Your EV questions answered: Helping to separate electric vehicle myths from facts, we’re here to answer all your EV questions. The 'Tesla Effect': Two years ago, in the face of growing competition from Chinese car makers, Tesla began to slash the prices of its new models.
Photograph: David Paul Morris/BloombergFirst off, there’s the simple fact that the person shopping in the used car market is inherently more conservative and careful about its purchases than the person shopping in the new car market. Anyone buying new is getting a new car with a lengthy warranty, and so doesn’t have to concern themselves with worries about unreliability nor mechanical malady because they know they’re covered. Someone buying second hand doesn’t always have that, and with worries – unjustified in a technical sense, but entirely understandable – about the longevity of batteries and how expensive they may be to repair or replace, used buyers are for the most part steering clear of electric cars. Your EV questions answered: Am I better to drive my 13-year-old diesel until it dies than buy a new EV?EV Q&A: Is it possible to reduce the environmental impact of building an electric car? Indeed, car makers, who continually refuse to talk about battery replacement or repair in anything other than the broadest terms, are leaving an information vacuum into which all kinds of online rubbish can then rush. That in itself is having an effect on second hand values. Equally, there’s the charging network. According to a survey of Irish attitudes towards electric motoring, carried out by Volkswagen Ireland, 60 percent of non-EV drivers said that they were worried about running out of charge (a concern shared by 25 percent of actual electric car drivers) a whopping 53 percent of EV drivers said that they have ‘struggled with or still have reservations about’ public charging facilitie