EV Simplified: Five Drawbacks To Keep In Mind Before Buying An EV

With petrol prices reaching new heights, electric two-wheeler sales have picked up pace, thanks to their low running costs. However, EVs aren’t entirely foolproof replacements to ICE vehicles.. And if you’re planning to get an EV, here are five things you should prepare yourself for. 

Range 

By far the biggest issue with electric two-wheelers in India is range. Even though many manufacturers claim upwards of 150km range, the real-world result is quite less in reality. On average, an acceptable level would be offering around 100km on a single charge, far lesser than a typical scooter's range on a tankful.

This basically limits your day-to-day activities, especially if you’re someone who lives far off from their office or has to travel a lot in the day for other reasons. In comparison, small ICE scooters and bikes (with small engines and small fuel tanks) usually run a lot more in a single fill up. 

Charging Time

Filling up brings us to the second problem, charging time. On average, an EV has a charging time of at least 4-4.5 hours from the supplied charger, which means if you forget your charger or run out of juice mid-way, you’re going to spend a long time waiting. Not to forget, the charging points and grid networks still aren’t very widespread even in metropolitan cities.

However, manufacturers are making efforts to work around this by offering fast chargers and introducing swap stations but a proper system is still far away. The former also usually comes at an extra cost, so there’s that too. 

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High initial investment

Speaking of cost, electric two-wheelers are known to be more expensive than the ICE offerings, which provide similar performance. Even after various state subsidies and the country-wide FAME-II subsidy, EVs still aren’t particularly ‘easy-on-the-pocket’, at least initially. Not all states offer subsidies, though. 

Add to this the set up cost for the home charging station and portable fast chargers, and the initial investment creeps up further up. 

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Maintenance

Electric two-wheelers, though quite common now, are still fairly new to our market. More importantly, most of its crucial components are electronic and not analogue. That means, your local mechanic will not be able to fix it easily with primitive tools.

This point becomes even more crucial if you’re on a long journey. Some EV makers also offer road side assistance to counter this.

Battery Replacement Cost

Last but not least, there’s the battery replacement cost. Now, this isn’t something you’ll face for at least three or four years, since most companies offer three or even five year warranties on the battery, but it should be accounted for. 

As time progresses, the battery health (and the range) will deteriorate and as batteries can’t just be opened up and fixed like ICE engines, they’ll have to be replaced. Not many manufacturers have disclosed the price of their batteries, a normal Li-ion battery of decent capacity costs around Rs 50,000. These prices will go down in the future, though, as manufacturers figure out ways to localize components. Having said that, its replacement cost will still be substantial enough. We hope as time passes, manufacturers offer a way to buy-back the older batteries and offer a new one at a discounted price.

So there you have it. These were the top five disadvantages of owning an EV today. If none of these seem major to you and you can work around them, take a look at the list of electric two-wheelers coming our way this year.