From combustion engine to electric car - an experience report with ups and downs

This is an experience report. I'm not trying to convince you to switch to an electric car yourself. If you drive a diesel or petrol car, you certainly have good reasons to do so. These are my own personal thoughts on why I said goodbye to diesel. And a few facts and experiences after a good three months. I still have some criticisms; you'll find them in the second half of the article.

It took about two years for the idea of driving an electric car to become a fact. Three things helped me to do that. First, I was allowed to test drive a Polestar 2 for a fortnight in the summer of 2021. The Volvo subsidiary's vehicle showed me and my wife for the first time that many worries and fears were unfounded. And the full Google integration in the Polestar was a promise of the digital mobile future. In the car, Google Assistant worked, the sat nav was Google Maps. All with the familiar user interface and functionality. We were impressed and thrilled.

Secondly, we were able to install a photovoltaic system on the roof of the house in the autumn. The energy consultant confirmed that an electric car would be a pretty grateful consumer of the self-produced electricity. How nice that then - thirdly - electric cars suitable for families had meanwhile also come onto the market. We decided to swap the family estate for a Skoda Enyaq.

It took almost twelve months instead of five to get it because of the chip shortage and the Ukraine war. But it was worth the wait. For these reasons:

1. Electric driving pleasure

The Enyaq is no Polestar, certainly no Tesla. The zero-to-hundred performance is much weaker, taking eight and a half seconds to sprint. But when I press hard on the accelerator - is that what it's still called? - the over two tonnes of vehicle weight are moved seemingly effortlessly. And I don't mind admitting it: when a lowered BMW with a cliché driver is standing next to me at a red light, I sometimes can't help wanting to show him my taillights. The child in the man.

Electrically powered cars have the advantage over combustion engines that the energy is transferred to the drive axle virtually without delay. The full torque is available immediately, whereas with an internal combustion engine it depends on the engine speed, which first has to be reached by shifting gears in the transmission.

Such a little leap is the best way to get the power to the engine.

Such a short sprint at the traffic lights costs battery power. Afterwards, my conscience gets the better of me. Thanks to recuperation in the electric car, however, I can partly atone for my sin. If I brake or if the motor brakes on its own when going downhill, it recovers energy and charges the battery. This goes so far that it is best not to charge the battery to 100 per cent when driving home from the mountains, because otherwise there is no more room for the energy gained on the descent.

The variables of recuperation, route profile and my driving behaviour mean that the range prediction can fluctuate greatly. For the prediction, the car takes the last consumption data and tries to deduce how long it could continue driving under similar conditions. These dynamic range indicators take some getting used to at first. I would have thought that a modern car would be more clever. It would have to know whether the route to a destination includes a pass and could calculate the range on that basis.

Despite software weaknesses - all in all, the electric motor is clearly superior to a petrol or diesel engine in terms of efficiency. There are various scientific studies on this and slightly divergent results. However, roughly speaking, the efficiency of an electric car is around 64 percent, that of a diesel 45 percent and that of a petrol engine 20 percent.
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2. Charging? (Almost) no problem

We are privileged with our e-car. We can charge it in our own garage. We use almost exclusively solar energy from the roof, especially from April to September. That is a luxury of which we are very aware. In autumn and especially in winter, the electricity will have to come from the power company more often. We will then charge on a low tariff, for example slowly overnight and controlled by software. On the other hand, people who live in the city for rent, who are perhaps lantern parkers due to a lack of underground parking, will hardly have a chance to charge an e-car as cheaply as we do.

Since I've been driving the Enyaq, I've noticed charging opportunities that I never noticed before. There is a charging point at the park-and-ride car park at the railway station, I have already mentioned the discount store, and there have also recently been charging points at the shopping centre. For longer trips abroad, in my case Germany, Austria and Italy, I researched possible charging stations beforehand in route planning apps for e-car drivers to be on the safe side. I didn't have to do that. There are plenty of them.

Most charging stations are in Germany.

Most of the charging stations we have visited so far are equipped with cables. But there are also charging stations where you have to rely on your own cable. In such cases, it is advisable to have a second standard charging cable for on the road in your car.

Most charging stations in the region are equipped with cables.

