!

The batteries only last 5 years then you have to send them to a landfill!

This is another myth that you can understand. Just think of your phone. How long do the batteries last in them? Three or four years of use and then they’re shot, right? So EVs must be the same?

Not even close to true. EV batteries are proving to be so much more resilient than was ever anticipated. This is mainly because the batteries are managed much better than phones or laptops. Each EV has a sophisticated Battery Management System. This allows the car to control the use of its battery by making sure that it’s not put under too much strain that will damage it. Most modern EVs have active heating and cooling for the batteries to manage temperatures when driving and charging.

Manufacturers don’t even give you access to 100% of the battery. A little is kept in reserve at the top and bottom of the state of charge. For example, the 2022 MG ZS EV has a 72.3kWh battery, but only 68.3kWh of that is useable. This protects the battery and makes it more resilient. It’s no coincidence that the latest EVs are offered with very long and high mileage guarantees on the battery.

But let’s look at a few examples, and we’ll start with the worst-case scenario. The earliest Nissan LEAFs from more than a decade ago are starting to suffer from degradation. The battery chemistries and Battery Management Software weren’t as good as in subsequent iterations. A lot of those early LEAFs might have lost a third or even a half of their battery health and are now only good for 70 or 80 kilometers. But even at that, they don’t get thrown to landfill. The batteries themselves are still valuable for other uses. They may be reconditioned and used for commercial and domestic energy storage.

Tesla have released data that shows battery health in their EVs over a number of miles. The vast majority of cases see battery health in excess of 90% even after 100,000 miles and a few years of use.

The fact of the matter is that EV batteries are becoming extremely resilient and will now easily last the lifetime of the car. Maybe even 10 or 15 years after the body of the car has gone to scrap, the batteries will be in use in storage projects or conversions of other EVs! But let’s say you’ve tortured the battery in your EV for over 10 years and the battery health is down to 75%. For the likes of the Hyundai Kona, that still represents a real-world range of 250 to 300km which is enough for the vast majority of drivers.

Even take the example of an original Renault Zoe battery that has done 150,000km driving over 10 years, then another 5 to 10 years in energy storage. Due to the value of the materials in the battery, it will be recycled and turned into another product. Current rates are seeing recycling of well over 90% of the materials. The only problem is that the industry can’t yet scale up because EV batteries are lasting so much longer than anticipated!

The best of the rest!

They are probably the two biggest myths we hear, but they are absolutely not the only ones! So let’s look at the best of the rest!

EVs are slow!

No, just no! Let’s take the really old and slow original Nissan LEAF. That had an 80kW motor putting out 108hp. It could do the 0-100kmh sprint in just under 12 seconds. Not fast, but not slow either. The very modest MG5 all-electric estate will do the same sprint in 7.4 seconds! And if you have a few extra € to spend, the Model S Plaid will destroy any combustion supercar off the line and do the 0-100kmh sprint in a fraction over 2 seconds. That is mind-bending fast!

EVs take ages to charge!

There is an element of truth to this one, but it is incredibly exaggerated. Also, people only consider how long it takes the car to charge. They don’t mention how long it takes the owner to charge the car. Most EV drivers take about 5 to 10 seconds to charge their car. They plug it in, walk away and do something else. They then come back to a fully charged car.

Of course, it’s different on a longer journey, but modern EVs can charge at a rapid rate. A Kia EV6 can go from 10% to 80% charge in less time than it takes someone to visit the toilet and grab a coffee from the service station. Then they’re good for another 300-400km driving!

The main point is that it doesn’t matter how long it takes the car to charge, what is important is how long it takes out of your day to charge the car. Who cares how long it takes if you are sleeping in bed at night!

You can’t drive EVs in the rain!

We have no idea why people believe this one! In fact, EVs will generally cope much better with water than combustion cars will. Let’s compare the trusty Nissan LEAF to its beefier SUV brother, the Qashqai. How would they compare if you came across a flooded country road? Well, the Qashqai has a rated wading depth of 350mm in standing water. And what about the LEAF? Do you think it could match that? No? You’re right…because it’s actually double at 700mm. That’s about the same as a 4x4 Toyota Landcruiser!

If we all switch to EVs, the grid will melt

This one gets trotted out a lot and it’s just not true. In fact, if everyone switches to EVs, we actually have working technology coming on stream that will help and support the grid! EV naysayers calculate that if 1 million EVs plug in and charge at the same time on a fast charger it will melt the grid. But in practice, this is physically impossible. For one, EVs only have quoted peak charge rates that will slow down at about 50% full and really slow down as they get above 80%. We also won’t need anywhere close to 1 million fast chargers.

We don’t have exact statistics in Ireland available, but in the UK, the National Grid has stated that if every car was changed to an EV tomorrow, then they still wouldn’t hit the peaks of electricity demand from the previous decade!

The reality is that most charging will be done on AC units at home, work, or shopping centres that put out about 7kW of power. And this charging is likely to be done at night and off-peak times when electricity is cheaper, and there is much less demand on the grid.

Summary

Unfortunately, that is not a complete list of the myths and exaggerations we see every week. But public perception is changing and more people are getting a true understanding of life with an electric vehicle. Some of our other articles go into a lot more detail on EV charging, Range Anxiety, and exactly how long it takes to charge an EV. So check those out if you’re curious and want to know more.

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