If you are travelling in regions where charging stations are rare, you can use high-voltage or even household sockets. However, charging takes a long time there. The rule of thumb for charging time is: charging time = battery capacity [kWh] ÷ charging power [kW]. For example, if a household socket has a charging power of 2.3 kW and your battery has a capacity of 40 kWh, it will take over 17 hours to fully charge. So you would still be able to charge even in the most remote agriturismo in the furthest corner of Umbria, but you would need the appropriate plugs. This is where Juice Technology has made a name for itself. There are adapters for the "Juice Booster" that allow you to remain electrically mobile all over the world.

EV chargers

EUR2014,36

Juice Technology Juice Booster 2 Premium Traveller Set

Type 2, 22 kW, 32 A, Type 2, CEE16 red, CEE16 blue, BS 1363, CEI 23, CEE 7/7, Type 13, CEE32 red, CEE32 blue

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EV chargers

EUR2014,36

Juice Technology Juice Booster 2 Premium Traveller Set

Type 2, 22 kW, 32 A, Type 2, CEE16 red, CEE16 blue, BS 1363, CEI 23, CEE 7/7, Type 13, CEE32 red, CEE32 blue

47

Charging only with app or card

The life of an electric car driver includes charging cards and apps. Unlike at petrol stations, you don't just tap into the electricity at an electric charging point and pay with your credit card. There are (too) many different providers vying for the favour of e-car travellers. As a result, you have to download a number of apps onto your smartphone and in some cases get sent physical cards that identify you via NFC or QR code before the charging process starts. Nevertheless, payment is then made without any problems via the credit card on file.

In my experience, registration with the two largest providers of charging networks in Central Europe is sufficient for 98 percent of all cases. In Switzerland, for example, "ev pass" has the largest offering (as of June 2022) with almost 5000 charging points. If you drive a car from the VW Group, you get a charging subscription from "We Charge" along the way.

Many charging network offers (as of June 2022).

By the way, many charging network providers cooperate with each other, so that often the card of one provider also works at the charging stations of the other. But keeping track of this is almost impossible if you don't deal with it every week. At least the charging capacity and prices are displayed transparently in the app, and the information about whether the charging station is currently free or occupied is usually correct.

3. Lower costs

With an electric car, you buy yourself free of oil companies and petrol stations. I am now much less interested in the boards with the current prices for diesel or petrol. When I charge, I only have a fraction of the cost per 100 kilometres compared to before. When the Passat needed about six litres of diesel, it cost me about 14 francs. That's at a price of 2.30 francs per litre in August 2022. The Skoda Enyaq consumes about 18 kWh over the same distance. If I don't charge it with free solar power from the roof, but at low tariff, I pay less than three francs. Shortly after I wrote this down, I received a notice from my electricity provider. In 2023, it will be about 25 per cent more expensive.

On the road, my costs are already rising. Instead of 15 centimes at the low tariff, a kilowatt hour at charging stations costs between 50 and 79 centimes. The price advantage shrinks accordingly, but remains. And of course this is a milk-cheese calculation, because an electric car is still more expensive to buy than a conventionally powered one. And yes, no one installs a wallbox for me free of charge either.

My colleague Dominik has drawn up a more precise cost comparison here as an example:

I still have too few empirical values of my own for another cost block: regular servicing. The manufacturers have defined service intervals for their cars. When is an oil change due, when do you need new brake pads? Such visits to the garage can be quite expensive. In the case of electric cars, the bills should be lower because, on the one hand, an electric car consists of far fewer components, on the engine, for example, only around 300 instead of 1400. On the other hand, they are also subject to less wear and tear, because nothing is constantly burning at high heat. Calculations to date indicate that an e-car is 35 per cent cheaper to service than a comparable diesel or petrol model.

4. Pretty clean eco-conscience

Financially, then, I drive electric - after the higher initial investment - more cheaply. For me, however, even more important is that I get around more ecologically. You will say: But the problem with lithium batteries! And electric cars are also quite heavy for so little human weight they transport! And expensive! And if they are charged with coal-fired electricity ... Yes, you are right. Just because I drive an electric car doesn't make me a world saver. Nor am I morally superior to people without electric cars. The question of our individual responsibility and that of business or politics to prevent the climate crisis is difficult enough to discuss anyway. (By the way, there was a highly readable article on this in the ZEIT recently.)

But I will make my small contribution to less CO2 in the atmosphere. One day soon, my Skoda Enyaq will have paid off the higher climate debt incurred during its manufacture, because it no longer emits CO2 with every kilometre driven. Thanks to a calculator from the TCS, which takes all aspects into account, I even know this quite precisely in comparison with the Passat, namely at around 75 000 kilometres.

5. Some things still annoy

For all the advantages, there are also things that annoy me. Not so much that I would switch back to the combustion engine, but enough that you should know about them, I think
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Software in electric cars

"Driving smartphones" are supposed to be modern electric cars. At least, that's what CEOs of car companies tell us, and that's what journalists keep reading in the media. Well, if my Enyaq were a smartphone, I would probably return it because of the pre-installed software. The car has a huge touchscreen, but it's no fun to operate. The navigation system that the VW Group uses can't come close to holding a candle to Google Maps. The menu navigation reminds me of a Nokia 5130. Creating drivers with their own profiles? Was possible, but I couldn't tell you how I managed it anymore.... In addition, there are incomprehensible symbols, lame reaction times and cryptic messages every now and then. I think back wistfully to the Polestar 2. Tesla is supposed to work better than the software from the VW Group. But even there, the trees of automotive intelligence do not grow to the sky. Recently, for example, the US state of California sued Tesla for deceiving consumers regarding the Autopilot function.

I use Apple Car Play as much as possible. It allows me to mirror the content on my iPhone to the screen in the car and operate the apps right there.

Planning routes and charging stops

On longer routes with the electric car, from about 300 kilometres, I need a charging option on the way. In theory, the navigation system can help me plan the route. In practice, however, it makes suggestions that I don't want to accept. They are often too slow charging points or they are too far away from the motorway. Or you drive there and all the charging stations are occupied. Or the charging stations only exist in Skoda's database, but not in reality.

I am therefore experimenting with third-party apps where I get better results. Currently, the App "Pump" is my favourite, which I can also tell to drive to different charging station operators, among other things. Alternatively, I'm trying out "A Better Route Planner" (iOS, Android). As soon as I have more experience and you are interested, there will be a test report.

Charging on the edge of automotive society

When you drive electrically, you will feel part of an avant-garde, a pioneer. So far, not even two out of 100 cars on Swiss roads are electric. Such a pioneer has to reclaim undiscovered land. In Germany, for example, charging stations for electric cars are often found in the dark corners of motorway service stations, somewhere at the back left by the rubbish containers.

In Italy, I felt like a pioneer.

In Italy I felt like an exotic, but at least a welcome one, even invited to charge for free here and there. In the country of small cars, electric cars are not yet widespread, which at least guarantees a free spot at the charging stations.

In Switzerland, we have one of the highest Tesla-per-inhabitant ratios. You don't stand out with an electric car, but you still have the feeling of belonging to a small community. However, I have already learned the hard way in Ticino. At a charging station in the backyard of the Ascona police station, the charging cables were so short that we had to park the Enyaq across two parking spaces to be able to charge. Again, the Polizia Ascona did not find that OK. The "Avisio di Contravvenzione" cost 80 francs.

Tips for further reading

If you want to know more about electric cars, you can post your questions as comments on this post. I will be happy to answer them. If you already drive an electric car yourself and I have forgotten an important point, you can also make a note of this as a comment. The same goes for wishes and suggestions for further topics on electromobility.

Here are some of the articles I have written on electromobility.

Here are a few more interesting sources I use for research:

• Emobly: This platform provides news on the topic of electromobility. I particularly like the overview of all the e-cars currently available on the market (not counting delivery times), which you can filter by price, range and charging speed.
• TCS: On the website of the largest Swiss automobile club there is - still somewhat hidden - a good guide section on the topic of electric mobility, including a cost comparison between combustion engines and electric cars.
• Technology blog: Here there are always interesting test reports of new electric cars. Not from a geek perspective, but from the point of view of normal people who are looking for a car for everyday family use, for example.